MATT HANCOCK deserted health and care staff in their hour of need during the Covid crisis, public service union Unison said today.

The union made the comments as the Tory former health secretary gave evidence to the official inquiry into the pandemic.

Unison head of health Helga Pile said: “Matt Hancock’s lasting legacy will be how not to respond to a national crisis.

“He should hold his head in shame for deserting health and care staff in their hour of need.

“Dodgy dealings at the heart of government meant many profited from supplying substandard protective clothing.

“Safety kit was either unavailable or unfit for purpose, and care workers and those they looked after died.

“It’s time Matt Hancock took responsibility for the chaos caused and the lives lost while he was in charge.”

Taking responsibility was definitely not on Mr Hancock’s agenda as he gave evidence to the inquiry for the second time.

Instead he sought to blame Downing Street, then in the grip of his nemesis Dominic Cummings, Boris Johnson’s chief aide, for interference in the Covid testing programme.

“The biggest interference that caused difficulties was within testing, where some of the political appointees in No 10 caused incredible difficulties,” Mr Hancock told the inquiry, which is now focusing on the pandemic’s impact on the NHS.

The disgraced ex-health secretary, who was caught canoodling with a colleague in breach of Covid rules, has now left politics.

Bereaved families demonstrated outside the Covid-19 Inquiry at Dorland House in London as Mr Hancock gave evidence.

They held pictures of loved ones and rolled out a red carpet with the words “let bereaved families give evidence.”

Lobby Akinnola, 33, said he went to the inquiry to “act as a voice for people who can’t speak.”

Mr Akinnola’s father, Femi Akinnola, died at the age of 60 in April 2020 after testing positive for Covid.

Mr Akinnola said he was concerned Mr Hancock was using the inquiry to “rehabilitate his public image.”

He said: “I feel like we’ve heard a lot about how well he did, how he did everything right, and how it was other people’s fault that things went wrong.”

Barbara Herbert, from Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK, said: “Politicians are using the inquiry to defend their legacies, while bereaved families are being excluded from giving evidence.”

Mandy Phillips, who booed Mr Hancock as he walked into the UK Covid-19 Inquiry building, said she believes he “should never have been health secretary.”