2024: Boris Johnson says the UK had the fastest vaccine rollout because we left the EU / 2020: Dr June Raine (then CEO of the MHRA speaking at a Downing Street briefing) says the UK approved the vaccine rollout while under EU rules

At the Covid-19 Inquiry, it was clear that British exceptionalism defined the former prime minister’s pandemic response.

No, Brexit didn’t change the UK’s ability to authorise the Covid-19 vaccines earlier than the rest of the EU.

The Covid inquiry has shone a light on the government’s pandemic response. Now it’s time for scrutiny of another national disaster.

In his rambling, incoherent 115-page witness statement to the Covid-19 inquiry, Dominic Cummings, the disgraced former senior adviser to disgraced former prime minister Boris Johnson, puts the blame for the Covid lockdowns on ‘the blob’ or as he describes it “insiders refusing to accept the referendum result”.

Helen MacNamara has suggested the government’s focus on Brexit ahead of the Covid-19 pandemic was one of the matters that put the UK on the “back foot”. / The former top civil servant also claimed that Boris Johnson’s “monomaniacal focus” was on Britain’s exit from the European Union.

Brexit was prioritised over tackling Covid-19 in the early days of the outbreak, a former health minister has said, as the inquiry into the UK response to the pandemic gathers pace.

A conspiratorial group of extreme Brexit lobbyists mounted an extraordinary campaign against one of the world’s most prestigious science journals – part of a series of joint investigations between Byline Times and Computer Weekly.

The UK’s only nation to border the EU was left to prepare for Brexit with no ministers, says Denis McMahon. / Preparing for a no-deal Brexit forced the Northern Ireland government to “cannibalise” departments, a senior civil servant has said.

Welsh health officials have said that preparations for a pandemic stalled in the run-up to coronavirus and that systems in place were too complex, as bereaved families said their loved ones “didn’t stand a chance”.

The former first minister says resources were diverted away from Covid planning in order to prepare for potential no-deal Brexit.

Nicola Sturgeon has blamed no-deal Brexit planning for diverting resources away from emergency planning at the Covid-19 public inquiry. / The former First Minister of Scotland said "every part of our work was impacted" by preparing for a potential no-deal exit from the EU.

Boris Johnson infamously said 'Brexit saved lives' earlier this year. Judging by these comments, it did precisely the opposite.

The government's preparation for a no-deal Brexit sometimes "took precedent" over planning for a pandemic, the UK Covid-19 public Inquiry has heard. / Ministers were aware in 2016 that "even a moderate pandemic would overrun" the "fragmented" pandemic preparedness system within the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC), newly disclosed documents revealed on Monday.

And why none of them actually stack up.

Witnesses have criticised the British government’s pandemic preparations as part of a public inquiry into the country’s response to Covid-19.

Brexit had a bigger effect on pandemic contingency planning arrangements in Northern Ireland than elsewhere in the UK, the Covid inquiry has heard.

Plaid Cymru’s Westminster leader, Liz Saville Roberts MP, has criticised Boris Johnson’s “reprehensible decision” to prioritise Brexit over pandemic preparations.

A government focus on Brexit “crowded out and prevented” the work that was needed to prepare for the next pandemic, the lead lawyer to the Covid-19 Inquiry has suggested.

The independent Covid inquiry has heard that Brexit may have interfered with and ‘crowded out’ the UK’s capacity to prepare for a pandemic.

Preparedness and vaccine rollout outside of EU under scrutiny as inquiry kicks off.

Experts insist successes of Brussels’ €95bn programme could never be replicated by a UK-only substitute.

The UK is on course to be the world's worst-performing major economy this year, according to updated predictions from the International Monetary Fund - which puts at least part of the blame on higher taxes and interest rates.

When the prime minister was first informed, his response was: “You keep an eye on it. It will probably go away.”

Economist Duncan Weldon and the New Statesman’s polling expert explore how Brexit and austerity have damaged the UK economy and set the stage for Liz Truss’s “mismanagement.”