Nearly six years after the first Covid lockdowns, the fallout for the Excluded is not history it is daily life.
Following the recent Backbench Business Debate on gaps in Covid-19 financial support, the Chair of the Gaps in Covid-19 Financial Support APPG wrote to the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Rt Hon James Murray MP, seeking a meeting to discuss the ongoing impact on those who were excluded.
In his reply, dated 9 February 2026, the Minister acknowledged the “profound impact” the pandemic had on individuals, families and businesses and expressed “sincere sympathy” for those who felt they were not adequately supported. He pointed to the ongoing UK Covid-19 Inquiry and said the Government would consider its findings carefully.
However, despite the debate in Parliament and the scale of harm still being reported, he declined the meeting request, stating he was “unable to accept your invitation to meet on this occasion due to diary constraints.”
For a community still living with the consequences, the message is stark: the issue may be acknowledged in writing, but direct engagement remains out of reach.
Despite the passage of time, huge negative impacts are still being felt. Financial devastation did not simply disappear when restrictions lifted. Businesses collapsed, savings were wiped out, debt accumulated, homes were lost, relationships fractured and for many, the mental strain has never eased.
One of those voices is Chris Scott, a Dundee photographer whose experience shows just how long the consequences endure.
Before the pandemic, Chris had invested more than ÂŁ80,000 renovating a studio as his wedding and events business expanded. He entered 2020 on course for his strongest year yet. Lockdowns brought that to an abrupt halt. After refunding cancelled weddings, a ÂŁ10,000 council grant left him with around ÂŁ2,000. When he applied for the Self-Employed Income Support Scheme, he was ruled ineligible: missing the threshold by just ÂŁ136 due to renovation costs from two years prior.
Chris challenged Keir Starmer live on LBC in November 2020, urging him to raise the issue with the Chancellor:
https://www.lbc.co.uk/article/labour-leader-excluded-chancellor-covid-financial-DWyktK_2/
Starmer did raise it at PMQs (12:15):
BBC Politics followed up:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p08y366p
Boris Johnson responded, committing to keep the issue on the agenda:
https://www.lbc.co.uk/article/chris-pmqs-keir-starmer-exluded-boris-johnson-DWym4H_2/
Politics UK also covered Chris’ story:
https://www.politics.co.uk/video/2021/01/15/absolutely-crippling-chris-scotts-story/
More recently, he contributed to STV coverage highlighting the lasting financial and mental toll still being felt across Scotland and the wider UK:
https://news.stv.tv/scotland/scots-workers-still-financially-and-mentally-crippled-from-lack-of-covid-support?
Locally, Chris also played a key role in ensuring Dundee City Council correctly allocated grant funding for close-contact businesses, with a last-hour decision reversal that secured extended support for those affected.
The issue has been debated in Parliament. Members of the Excluded community had been invited to give evidence before the UK Covid-19 Inquiry. Yet, six years on, the Treasury is still not prepared to sit down with those who were excluded nor with the Chair of the APPG set up to represent them.
Chris Scott, a lifelong SNP member, says he is deeply dismayed by the party’s absence on an issue that continues to devastate lives across Scotland. He notes that the strong and consistent advocacy once provided by Ian Blackford on behalf of the Excluded is now sorely missed. He describes it as both disappointing and galling that his local SNP representatives, Stephen Gethin and Chris Law, failed to confirm attendance at the recent Backbench Business Debate. A debate they would have been aware of as APPG members. No SNP MPs attended. Members from Labour, the Liberal Democrats and even the Conservatives spoke on behalf of their constituents.
For those campaigning in Scotland, the absence was met with deep disappointment and, Chris says, a sense of embarrassment that Scottish voices were missing from a debate of such importance.
Chris has made clear that he wants to understand this apparent lack of commitment and to gain reassurance that Stephen Gethin will take a more active role within the APPG going forward. He believes this is best addressed privately and respectfully, rather than raised during a public surgery. Earlier this week, another APPG meeting took place without either Stephen Gethin or Chris Law in attendance.
Six years on, those excluded from Covid support continue to wait not just for accountability, but for their representatives to show up.
The damage did not end in 2020. For many, it continues every day.
