Prime Minister Boris Johnson has agreed to hold an independent inquiry into the coronavirus pandemic.

The hearing will look at the government’s response to the outbreak.

Mr Johnson told the House:

“I do not believe now in the middle of combating, still as we are, a pandemic is the right moment to devote huge amounts of official time to an inquiry, but of course we will seek to learn the lessons of this pandemic in the future.

“Certainly, we will have an independent inquiry into what happened.”

The way the government has handled the crisis since last March has been widely criticised.

More than 45,000 people in Britain have died from Covid-19

The government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic has been much criticised, after more than 45,000 people have officially died from the disease.

Mr Johnson’s promise to hold an inquiry came after a question by Liberal Democrats acting leader Ed Davey.

During PMQs he asked: “Under this Prime Minister we suffered one of the worst death rates in the world and Europe’s worst death rate for health and care workers”.

Later, Downing Street was unable to give further details about the nature of the inquiry.

A spokesperson said the remit would be set out “in due course”.