Former health secretary Matt Hancock and former deputy prime minister Oliver Dowden both defended suggestions from inquiry lawyer Hugo Keith KC that Brexit could have “crowded out and prevented” the work that was needed to improve pandemic preparedness. Mr Dowden claimed that planning for a no-deal Brexit made the UK “match fit” for the Covid pandemic. The former deputy prime minister was asked about a 2019 memo about the National Security Council threats programme which suggested that work on pandemic influenza was expected to be affected by the “step-up in planning for a no-deal exit from the EU”.

Mr Dowden said: “It was the case at that time that ‘no deal’ was the default position of the government … this is worth remembering the kind of frankly, apocryphal warnings that were being delivered about the consequences of no-deal Brexit.”

Matt Hancock, who served as health secretary at the outbreak of the pandemic, admitted during questioning last year that the UK was not properly prepared for the Covid pandemic – claiming officials were more concerned with counting bodybags than preventing the spread of the virus. The former health secretary described the failure to plan as an “absolute tragedy” and repeatedly insisted that the government’s approach had been “completely wrong”.

He conceded that pre-pandemic plans to protect care homes had been “terrible”, saying the care sector was in “nowhere near good enough shape” when Covid struck.

When giving evidence on 28 June to the Covid-19 Inquiry, former health secretary Jeremy Hunt, admitted being part of “groupthink” when he was health secretary, leading to a “narrowness of thinking” that failed to expand UK pandemic preparedness beyond planning for a flu outbreak.

The focus on any future pandemic being flu-based meant there was a “shared assumption that herd immunity was inevitably” going to be the strategy used to contain a new virus, he told the UK Covid-19 Inquiry.

The senior Conservative politician, who was health secretary between 2012 and 2018, said studies by the likes of Johns Hopkins University in the US had viewed the UK as being “very good at dealing with pandemics” but said that assumption proved to be “completely wrong”.

Key politicians, scientists and health experts appeared as witnesses during the first module of the inquiry – which is titled Resilience and Preparedness.

Former health secretaries Matt Hancock and Jeremy Hunt were put under the spotlight during oral evidence sessions, alongside former prime minister Lord Cameron and former levelling up secretary Michael Gove.

Lord Cameron conceded it was a “mistake” for his government to focus too heavily on preparations for combating a wave of influenza rather than a coronavirus-like pandemic.

But he defended the programme of austerity cuts to public services under his leadership between 2010 and 2016, which medics and unions have blamed for leaving the NHS in a “parlous state”.

Mr Hunt admitted being part of “groupthink” when he was health secretary, leading to a “narrowness of thinking” that failed to expand UK pandemic preparedness beyond planning for a flu outbreak.

And Mr Hancock said it was a “colossal” failure to assume the spread of the virus could not be stopped.

Meanwhile, Mr Gove argued that planning for a no-deal Brexit made the UK “more match fit” for dealing with the pandemic. He denied that moving staff over to Brexit work had a detrimental effect on pandemic planning when he appeared before the inquiry in July last year.

Brexit is expected to at least partly be blamed as failures to properly plan for a pandemic in the UK are expected to be laid bare in the Covid-19 Inquiry report today.

Inquiry chair Baroness Heather Hallett could comment on preparations surrounding personal protective equipment (PPE) and a government focused on Brexit.

The report is also expected to highlight the UK’s focus on preparing for a flu pandemic instead of a coronavirus pandemic.

Lady Hallett may also highlight how austerity measures led to public health cut backs.

The UK government’s failures to properly prepare for a pandemic are expected to be laid bare on Thursday as the UK Covid-19 Inquiry publishes its first report.

Inquiry chair Baroness Heather Hallett will report on how well the UK was able to face a deadly outbreak in the run-up to 2020 when the Covid-19 pandemic swept across Britain.

The report is expected to highlight the UK’s focus on preparing for a flu pandemic instead of a coronavirus pandemic.

New variants of Covid have started to spread across the UK, prompting doctors to warn people to beware catching the new strains:

Many people seem to either have or know someone with Covid again. As reports of Covid infections rise, here are the latest official figures from the UK Health Security Agency:

In December last year, Matt Hancock’s being forced to deny he was a liar was the highlight of an undignified circus, wrote John Rentoul: