Image source, Covid inquiry

Back to Imran Shafi now, who was speaking before the break about how the government responded to Covid in the first few weeks of the outbreak.

He said despite several meetings of COBR there was not a coherent plan to deal with the Covid pandemic, so the government defaulted into using plans drawn up to deal with a flu outbreak.

There was discussion of creating a “one-peak” response, where the disease was allowed to spread until herd-immunity was achieved. But in the end a “mitigation” approach was adopted, in line with plans on how to deal with yearly flu outbreaks.

But at that point there was not sufficient awareness of how much it would overwhelm the NHS, Shafi said.

In the earier evidence session the civil servant who headed Boris Johnson's private office during the pandemic apologised for sending an email inviting fellow staff to a "bring your own booze" party in the Downing Street garden during lockdown.

Watch the moment below where Martin Reynolds tells the inquiry he is "deeply sorry for my part in those events".

Baroness Hallett requests another break.

In the same breath, she confirms that we won't hear today from Lee Cain - the director of communications for then-PM Boris Johnson during this time period.

It'll be his turn tomorrow instead.

Jim Reed
Health reporter, BBC News

As tends to happen in this inquiry, the main drama has come from a series of WhatsApp messages and diary entries.

We were shown new exchanges between Dominic Cummings and the current cabinet secretary Simon Case.

In one, from September 2020, Mr Case is clearly very frustrated with Boris Johnson and his apparent tendency to change direction on Covid policies.

At one point he says: "IT HAS TO STOP! Decide and set direction - deliver - explain. Government isn't actually that hard, but this guy [Johnson] is making it impossible."

Then there is some fascinating detail about Mr Cummings' controversial trip to Durham at the end of March 2020.

In his evening diaries, the then chief scientific adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance, wrote that "[Chief Medical Officer] Chris [Whitty] and I not at all keen to do the press conference" - a reference to the Covid news conference on the same day Mr Cummings answered questions on the scandal in the Downing Street garden.

"All highly political and dwarfed by DC [Dominic Cummings]. We tried to get out of it by suggesting that it was not the right day to announce new measures."

Sir Patrick then claims there was an attempt to "strong arm" both of the advisers into attending - something apparently overruled by Dominic Cummings himself.

Nick Eardley
Political correspondent

Boris Johnson's spokesman has declined to comment on the evidence to the Covid inquiry we've seen today - but says Johnson will give oral evidence in due course and is cooperating fully.

Getting into his line of questioning now, Hugo Keith KC takes Imran Shafi back to the start of the pandemic with an email from Sir Patrick Vallance which includes minutes from a meeting on 18 January 2020.

He asks what Shafi and the PM's team thought about Vallance's warnings, specifcally about a worst case pandemic scenario.

"I read this as a very serious email which required very due attention," Shafi tells the inquiry as he explains it is why they got the chief medical officer to brief the PM "a few days later".

A letter was put in his box on 30 January, Keith adds as he touches on cases outside China emerging.

Details of more meetings in February are then read out and displayed on the screens.

That's it for Reynolds, he has finished giving his evidence.

Next up is Imran Shafi - he starts by taking the oath and tells the inquiry his role in Boris Johnson's team changed when the pandemic started.

As a quick recap, Shafi was Johsnon's private secretary for public services, but he says his remit changed to cover the departments of health, education, sport and culture.

"There were many times in the pandemic when the system was under stress but on the whole it coped well," he says as the questions begin.

Reynolds paints extraordinary picture of government during covidpublished at 14:53 Greenwich Mean Time 30 October 2023

14:53 GMT 30 October 2023

Nick Eardley
Political correspondent

Image source, PA Media

Martin Reynolds gave around three hours evidence to the inquiry - but we've ended up with an extraordinary picture of what was going on in government at the start of the pandemic.

The Cabinet Office failed to get on top of the situation, he said. The machinery of government wasn't prepared, he admitted.

Boris Johnson wasn't briefed for ten days in February 2020.

Messages from a WhatsApp group for the PM and his team weren't kept.

Other messages we've just seen show deep anger at Mr Johnson's response.

The cabinet secretary Simon Case said he could not lead, changed his mind too often and the government was a "tragic joke".

Perhaps most significantly of all, the chief scientific adviser thought Mr Johnson was "weak and indecisive".

We'll hear from Mr Johnson later in the inquiry.

Sticking to questions about lockdown parties, Hugo Keith KC references messages between Reynolds and Lee Cain in June 2020.

In the messages, the two go back and forth about how they can host a leaving party for a member of staff.

Cain describes it as "a substantial comms risk", but Reynolds queries whether it's "safer to do a larger event indoors but with some people carrying on outside afterwards".

Again, Reynolds says he apologises "unreservedly" for these events.

Keith then asks: "You realise of course that for the public whose loved one were dying in their droves, this caused incredible offence and added to their immeasurable pain?"

"Yes," Reynolds replies, looking down.

Let's hear some more about that email now. Reynolds says he accepts the sending of the email - which called for people to bring their own alcohol - was "deeply damaging to trust in the government and damaging to public compliance".

"I'd first like to say how deeply sorry I am, for my part in those events, and for the email message which went out that day," he tells the hearing.

"I'd like to apologise unreservedly to the families of all those who suffered during Covid - for all the distress caused."

