Helen MacNamara, who was Britain’s most senior female civil servant, said Boris Johnson let the country down by not tackling the "toxic" culture he presided over.
The Inquiry has been shown WhatsApp messages from Dominic Cummings to Boris Johnson in which he said he wanted Ms MacNamara "out of our hair" as he no longer wanted to dodge “stilettos from that c**t". As she appeared today, the former official said the messages were "horrible to read", but she was not surprised because of the culture in No10.
In an email to civil service colleagues in April 2020, Ms MacNamara raised concerns that the failure to include women in decision making had led to problems, including the lack of provision for domestic abuse victims during the first lockdown. "It is very difficult to draw any conclusion other than women have died as a result of this," she wrote. Ms MacNamara highlighted how most PPE was not designed for female bodies even though 77% of NHS are women.
In a written statement, Ms MacNamara said: “The exclusion of a female perspective led to significant negative consequences, including the lack of thought given to childcare in the context of school closures. There was a serious lack of thinking about domestic abuse and the vulnerable, about carers and informal networks of how people look after each other in families and communities. There was not enough thinking about the impact on single parents of some of the restrictions.”
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/top-aide-claims-women-lost-31337867