LONDON - Britain’s government was underprepared and failed to anticipate measures needed to protect the vulnerable during the Covid-19 pandemic, an official inquiry that got under way on Tuesday heard, as the inquiry chair, Ms Heather Hallett, pledged to put the bereaved at the heart of her work.

Former prime minister Boris Johnson had ordered the inquiry after Britain recorded one of the world’s highest death tolls.

More than 175,000 deaths from the virus had been reported by the time Mr Johnson stood down in July 2022.

As the inquiry this week hears its first evidence, it could prove a headache for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

That is because he was finance minister during the pandemic, and he faces an election in 2024.

“Fundamentally, in relation to significant aspects of the Covid-19 pandemic, we were taken by surprise,” said the counsel to the inquiry, Mr Hugo Keith, who leads questioning.

Regarding lockdowns and shielding the vulnerable, he said: “Few of those areas were anticipated, let alone considered in detail” in advance.

This stage of the inquiry examines Britain’s preparedness. It follows preliminary hearings after the inquiry, which is expected to last for many years, was formally launched in June 2022.

Evidence hearings on module two, covering governance and decision making in the pandemic, are expected to begin later in 2023.

The government has launched a legal challenge against the inquiry taking place in central London over its requests for internal government WhatsApp messages from Mr Johnson’s time in office, which it says are “unambiguously irrelevant” to the inquiry.

The inquiry argues that it is for the chair to determine what material is relevant.

The legal case will be heard at the end of June.

Ms Hallett said her focus is “those who have suffered hardship and loss”. She said they “are and will always be at the heart of the inquiry”.

“I am listening to them. Their loss will be recognised,” she said. REUTERS