Image source, Crown copyright

A key issue everyone was talking about going into this particular evidence session was an email, found to have been sent by Martin Reynolds, inviting dozens of people to a "bring your own booze" party during lockdown.

Asked about this, Reynolds apologises unreservedly for the part he played.

The questions move on to events when Dominic Cummings was caught visiting Barnard Castle in Durham during lockdown.

Hugo Keith KC talks through some entries from Sir Patrick Vallence's diaries to give a flavour of what was happening in Downing Street at the time. (Vallence was then the government's chief scientific adviser.)

He reads out an entry which says he and Chris Whitty felt reluctant to do a press conference with the prime minister as it had become "highly political". An extract says the "PM seems very bullish and wants to have everything released sooner" - referencing hospitality packages out of lockdown rules.

Vallence says Cummings was "caught" going to Durham, adding it was "clearly against the rules".

"Cabinet all upbeat and breezy confidence - incredibly alarming," Keith, the lawyer asking questions, reads out.

He asks Reynolds if he had "strong armed" Vallence to do a press conference, which Reynolds denies. Cummings will appear at the inquiry tomorrow.

Reynolds is now being asked about a document he co-signed with civil servant Helen MacNamara.

It showed that the way meetings were held during the pandemic wasn't working, women were talked over and people shouted at each other.

Reynolds says, "in terms of the diversity of decision making, in terms of the treatment of women, I agree I think that remained an ongoing cultural issue which I think we could've done more to address".

In terms of diversity, Reynolds continues, "you need everyone to come in behind it".

To deal with the immediate problems of the Covid response, he says, they changed the structures around and brought in new people.

And, he adds, when Boris Johnson "lost confidence in the government system he reached for different people".

"We've created a complexity and a series of competing structures which means that actually by this stage the government machine is facing serious problems."

Nick Eardley
Political correspondent

Things are running behind schedule here.

We've just heard that Lee Cain - who was meant to give evidence this afternoon - has been told to come back tomorrow.

Cain was Boris Johnson's communications director for a chunk of the pandemic.

The inquiry continues to see extracts from WhatsApp messages and entries in private notebooks, including those written by Case, the cabinet secretary, and Sir Patrick Vallance (chief scientific adviser to the government until earlier this year).

Among the descriptions of then-PM Boris Johnson are that he was "not an exactly consistent interlocutor" and "all over the place and completely inconsistent".

The inquiry's lead counsel Hugo Keith KC puts it to Martin Reynolds: "In a pandemic, if those views are right, that was a deeply unfortunate position to be in, was it not?"

"Yes," Reynolds replies.

Nick Eardley
Political correspondent

We've just seen some quite extraordinary messages from Simon Case, the cabinet secretary, sent in September 2020.

He accuses Boris Johnson of changing "strategic direction every day".

He writes: "He cannot lead and we cannot support him in leading with this approach."

He adds that the government looks like a "tragic joke".

Reynolds is shown a series of WhatsApp messages, including some between Cabinet Secretary Simon Case, then-No 10's communications director Lee Cain and Dominic Cummings.

There is a suggestion in one that Boris Johnson wanted to get "everything open in the Autumn and end social distancing".

"This is in danger of becoming Trump/Bolsanro level mad and dangerous," one of the messages warns.

Another message from Case claims "at every stage of masks we in the UK have been slow".

Reynolds responds saying Cummings blew hot and cold, had a lot to deal with and made it hard for staff.

Image source, Covid Inquiry

Today's evidence session has resumed - we're still hearing from Martin Reynolds, who headed Boris Johnson's private office when he was prime minister.

And a reminder that he's being questioned by Hugo Keith KC.

Stay with us as we continue our coverage.

Image source, PA Media

We should hear a bit more from Martin Reynolds in a moment - and here's a reminder of who he is.

Reynolds was a member of then-PM Boris Johnson’s core team during the pandemic. Considered a close ally, Reynolds worked as Johnson’s principal private secretary (PPS) from 2019, until quitting in 2022. In that role, he headed up Johnson’s private office.

He also worked with Johnson during his tenure in the Foreign Office under Theresa May.

He's arguably best known for sending an email inviting more than 100 Whitehall staffers to a “bring your own booze” party in the Downing Street garden in May 2020 - during the first lockdown.

Reynolds’s name also featured regularly in Sue Gray’s Partygate report into Downing Street gatherings during lockdown. In one WhatsApp message, included in the report, Reynolds seemed to express relief that officials seemed to have overlooked the drinks event he organised, writing that he and his team appeared to have "got away with" it.

Reynolds resigned on 3 February 2022 while Johnson battled to save his premiership. Johnson quit as PM four months later.

Following this morning's evidence session, here's a quick reminder of the Covid Inquiry's scope as a whole:

• It’s being chaired by Baroness Hallett - a former Court of Appeal judge who previously led the inquests into the 7 July London bombings in 2005
• No-one will be found guilty or innocent during this inquiry. This is about going through what happened and learning lessons
• Any recommendations made by the inquiry at the end of this process do not have to be adopted by governments
• The names of people giving evidence will be announced for each week - they include key politicians, scientists, unions, health and care organisations, Covid bereavement groups and more
• Members of the public are being encouraged to share their stories with the inquiry by filling in this form online, external