Covid-19 campaign group has Conference attendance ban reversed

Members of a Covid-19 bereavement group will attend Conservative Party Conference after initially being barred from the event.

Covid-19 Bereaved

Families for Justice, a campaign group comprising 4,000 members who have all lost friends or family to the virus, raised concerns after some of its members were told they would not be granted access to the Conference precinct in Manchester.

The group said it wanted to attend the annual event so MPs could: “hear our stories and work with us to learn lessons and stop more families from experiencing the same tragedies that we have”.

A Conservative spokesperson said the move to reject the bereavement group’s application had been an error.

Lobby Akinnola, a spokesperson for the campaign group, said: “Their initial decision to disallow bereaved families from attending was disgraceful.”

Five members of the group met Boris Johnson at Downing Street shortly before the start of Conference. He told them a chair of a commission to investigate the handling of Covid19 would be appointed before the end of the year

- the group want the inquiry to begin immediately.