The week that cost 23,000 lives
The Story
The Times
3.9 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 21 November 2025
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The findings of the report into the political governance and decision making during the pandemic are damning about Boris Johnson’s government’s attempts to protect the public from the virus. Who was responsible for a “toxic and sexist culture” and who misled Downing Street?
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Guest: Eleanor Hayward, health editor, The Times.
Host: Luke Jones.
Producer: Harry Stott.
Read more: Covid inquiry: eight key takeaways from the report
Clips: UK Covid-19 Inquiry.
Photo: Getty Images.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | From The Times and the Sunday Times, this is The Story. I'm Luke Jones. |
| 0:12.3 | We've had weeks of hearings, the evidence of 166 witnesses, and a trawl through 180,000 documents, including WhatsApps. |
| 0:24.1 | My lady, can I just say how glad I am to be at this inquiry |
| 0:28.4 | and how sorry I am for the pain and the loss and the suffering. |
| 0:35.9 | Sit down, please. |
| 0:38.4 | Due in large part to your own WhatsApp, Mr. Cummings, |
| 0:43.1 | we're going to have to coarsen our language somewhat. |
| 0:45.3 | I apologise. |
| 0:46.3 | You called ministers useless fuck pigs. |
| 0:49.1 | Morons. |
| 0:51.6 | I think that the toxic culture that you've seen at the centre of government was unhelpful. |
| 0:59.5 | Now the second part of the COVID inquiry has reported looking into the politics and the decision making. |
| 1:07.5 | Did it have to be that way? |
| 1:09.5 | Did the government serve the people well? |
| 1:12.2 | Or did it fail them? |
| 1:14.1 | Reporting yesterday, Baroness Hallett, the inquiry chair, didn't appear to hold back. |
| 1:19.4 | I can summarise my findings of the response as too little, too late. |
| 1:37.1 | Music as too little, too late. Our reporter, Eleanor Hayward has been through the report. |
| 1:46.0 | The story today, the week that cost 23,000 lives. |
| 1:55.0 | Eleanor, we've got you just as you come back from this COVID inquiry, module two report, lock-in. |
| 2:04.9 | I've never been to a lock-in, pub or otherwise. |
| 2:07.5 | How does this work? You get given the report, but you can't tell anyone? |
... |
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