THE Government's handling of the Covid-19 pandemic was 'woeful' according to Northwich's MP.

Speaking after a report was published by cross-party MPs, Mike Amesbury said the the decision to put the country into lockdown in March 2020 came 'too late' and cost 'many lives'.

The Weaver Vale MP went on to say how the report, published on Tuesday (October 12) would be a tough read for the families of those who had lost loved ones.

He said: "We’ve seen the consequences in our local community with regards the Government’s woeful mishandling of the pandemic, especially during the early stages.

"It’s a damning report that will be a tough read for those who lost loved ones as many tragedies could have been prevented.

"There was a failure to learn from Asian countries that drew on their experience of dealing with previous contagions by imposing tight border controls and rolling out mass testing - avoiding national lockdowns in the first year altogether.

“When the UK did lock down, it locked down too late, costing many lives."

The wide-ranging report said serious errors and delays at the hands of the Government and scientific cost lives and how the UK's pandemic planning was too "narrowly and inflexibly based on a flu model" that failed to learn the lessons from Sars, Mers and Ebola.

It also stated the decision not to test people discharged from hospitals to care homes early on was a failure and led to deaths, which Mr Amesbury was keen to stress.

He added: "We need to remember it was this Government that put tens of thousands of older people at risk by allowing Covid-infected patients to be discharged from hospital back into care homes.

"And let’s not forget about the 1,500 health and care staff who died, with many left unprotected due to the shortage of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) during the early phase of the pandemic.

"It’s believed the virus has claimed more than 150,000 lives in the UK to date, meaning we have the highest Covid-related death toll in Europe."

The report did praise the Government's vaccine rollout however.