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Two women whose mothers died in care homes from Covid said they want to hear why “thousands of people died needlessly on Boris Johnson’s watch”.

Jane Wier, from Cirencester, attended the Covid inquiry in London with the Covid-19 Families campaign group.

Former Prime Minister Mr Johnson is the latest political figure to give evidence to the public inquiry examining the response to the pandemic.

He apologised for the pain, loss and suffering during the pandemic.

But Ms Wier said answers were needed so that lessons could be learned for the future.

“I’m not sure that what we heard today is going to be sufficient to enable that to happen,” she added

Last week, the former health secretary Matt Hancock told the inquiry that entering lockdown three weeks earlier would have cut deaths in the first Covid wave by 90%.

In the first of two days of testimony, Mr Johnson said he should have “twigged” the seriousness of Covid sooner, conceding earlier action could have been taken against the virus.

He said he had underestimated the “scale and the pace of the challenge” posed but that this was also true of scientists and the “entire Whitehall establishment”.

Mr Johnson insisted ministers did their “level best” in the circumstances and defended his record in office.

The enquiry asked Mr Johnson about the weeks before the first lockdown, including the controversial decision to let Cheltenham Festival go ahead in March 2020.

He said that, with hindsight, mass gatherings should have been stopped earlier and admitted mistakes were made.

The former PM added that “there were unquestionably things we should have done differently” and said he took “personal responsibility for all decisions made”.

Ms Wier was joined at the enquiry by fellow campaigner Nicola, who asked not to disclose her surname. She also lost her mother to Covid.

“She has no voice now and we need to know that lessons have been learnt so that in future, people won’t have to go through the same as we’ve been through,” she said.

Nicola said she was “shocked” by today’s inquiry, saying she felt Mr Johnson had not explained where he thought he went wrong.

Dr Kit Yates, senior lecturer at the Department of Mathematical Sciences at University of Bath criticised the government’s actions during the pandemic.

“Many decisions were taken that probably weren’t in the country’s best interest,” he said.

“Things like if we had stopped to think about the mathematical implications of the forecast and we’d believed them – we might have operated differently,” added Dr Yates.

Mr Johnson will return for a second day of questioning on Thursday at 10:00 GMT

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