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A group representing Covid bereaved families has called for former health secretary Matt Hancock to be removed from the Privy Council following the Covid inquiry report into social care.
Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK is calling on the Prime Minister to recommend Hancock’s removal to the King, calling it an “important symbolic first step” towards accountability. Removal would strip Hancock of the “Right Honorable” title.
While membership of the Privy Council is conferred for life, the monarch can remove an individual from the body.
Privy Council
The Covid inquiry report, published on Tuesday, said the social care sector “appears to be something of an afterthought” and there was no “safety ring” for care homes at the start of the pandemic.
The inquiry said: “The UK government and devolved administrations knew, before the pandemic, of the extreme vulnerability of care home residents to respiratory viruses.”
The Covid report went on to conclude that Hancock’s reference to a “protective ring” around care homes “does not reflect what happened in care homes in the first weeks and months of the pandemic.”
It added: “At the time Mr Hancock made this statement, thousands of people died in care homes in England.”
A spokesperson for Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK said it was “indefensible that Matt Hancock should remain a member of the Privy Council.”
Hancock did not comment on the publication of Tuesday’s report, but he previously defended his handling of an “impossible” situation.
On Wednesday, Andy Burnham agreed to meet grieving families following the publication of the inquest report. The Prime Minister accepted the invitation in response to a post by the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK group on X.
@CovidJusticeUK Yes, of course.
— Andy Burnham (@andyburnham) October 21, 2026
Questions from the Prime Minister
This came after Burnham addressed the report at Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs) in response to Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch.
Burnham told the house: “Got them [the Conservatives] had time to read the covid inquiry report yesterday about the appalling state of social care as it went into the pandemic, the hundreds of 1000s of Britons who suffered as a result, the lives that were lost.
“I don’t need lectures from the other side about making tough decisions about social care. I suggest they walk away from this PMQs, read that report and have a period of reflection.”
Andy Burnham at #PMQs: “Did they have time to read the Covid inquiry report yesterday about the appalling state of social care as it went into the pandemic? I suggest they have a period of reflection.
— Josh Self (@josh.politics.co.uk) 2026-10-21T11:17:19.044Z
The Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK pressure group pointed to precedent for the removal of members of the Privy Council. Elliot Morley was removed in 2011 following convictions for expenses fraud, and Peter Mandelson in March 2026.
The group launched a petition to support their call.
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Members of the Privy Council have previously resigned from the body, usually in disgrace. These figures include John Profumo (1963), John Stonehouse (1976) and Jonathan Aitken (1997). Profumo, Stonehouse and Aitken were the only three people to resign from the Privy Council in the 20th century.
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