TOP lawmakers are demanding the UK government launch a probe into the origins of Covid after The Sun’s documentary on the lab leak scandal.

As Britain marks five years since the Covid pandemic was declared, an exclusive documentary by The Sun reveals the experts, scientists and investigators who believe the virus was caused by a lab leak.

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The Wuhan Institute of Virology has been at the centre of the storm over the origins of Covid[/caption]

AFP

The Sun’s new documentary reveals experts, scientists and investigators believe the virus was caused by a lab leak at Wuhan’s ­Institute of Virology[/caption]

AFP

NHS staff wearing PPE in the intensive care unit at Royal Papworth Hospital in Cambridge, May 2020[/caption]

It takes us to heart of the origins of Covid and explores whether China was trying to cover up the creation of a biological weapon by blaming the pandemic on a wet food market 17 miles away.

While US Congress revealed a lab leak is the most likely cause of the pandemic and German’s foreign intelligence says the evidence shows the same, the UK has not yet launched any probe into the origins.

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Watch The Covid Files: Inside the Wuhan lab leak on our YouTube channel here

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Former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith blasted governments for being “frightened” of investigating the issue.

As the UK Covid-19 Inquiry grinds on for its third year, Sir Iain told The Sun: “The one question we should be asking is, how in hell’s name did this happen in the first place?”

And Lord David Alton said the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) should be held to account for the Covid pandemic.

He told The Sun: “That belief has been re-enforced by the mounting evidence of culpability.”

Lord Alton blasted Western leaders for “pandering to the CCP rather than demanding accountability” – and joined calls for PM Keir Starmer to launch a probe into the origins.

Tory MP Esther McVey said a UK-led independent investigation should be “an upmost priority”.

She told The Sun: “I’m mystified no one has looked into this so far. Now is the right time.

“When you look at the scale of the damage it’s caused to the world, of course we need an independent inquiry into what happened. If we don’t know the source of the last one, how can we be prepared?

“It is essential that the British government get to the bottom of how it came about.”

Years after a pandemic was declared, the world still has no answers about the origins of the virus that has left more than seven million people dead.

The CIA, FBI and the US Department of Energy have all backed a lab leak as the most likely explanation – with many pointing the finger at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

China‘s Wuhan lab has been at the centre of the storm since Covid emerged just miles from the facility – which was famous for its research on bat coronaviruses.

China’s ability to ignore rules has led to millions dying. There needs to be some accountability here… there’s almost a sort of official ignorance about it

Sir Iain Duncan Smith

Many believe Covid – which had signs of genetic engineering – leaked from the US-funded lab during risky virus tests.

But China has refused to cooperate with any full-scale probe into the origins – leaving the world still searching for the truth.

Sir Iain, MP for Chingford and Woodford Green, told The Sun: “China’s ability to ignore rules has led to millions dying. There needs to be some accountability here. And there has been none.

“It’s peculiar. This is a case of a terrible disease, responsible for the deaths of very many people.

“And yet there’s almost a sort of official ignorance about it. There’s a desire not to know anything that went on beyond our boundaries.

“It was just governments were frightened of raising it and didn’t want it to go anywhere.”

When you look at the scale of the damage it’s caused to the world, of course we need an independent inquiry into what happened

MP Esther McVey

When Australia called on China to launch a full inquiry into where the virus came from, the country was slapped with punishing tariffs, Sir Iain said.

He claimed Australia was “left to take the brunt of this”.

“Any time anybody talks about this, any country talks about it, China cracks down on them,” Sir Iain said.

Although Britain launched the UK Covid-19 Inquiry in June 2022, it has barely scratched the surface on the question of the origins.

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Iain Duncan Smith said China’s ‘ability to ignore rules has led to millions dying’[/caption]

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Esther McVey said a UK-led independent investigation into the origins should be ‘an upmost priority’[/caption]

AFP

Our documentary also explores whether China was trying to cover up the creation of a biological weapon by blaming the pandemic on a wet market 17 miles away[/caption]

The Sun/Max Molyneux

Former Congressman Brad Wenstrup, who chaired the committee investigating the origins of Covid, and The Sun’s Imogen Braddick in Ohio[/caption]

It has delved into the response and impact of the pandemic in a bid to learn lessons for the future.

