Debate contribution: UK COVID-19 Inquiry: Institutional Reform

Debate contribution by Mr Jonathan Buckley on 9 December 2025.

MLA

Mr Jonathan Buckley

Party at the time

Democratic Unionist Party

Date

9 December 2025

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

UK COVID-19 Inquiry: Institutional Reform

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5295721

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I suppose that I have mixed emotions about the debate. Primarily, my thoughts are with those who lost loved ones during COVID, those who continue to suffer the aftermath of long-term health effects, the children who missed out on schooling and, indeed, those who were bereaved. Those of us who were in the Chamber at the time can recount a very difficult time as an elected representative. I remember the elderly constituent who was impaled on the cemetery fence as he went to lay flowers at his wife's grave when the cemeteries were closed due to COVID restrictions. I remember the constituent who presented late at A&E and his throat cancer was so developed that it was missed. He died. I remember the businesses destroyed. I remember going to the window of a care home to visit a dear friend and watch him die from the window. I remember those things. I was present as an elected representative. I took views in the Assembly that were different from those of other Members, but they were all taken from a position of huge empathy and a huge degree of respect for those who had no voice. That is why I look at the motion, and I look at Governments around the world that struggled with COVID. There was not one Government that did not struggle with the COVID pandemic. If we look at deaths per million around the world, we see that the UK does not even enter the top 10. That is not to say that the UK Government got everything right; they got many things wrong, as did the devolved Administrations. However, it is a fallacy to say that it is because of the institutions and the way in which they operate here that we so failed the people of Northern Ireland. I am disappointed in the Alliance Party today because it is not only low but crass to try to insinuate and link that to your desire for institutional reform, which you know rightly goes to the very heart of safeguards in the agreements, the Belfast Agreement and the St Andrews Agreement, that are crucial to this place functioning. We know that this is a divided society, and we know that it needs to have cross-community support on key issues.

I will in a minute, because the Member gave way to me. When I look at that, I say that that is crass and is gaslighting the victims who suffered as a result of some the decisions taken by Members in the House. I will make this point, and then I will give way: it is very obvious to me that it is the Alliance Party that is so keen to talk up collapse, and it is quite obvious that there is a campaign. You are in a political vice. You are being squeezed from the left by the SDLP, which is putting you under pressure. There is a huge chasm between you and unionism because of the positions that you have adopted. Ms Bradshaw failed to mention in her opening speech that one of the most brass-necked, outlandish and despicable acts during the COVID pandemic in Northern Ireland was the mass attendance at the Bobby Storey funeral.

To the SDLP's credit, Matthew O'Toole mentioned it. Ms Bradshaw could not even mention it. It shows how far to the left, and indeed into Sinn Féin's lap, Alliance has fallen.

On that point, I give way to a Member of the Alliance Party who can suggest an action of reform that would have delivered better results during the COVID pandemic.

Let me answer.

I only have a moment. Have I read the report? Yes.

The Member is quite crass to talk about whether I have read the report. I sat on the Health Committee with her during the COVID pandemic. She did not even realise at the time that the Coronavirus Act 2020 enabled the Minister of Health to have vast, overreaching powers beyond the Assembly. She is trying to rewrite the past.

The Member did not even realise —.

It is quite easy to understand why the Member is angry —

— because she failed fundamentally to scrutinise —.

She failed to fundamentally scrutinise legislation that had a huge impact. The Alliance Members were lockdown fanatics. That caused huge harm in our schools. There are still record levels of truancy in our schools. The legislation caused record levels of anxiety in our communities, which craved leadership, and Alliance showed none. Alliance wants to come to the House today to try to rewrite its record during the COVID pandemic. Talk about accountability? It was the Alliance Party's leader, Naomi Long, who wiped her WhatsApp messages. Where was the accountability there? Perhaps take a mirror and look at your own face before throwing around accusations —.

I will, Mr Deputy Speaker, but I think there is a brave degree of rewriting and hypocrisy from some of the parties that are debating the motion. Parties fundamentally disagreed on aspects of COVID. Do you know what? Rightly so, because they were huge decisions. However, understand this — I want to be clear — you will not use the COVID inquiry or the death of loved ones from all across Northern Ireland to take away safeguards that are crucial to the functioning of this place.

I say this to the Secretary of State: no unionist will support it.

905 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Qualifying Sectarianism, hate crime and community relations

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 14:07 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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