Brexit helped improve medicine supplies ahead of Covid pandemic, says Matt Hancock

LEAVING the EU helped improve medicine supplies ahead of the pandemic, Matt Hancock has said.

He revealed no-deal planning had a major impact on stockpile levels at the height of the health crisis.

The ex-Health Secretary told the Covid-19 inquiry yesterday that medicines were “within hours” of running out for intensive care but supply chains were better prepared in 2019.

He said: “The work done for a no-deal Brexit on supply chains for medicines was the difference between running out of medicines in the peak of the pandemic and not running out.”

He revealed when Covid broke out “we knew more about the pharmaceutical supply chain in the UK than at any time in history”.

But he admitted some officials were moved from pandemic planning in the build-up to Covid.

During his testimony he said he was “profoundly sorry” for every death caused by the pandemic.

He said the country’s overall strategy in coping with a pandemic was “woefully inadequate”.

He revealed it was prepared for the fall-out but not preventing any outbreak which he agreed was a “complete systemic failure”.

Plans had failed to set up contact tracing and testing to stop the spread of the disease.

He said: “Central to pandemic planning needs to be: how do you stop the disaster from happening in the first place? How do you suppress the virus?”