Sadiq Khan: inviting London officials to Covid meetings could have saved lives

City’s mayor tells pandemic inquiry that early Cobra meetings missed out on important input by excluding him

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Lives could have been saved during Covid if representatives from London had not been excluded from a series of early emergency meetings about the virus by Boris Johnson’s Downing Street, the capital’s mayor has said.

Giving evidence to the inquiry into the pandemic, Sadiq Khan said No 10’s refusal to allow him to attend meetings of the government’s Cobra emergency committee in early March 2020 meant those attending did not receive input on the specific issues for London and other big cities, such as the spread of the virus on public transport and the potential effects on particular communities.