BORIS JOHNSON’S government pursued “a policy of negligent manslaughter” during the coronavirus crisis, an inquiry led by public health campaigners has heard.

Over the past few months, leading academics, celebrities, campaigning groups, unions, front-line workers and the public have given evidence to the People’s Covid Inquiry in an attempt to learn lessons from the events surrounding the pandemic.

The inquiry, organised by Keep Our NHS Public, was set up in the absence of a formal public investigation.

During the inquiry’s final session on Wednesday night, epidemiologist Professor Deepti Gurdasani gave a damning assessment of the government strategy with dealing with Covid-19.

Prof Gurdasani, of Queen Mary University of London, said: “I think it’s been a strategy of negligent manslaughter, but I think that’s generous because it’s not negligent.

“It’s essentially a policy where they have been fully informed on the risks to public health, the risk of mass deaths, the risk of suffering, but have gone ahead with this anyway because these risks and the impact on people were considered acceptable.

“The values that have been inherent with this government is a lack of value for life.

“It’s never too late to return to public health measures. People have consistently followed the rules, it’s just that the rules have been wrong.

“We’ve done nothing to protect the only strategy that we have. The biggest lesson we need to learn is that we cannot live with this [Covid].”

The session also heard how the government was at times playing catch-up with local authorities.

Hammersmith and Fulham council leader Stephen Cowan explained how, in March 2020, the west London local authority had moved onto a civic emergency footing.

Care homes were closed and offered free personal protective equipment and additional training to deal with the effects of the pandemic.

The council also arranged the first test and trace measures, which were later adopted more widely across London.

The full findings of the People’s Covid Inquiry will be published next month after the evidence has been gathered into a report.

They will include a set of recommendations to the government on the provision of health and social care services, including the future funding and organisation of the NHS.