Speaking at prime minister's questions, an MP revealed that he lost his mother and both parents-in-law to the coronavirus and urged Boris Johnson to set a date for the public inquiry.
Afzal Khan, the Labour MP for Manchester Gorton, said his family lost “an entire generation to this virus”.
His mother was treated in a hospital in Manchester last year and before she died he was not allowed to see her because of pandemic restrictions.
“There she was — I was so near yet I couldn’t do anything. It was painful,” Khan told The Times.
“It’s not just my story — it’s the story of so many people in the country. We’ve all been hit hard by this pandemic and we have all lost our loved ones,” he added.
His mother was aged 84 when she died last March and his parents-in-law died within days of each other in February this year.
The Mother's Day was a tough one for him and his wife when they visited their mothers' graves in Bolton.
“In the Muslim section of the graveyard, what struck me was there is about one grave a year and when you come to 2020 there’s three rows of people,” Khan said.
“Because the loss has been so staggering — 120,000 deaths, one of the worst in the world — we deserve to know what’s happened here and why it went so badly wrong. We genuinely need to learn so we’re never hit again like this.
“The Chilcot and Hillsborough inquiries demonstrate why we shouldn’t and must not wait for the next parliament to start work on this inquiry...Justice delayed would be justice denied.”
“I was unable to hold my mum’s hand as she lay dying in hospital, and I lost both my father and mother-in-law within days of each other earlier this year. Grieving families like mine want to understand what happened and if anything could have been done to prevent this tragedy,” Khan told the Commons.
The MP called on the prime minister to launch the coronavirus inquiry once the restriction are lifted.
Johnson said: “I know that the whole House shares my sympathies and my sorrow for his loss. We sympathise also with his entire family.
“I know that his experience is one as he rightly says that has been shared by far too many families up and down the country.
“As soon as it’s right to do so, as soon as it wouldn’t be an irresponsible diversion of the energies of the key officials involved, we are of course committed to an inquiry to learn the lessons to make sure that something like this can never happen again.”
Keir Starmer (R) and Narendra Modi have a cup of tea during a business showcase event at Chequers, in Aylesbury, England, on July 24, 2025. (Photo by KIN CHEUNG/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
