London representatives were excluded from early emergency meetings about Covid-19 by Boris Johnson's Downing Street, potentially hindering the response in the capital.
Sadiq Khan, the London mayor, was eventually allowed to attend a Cobra meeting on March 16, 2020, where he learned about the likely impact of Covid-19 on London.
Khan believes that if London had been represented in these meetings, lives could have been saved by addressing specific issues such as the spread of the virus on public transport and its effects on particular communities. [ more ]