Boris Johnson confirms inquiry to be held over handling of Covid-19 outbreak

This afternoon, the PM told MPs he does not believe now is the right time for such an investigation but it will "certainly" happen in the future.

Downing Street was unable to give any further details about the nature of the inquiry when pressed on whether it will be judge-led or when it will begin.

• How the North-East's coronavirus infection rate compares with Leicester

Instead, a No 10 spokesman said: "It's an independent inquiry. I haven't got any more detail for you on how it would work. We will set that out in due course."

• New figures show more than 3,000 have died with Covid-19 in the North-East and North Yorkshire

The North-East has seen more than 3,000 deaths attributed to Covid-19 since the outbreak began, with just over 1,600 deaths taking place outside hospital.

Speaking in the Commons earlier, Liberal Democrat acting co-leader Sir Ed Davey said: "Under this PM we suffered one of the worst death rates in the world and Europe's worst death rate for health and care workers."

Mr Johnson replied: "As I've told the House several times, I do not believe that now in the middle of combating, still as we are, a pandemic is the right moment to devote huge amounts of official time to an inquiry, but of course we will seek to learn the lessons of this pandemic in the future and certainly we will have an independent inquiry into what happened."

Meanwhile, chairman of the Conservative Party 1922 Committee, Sir Graham Brady, put pressure on the Government to review its guidance on working from home.

Sir Graham said: "Some people are anxious to return to work and some people find that they are actually as happy and productive at home working as they would be at the office.

"But does the Prime Minister agree with me that the worst reason for staying at home is to follow blanket Government advice that takes no account of safety and will he commit to revising the Government advice urgently?"

Mr Johnson replied: "As I'm sure he knows from studying the Government advice, (Sir Graham) will see that it is... we say very clearly it is important that business should be carried on and that employers should decide in consultation with their workers whether it is safe for their workers to come in, for those workers to come in to work or whether they should continue working from home.

"I happen to think that employers in this country have made huge strides in getting our workplaces safe and that is the message that I think that we should all be conveying."