Here is the timeline of how the Indian variant was discovered in the UK. What Nadhim Zahawi saidBBC's Andrew Marr: When did you first know the Indian variant was transmitting around this country? April 1: Indian variant declared 'under investigation' in UKPublic Health England declared Indian variant B.1.617.1 a “variant under investigation”. While this was not “the” Indian variant (which is actually B.1.617.2), the two are very closely related. This difference between .1 and .2 is how ministers are managing to claim “the” Indian variant hadn’t been flagged by this point.

Source: Daily Mirror May 30, 2021 13:50 UTC