Former health secretary’s spokesperson says claims made by the Daily Telegraph are a ‘distorted account’
Tory Brexiters can normally spot what they see as a surrender to Brussels in the blink of an eye. But the European Research Group’s so-called “star chamber” of lawyers could take up to a fortnight to scrutinise Rishi Sunak’s Northern Ireland protocol deal, Mark Francois said today.
Francois, the ERG chair, told TalkTV that he expected the “star chamber” to produce an assessment “within a fortnight” but he said there was no deadline. He told the station:
It takes as long as it takes because it’s very important all this. But I think Sir Bill [Cash] and his team are going to try and do this if they can within a fortnight and as I say they will make their conclusions publicly available for all to see.
But because of the importance of this, if it takes a little bit longer than that, then it takes a little bit longer.
Announced in May 2021, our public inquiry – which has already cost up to £85 million – has yet to begin formal hearings. Alarmingly, it does not appear to have any specific timeframe or deadline.
We all know what this means – it will drag on forever. After all, the investigation into Bloody Sunday took 10 years and was nowhere near as daunting a task.
Hancock is more sensitive about this subject than any other. The accusation that he blithely discharged Covid-positive patients from hospitals into care homes, without thinking about how this might seed the virus among the frail elderly, or attempting to stop this happening, upsets and exasperates him. The evidence I have seen is broadly in his favour.
At the beginning of the pandemic, it was simply not possible to test everyone: neither the technology nor the capacity existed. Internal communications show that care homes were clearly instructed to isolate new arrivals. It later emerged that the primary source of new infection in these settings was in any case not hospital discharges, but the movement of staff between care homes. Politically, this was very inconvenient: Hancock knew he would be accused of ‘blaming’ hardworking staff if he emphasised the link (which is exactly what has now happened).
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