Woman who lost husband during pandemic confronts Hancock outside Covid inquiry

Lorelei King, 69, raised two A4 posters of her husband for the former health secretary to see as he arrived at the inquiry building, and she later said: “I don’t accept his apology.”

Her husband, Vincent Marzello, suffered from young-onset dementia and lived in a care home, where he died from Covid-19 aged 72 in March 2020.

Ms King’s first poster featured an image of Mr Hancock with her husband, from when the former health secretary visited his care home in 2018, and was captioned: “You shook my husband’s hand for your photo op.”

The second poster featured an image of her husband’s coffin and was captioned: “This was my photo op after your ‘ring of protection’ around care homes.”

Speaking about her husband’s death outside the UK Covid-19 Inquiry, Ms King, from London, said: “We would visit by FaceTime. I noticed something was wrong – his breathing wasn’t quite right.

“At that time there wasn’t any testing available, and he died five days later.

“Care homes became charnel houses because there was no testing, there was insufficient PPE, but most disastrously, it’s because they discharged people from hospitals without testing them.”

Ms King was unimpressed with the testimony Mr Hancock gave to the inquiry and accused him of blaming others.

She said: “Mr Hancock just seemed to be largely blaming everyone else.

“He kept trying to guide the conversation to areas he felt confident – he kept trying to bring it around to the vaccines for example.

“He came to visit my husband’s care home when he first took on the role of secretary of state and he shook my husband’s hand.

“Less than two years later, [my husband] was dead.

“I don’t accept his apology. None of the bereaved that I’m with accept his apology.”

Around 10 other members of bereaved families confronted Mr Hancock by raising images of their loved ones or heckling him as he left the inquiry.