Priti Patel will give today evidence to the Covid Inquiry.
The former home secretary is likely to face questions about her approach to controlling the border and the policing of lockdown rules.
Ms Patel lobbied for stricter border controls in the early stages of the pandemic in an attempt to prevent the virus reaching the UK, but was overruled.
As home secretary, she defended the way police enforced lockdown measures, despite criticism of their approach. She said she would “call the police” if she saw her neighbours flouting the rules and backed “strong enforcement”.
Just weeks into the first lockdown, on April 5, 2020, then-cabinet secretary Lord Mark Sedwill raised concerns with prime minister Boris Johnson about “heavy-handed enforcement by some police forces”, according to his witness statement to the inquiry.
Other witnesses due at the inquiry on Thursday are Martin Hewitt, the former chairman of the National Police Chiefs’ Council and Jun Pang, policy and campaigns officer with human rights group Liberty.
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