BEREAVED families gathered outside of the first session of the Covid-19 public inquiry in London for a vigil today and to express frustration at being “excluded from sharing key evidence.”

Members of the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice (CBFFJ) campaign group have previously stated that it feels marginalised, criticising the decision to call only one of its members as a witness in the first module, having rejected all of the 20 members it had suggested could give evidence.

Families held photos of those who died during the pandemic at the demonstration.

CBFFJ co-founders Jo Goodman and Matt Fowler said: “The inquiry has no hope of understanding the key decisions made in government if it doesn’t understand their impact.

“We will never forget the loved ones we lost in the pandemic, and we will do whatever it takes to ensure that their deaths are learnt from so others don’t have to face the same awful, and preventable, fate.”

During the hearing, lead lawyer Hugo Keith KC said that Britain may not have been “very well prepared at all” to deal with the pandemic and that the nation was “taken by surprise” by “significant aspects” of the disease that has been recorded on 226,977 death certificates.

Lawyer for the British Medical Association, Brian Stanton, said that failures of planning and preparation for personal protective equipment for healthcare staff “led to the ludicrous spectacle of doctors making aprons from bin liners” during the pandemic.

CBFFJ lawyer Pete Weatherby said that the evidence is likely to show a lack of responsibility in government and “chaos” which led to a slow reaction to a pandemic where “lost time is measured in lost lives.”

TUC lawyer Sab Jacobs said that the Cabinet Office’s refusal to hand over requested documents to the inquiry is “corrosive” and will damage confidence in the process.

He said its position “smacks of having something to hide” and warned the “infighting” between former prime minister Boris Johnson and the government “jars with the terrible losses” suffered.

Inquiry chairwoman Baroness Heather Hallett vowed that those who suffered in the pandemic will “always be at the heart of the inquiry.”

The retired Court of Appeal judge welcomed the “dignified vigil” held by bereaved relatives outside the building and vowed to undertake the thorough investigation they deserve.

A 17-minute video was played at the inquiry, showing people describing the devastating impact of the coronavirus pandemic on themselves and their loved ones, including those who had died alone.

One woman cried as she said her father had died, followed, just a few days later, by her sister, and that she suffered guilt over the way they had died.

People said they had not hugged each other at family funerals because they were sticking to Covid social distancing rules laid down by the government, which were revealed later to have been flouted by then prime minister Boris Johnson, Cabinet ministers and government staff.

The hearing was also told that people could not be buried in outfits chosen by families because body bags had to remain sealed.

Interim reports are scheduled to be published before public hearings conclude by the summer of 2026.

A separate Scottish Covid-19 inquiry chaired by Lord Brailsford is looking at the pandemic response in devolved areas in Scotland.

Kirsten Heaven, on behalf of Welsh families, told the hearing that they were “very disappointed” that the government in Cardiff was not launching its own inquiry over its “inadequate response.”