Boris Johnson and Matt Hancock are under mounting pressure after today's ruling.
The heat is on because not only was the Government found to have acted unlawfully but because of their claims to have protected the most vulnerable from the virus.
Mr Hancock first said he had put a “protective ring” around care homes on May 15, 2020 when he stated: “From the start, it’s been clear that this horrible virus affects older people most.
“So right from the start, we’ve tried to throw a protective ring around our care homes.”
He used the phrase on a further two occasions in the Commons about care homes.
But questioned about it later, he insisted he had used the phrase only “much later” about the Government’s winter plan and it had been “interpreted”.
Mr Hancock said tonight he had been “cleared” by the High Court – and he accused Public Health England of “failing” to tell ministers about the risks of asymptomatic transmission.
The Prime Minister faced fury in July 2020, after saying “too many care homes didn’t really follow the procedures in the way that they could have”.
He later clarified what he meant to say was “nobody knew what the correct procedures were because the extent of asymptomatic transmission was not known at the time”.
He repeated this today at PMQs, insisting: “The thing we didn’t know was that Covid could be transmitted asymptomatically in the way it was – and that was something that I wish we had known more about at the time.”
Yet scientists had been warning as early as January 2020 that many people with Covid-19 did not have symptoms.
The World Health Organisation stated on March 8, 2020 some 80% of cases were “mild or asymptomatic”.
And Sir Patrick Vallance, the Government’s top science adviser, on March 13 told the BBC : “It looks quite likely there is some degree of asymptomatic transmission.”