But Sir Iain said questions should be asked about how the pandemic even happened in the first place.

He added: “We are meandering on through the pointlessness of their questions. And the one question we should have been asking is, how in hell’s name did this happen in the first place?

“This inquiry doesn’t want to ask that – which does seem bizarre.

“China basically controlled all of the story about this. They’ve shut the book… and nobody’s allowed to look at this at all. Nobody’s allowed to ask questions.”

China basically controlled all of the story about this. They’ve shut the book… and nobody’s allowed to look at this at all. Nobody’s allowed to ask questions

Sir Iain Duncan Smith

Sir Iain blasted the UK government for “trying to do more and more business with China and deeper links”.

China is Britain’s fifth-largest trading partner – and invests significant sums in our universities.

Sir Iain said: “You can see why politicians are saying, ‘oh, let’s not go there’. They don’t want to upset China. Normally, you would want to interrogate this.

“A disease that killed millions of people, and we’re not allowed to ask about how it happened?”

Speaking about The Sun’s new documentary The Covid Files: Inside the Wuhan lab leak scandal, he said: “They’re important because they stir the debate up again.

“The fact is that there is still an unanswered question. Why do people not want to know?

“It means next time around, we’ll probably repeat the same mess.”

Sir Iain said he would keep raising the issue as it “demonstrates the danger of China to everybody”.

“They behave as though no rule applies to them whatsoever,” he said.

Lord Alton highlighted the bravery of Zhang Zhan, a Chinese journalist who went to Wuhan “to ask all the difficult questions about the origins of Covid” – and was jailed for doing so.

I think it is a disgrace that so little has been done

Bob SeelyFormer Conservative MP

He said: “Her courage stands in stark contrast to the silence of so many Western government officials who spend their lives pandering to the CCP rather than demanding accountability for the deaths of more than seven million people – and probably many more that were undocumented.”

Former Conservative MP Bob Seely said that The Sun’s documentary “completely shows why the Wuhan lab leak theory is now the most plausible explanation for Covid”.

He said: “I think it is a disgrace that so little has been done.”

Before Covid emerged in Wuhan, there were a very limited number of laboratories in the world working on coronaviruses.

One of these was the Wuhan Institute of Virology – located just 40 minutes from the wet market where some of the first Covid cases emerged.

DRASTIC, an international team of scientists and sleuths investigating Covid’s origins, found that the lab had an extensive collection of bat coronaviruses – immediately raising concerns about a potential lab leak.

Led by Chinese scientist Shi Zhengli – dubbed “Batwoman” for her work on bat coronaviruses -they hunted for SARS-like viruses, hoping to identify pathogens in the wild which could pose a risk to humanity in the future.

The researchers identified hundreds of new bat coronaviruses by catching bats in caves, taking samples from them and then shipping the samples back to Wuhan lab – thousands of miles away.

There, the lab has a published record of souping up viruses to make them more dangerous in order to understand pandemic pathogens and how they work – also known as gain-of-function research.

It involves experiments that make already dangerous viruses more virulent or transmissible.

Western government officials… spend their lives pandering to the CCP rather than demanding accountability for the deaths of more than seven million people – and probably many more that were undocumented

Lord David Alton

By late 2019, when the pandemic broke out, Shi’s team had created a dozen or so “chimeric” viruses – by swapping and stitching ingredients to test which bat coronaviruses could infect humans.

This so-called “gain-of-function” research is controversial and banned in many countries – including the United States under Barack Obama.

Following the pandemic, many scientists and biosafety experts called for a global ban on this type of research.

Yet others believe it’s necessary to help prevent the next pandemic.

Jamie Metzl, a WHO adviser who worked under Biden, said the “entire world must demand absolute transparency from the Chinese government”.

He said China “has done everything possible to block any meaningful international investigation into the origins issue”.

“This aggressive malfeasance puts the entire world at risk,” he added.

The former adviser – who has been vocal on the possibility of a lab leak – called for “a comprehensive and unfettered investigation into the origins issue”.

The Sun/Max Molyneux

The Sun’s Imogen Braddick and US Right to Know’s investigative reporter Emily Kopp in Washington[/caption]

The Sun/Max Molyneux

Imogen Braddick and Justin Goodman from White Coat Waste Project[/caption]