‘Macho’ culture at No 10 harmed Covid response, Helen MacNamara says

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By Paul Seddon

Politics reporter

A “macho” culture in Downing Street harmed the UK’s response to the Covid pandemic, a top official from the time has said.

Former deputy cabinet secretary Helen MacNamara told the Covid inquiry a “toxic” environment affected decision-making during the crisis.

She said that female experts were ignored, and women were “looked over”.

She also accused Boris Johnson of failing to tackle “misogynistic language” used by Dominic Cummings.

The then prime minister’s response to abusive WhatsApps by his top adviser – revealed on Tuesday – had been “disappointing”, she told the inquiry.

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Ms MacNamara, who was the second-most senior official at the height of the pandemic, was thrust into the spotlight last year when she revealed she was fined by police for breaking Covid rules during the Partygate scandal.

She hit the headlines again this week, when it emerged Mr Cummings told colleagues on WhatsApp during the crisis he wanted to “personally handcuff her and escort her from the building”.

“We cannot keep dealing with this horrific meltdown of the British state while dodging stilettos from that [expletive],” Mr Cummings wrote about her in one message from August 2020.

In her own testimony earlier on Wednesday, Ms MacNamara said “it is disappointing to me that the prime minister didn’t pick him up on some of that violent and misogynistic language”.

His reaction was “just miles away from what is right or proper or decent, or what the country deserves,” she added.

Giving evidence to the inquiry on Tuesday, Mr Cummings accepted his language was “deplorable” by denied he had been misogynistic, adding: “I was much ruder about men.”

‘Superhero bunfight’

In her own evidence, Ms MacNamara described a “macho, confident” environment within government when Covid struck in early 2020.

She told the inquiry she found increasingly that this “particular set of attitudes” was “getting in the way” of providing the best response.

In extracts from her witness statement read out at the inquiry, she expressed concern that the lack of a “female perspective” on the crisis in a number of policy areas.

This included a “lack of thought” about childcare during school closures, the impact of restrictions on victims of domestic violence, and a lack of guidance for pregnant women.

She also wrote that a “disproportionate amount of attention” was given to the impact of lockdown on “male pursuits,” citing football, hunting, shooting and fishing.

In a draft of a report she prepared on improving the working environment, the atmosphere was likened to a “superhero bunfight”.

In other evidence heard by the inquiry:

Ms MacNamara said she would struggle to “pick one day” when Covid regulations were followed properly inside Downing Street
She also criticised an over-reliance on following advice from scientists, calling it a “cop out” from ministers and unfair on the scientific experts
In one email, she said there was a tendency to treat the advice of scientists like “the word of God”
She also said former health secretary Matt Hancock displayed “nuclear levels” of overconfidence, but had a habit of making assurances that turned out not to be true
She described a “jarring” episode where he imitated a cricket batsman, before saying “they bowl them at me, I knock them away”
She also said she had failed to retrieve messages on her work phone after leaving the Civil Service, but the Cabinet Office had deleted them

Elsewhere in her evidence, she described a “lack of care” for government staff, which she added proved “damaging in all sorts of ways”.

She recalled that it was over seven months into the pandemic before a hand sanitizing station was placed near a link bridge between the Cabinet Office and No 10 with a Pin pad regularly used by officials.

She also said she repeatedly requested but failed to receive “psychological support” for civil servants working on on the Covid response, adding “I don’t really understand why we couldn’t do that”.

She told the inquiry the government’s response in a number of areas showed an “absence of humanity,” adding in her testimony that the reaction to the Covid situation in prisons “felt very cold”.