As one of the four Great Offices of State, you would perhaps expect the home secretary to be at the centre of the decision-making process at a time of national emergency.
However, giving evidence to the COVID-19 inquiry today, the holder of that office throughout the pandemic, Dame Priti Patel, gave the impression she was more on the margins – with the Department of Health the driving force behind health regulations and guidance.
Dame Priti’s most direct criticism of the government’s approach came when she said the £10,000 fines brought in during the summer of 2020 for organising large gatherings were disproportionate.
She insisted her department communicated their dissatisfaction at the time.
But the inquiry was shown a handwritten note from then Prime Minister Boris Johnson in which he called for “bigger fines”.
On last minute changes to the law, the inquiry’s lead counsel Hugo Keith KC suggested she must have “screamed” at colleagues in government and said “you cannot do this again” when presented with alterations.
Dame Priti said she did, but that the Department of Health and Social Care would insist on pressing ahead.
Twice she used the phrase that it was the Department of Health that was “holding the pen” on regulations.
It’s not the first time a witness in this inquiry has pointed a finger at that part of government and, in doing so, at the health secretary at the time – Matt Hancock.
One other remark from the former home secretary is also worth dwelling on.
Answering questions about whether she put any pressure on the police over enforcement during the pandemic, Dame Priti said “we as politicians were not there to dictate directly to the police as to when to arrest people”.
Dame Priti didn’t want to comment when journalists asked her earlier about Suella Braverman’s extraordinary spat with the Metropolitan Police.
But given she has in the past accused her successor at the Home Office of “attention seeking”, you do wonder if events of the day were also going through Dame Priti’s head when she made this comment about the operational independence of the police.
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