Families who lost loved ones during the coronavirus pandemic have turned their backs on Matt Hancock as he tried to apologise to them at the COVID inquiry.
The former health secretary approached the public gallery after giving evidence, and admitting that the UK’s approach to planning for pandemics was “completely wrong”.
But some of those who had watched the proceedings rebuffed Mr Hancock, with one woman telling Sky News that she couldn’t face him.
Amanda Herring Murrell’s brother Mark died in March 2020, which is when the then prime minister Boris Johnson announced the UK’s first national lockdown.
Describing her encounter with Mr Hancock, she told Sky correspondent Ivor Bennett: “I wasn’t having any of it. I was like ‘No, don’t you even think about it’, and I turned my back on him.
“He was looking for forgiveness but I said ‘You’ll be forever looking for forgiveness because you’re not going to get it off the bereaved’.”
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Shaking with emotion outside the inquiry – 30 minutes after being approached by the MP – Ms Herring Murrell described him as “absolutely disgraceful”.
She added: “Our loved ones died on his watch. And he should be held accountable.”
Read more: What is the COVID inquiry trying to find?
Members of the COVID Bereaved Families for Justice group had also gathered at the inquiry’s steps as Mr Hancock arrived to give evidence.
They shared a silent embrace for several seconds after he walked in.
Lorelei King, whose husband Vincent Marzello was a care home resident who died from COVID on 31 March 2020, broke down in tears.
She told Sky News: “It was particularly difficult to see Matt Hancock because he came to my husband’s care home when he first took on the position [of health secretary] and he shook my husband’s hand.
“Two years later my husband was dead. I don’t believe he was protected.”
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Ms King had held two photographs as Mr Hancock walked in – one of that handshake, and another of her husband’s coffin.
She also said that she wanted the MP to be held accountable for “his actions or inactions” – and warned “his apology would mean nothing”.
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During his evidence, Mr Hancock had said he was “profoundly sorry” for every death caused by COVID-19, and explained the UK’s system was “geared towards how to clear up after a disaster, not prevent it”.
He also raised concerns that systems to prevent future pandemics are “being dismantled as we speak”.
But reacting to his evidence, Ms King claimed Mr Hancock “seemed to be largely blaming everyone else” for what happened.
Mr Hancock left the inquiry to shouts of “murderer” by protesters, and was confronted by one bereaved family member dressed as the grim reaper.
Charles Persinger had lost his wife and mother to COVID one month apart.
As Mr Hancock got into his car, Mr Persinger sarcastically shouted: “I’m a big fan of your work.”
