Covid inquiry: Not one day when Covid rules followed in No 10 - top civil servant - BBC News
Helen MacNamara also recalls the "horrible" moment she realised the UK was heading for "total disaster".
The claims and revelations of the past three days have been pretty dizzying.

Helen MacNamara's job - as deputy cabinet secretary - was to make government work well. It's clear she doesn't think it did under Boris Johnson.

She's argued the lack of diversity in decision-making meant the needs of women and people from ethnic minorities was often forgotten.

MacNamara made clear the No 10 team - the one she called macho - was too bullish when the pandemic first hit. They believed the UK could deal with it.

She's said the then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson didn't make decisions and regularly changed his mind. Johnson didn't stand up to aides who used offensive language, she observed.

For days, witnesses have said the government machine was chaotic and dysfunctional.

But MacNamara also offered comments on Partygate which will be incredibly awkward for people who were working in and around Whitehall.

She concluded hundreds - literally hundreds - of civil servants and ministers will have broken the rules (based on the line drawn by police in their investigations).

She's said there wasn't a single day where the rules were completely followed in No 10.

We've heard some of these things in isolation before. But to hear such a senior civil servant spell them out is quite extraordinary.