Bereaved families are “in tears of anger and pain” following evidence from Dominic Cummings about the Government’s handling of the pandemic, a campaign group has said.

The Prime Minister’s former aide said ministers, officials, and advisers fell “disastrously short” of the standards that should be expected in a crisis.

He said Boris Johnson was more concerned about the impact on the economy than the need to curb the spread of the virus and save lives.

Covid-19 Bereaved Families For Justice, set up in the wake of the pandemic, said Wednesday was a “horrible, upsetting and bleak day for over 150,000 families across the country”.

In a statement on Twitter, the group said: “The evidence from Cummings is clear, that the government’s combination of grotesque chaos and uncaring flippancy is directly responsible for many of our loved ones not being with us today – and the refusal to have an urgent statutory inquiry risks others joining them.

“That this information is being unveiled in a pantomime-style spat between Cummings and Johnson, littered with independence day, Jeff Goldblum and spiderman references, is utterly inappropriate and makes this even more appalling.

“This spectacle is a million miles from that and has left many of the bereaved in tears of anger and pain today.

“The Government’s statutory inquiry now has to start immediately and include regular interim reporting.”

The organisation has been calling on the Government to release its internal “lessons learned” investigation into the handling of the pandemic.

The campaign group said “serious questions” need to be asked of those in power, adding that “waiting until next year means the information will simply be leaked in an insensitive and hurtful manner – and even worse, lead to more unnecessary deaths.”