David Cameron will become the first politician to give evidence at the Covid Inquiry to face questions on how prepared the UK was for a pandemic.

The former prime minister is scheduled to appear at 11am on Monday, after the British Medical Association’s (BMA) chairman claimed his programme of austerity was to blame for the NHS’s “disastrous” failures during the Covid outbreak.

Professor Philip Banfield accused Mr Cameron of having “ground down and pulled apart public health systems” with cuts that meant the health service “didn’t stand a fighting chance” in a blog for the BMA.

Mr Cameron, who led the UK from 2010 to 2016, his former chancellor George Osborne, and the former health secretary Jeremy Hunt, now chancellor, should be “taken to task” during their respective hearings this week, said Mr Banfield.

Mr Osborne is expected to give evidence on Tuesday, while Mr Hunt will appear on Wednesday.

The inquiry finally got underway last week, having already cost £114 million. Chair Baroness Hallett is hearing evidence from epidemiologists on the science and origins of the virus, as well as from former Government pandemic planners.

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