COVID Inquiry - What Do Our Supporters Think?

Last month, Dominic Cummings gave a damning testimony about the Government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. So, we conducted a survey to gather our supporter’s views on how the Government handled this crisis. We received over 3000 responses.

The results were crystal clear.

Our supporters are very unhappy with the Government’s response to the pandemic. In fact, 96% of respondents believe that the government handled the COVID pandemic ‘very badly’ or ‘quite badly’.

Many issues were raised, including the failure to protect people living in care homes and the inefficient track and trace system. The consensus was that the Government got 'everything' wrong apart from the vaccine roll-out.

This is why an inquiry into the Government’s handling of the pandemic must begin ASAP.

The Government wants to delay the inquiry until Spring 2022. But, 97% of our supporters want the COVID Inquiry to start in 2021. That way, the Government can learn some vital lessons and apply them during the later stages of the pandemic.

The survey also revealed that many of our supporters suspect the Government is delaying the inquiry for tactical reasons. The Government may want to avoid scrutiny until after a general election, or once the public have ‘moved on’.  This is unacceptable. It is vital to our democracy that the Government is held accountable for their actions.

Our supporters also raised concerns about the Government awarding COVID-19 contracts on the basis of cronyism or even corruption. This comes as no surprise when a fifth of UK Covid contracts ‘raised red flags for possible corruption’, according to Transparency International. We will continue to call out all instances of cronyism and potential corruption in Government.

Most importantly, the survey showed that 93% of Unlock Democracy’s supporters believe that the Prime Minister has too much power in our political system. Mr Cummings’ testimony highlighted how a small clique can hold monumental decision-making power – often sidelining Cabinet and Parliament. 

This is why we will continue to make the argument for a written constitution.  A written constitution would define the roles of the Prime Minister, Cabinet and Parliament. This would create a better balance of power within our political system, and protect it from a Prime Minister who seems rather down on democracy.