Boris Johnson to Testify at Covid Inquiry for Second Day

After testifying at the Covid Inquiry on Wednesday, former Prime Minister Boris Johnson has returned to testify for the second day on Thursday. 

Chaired by Baroness Heather Hallett, the Covid-19 Inquiry was set up to scrutinise the UK’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic and assess its effects, aiming to glean insights for future situations.

Boris Johnson arrived early on Wednesday, in what was widely seen as an attempt to avoid protestors – including relatives of people who died of Covid-19.  In his testimony, he admitted that his government “underestimated” the gravity of the situation in the early days of the pandemic, and that he was later “bewildered” at the notion that the NHS may be overwhelmed.

“My memory now is that I think the scenes from Italy really rattled me,” he said. “I remember seeing a note somewhere saying that, you know, the fatality rate in Italy was 8% because they had an elderly population. I thought, well, my God, we’ve got an elderly population, this is appalling, and this can’t be – and my instinct was this cannot possibly be right, you know, this number.”

He added, “I look at all this stuff in which we seem so oblivious with horror now. I mean, we should have twigged, we should collectively have twigged much sooner, I should have twigged.”

He suggested that previous experience with pandemics with much lower death tolls than Covid-19 led to this lack of understanding.

“I think that when you read that an Asiatic pandemic is about to sweep the world, you’re — you think you’ve heard it before, and that was the problem,” Johnson said.

The Bereaved Families

Questioned about allegations that he said they were “destroying everything for people who will die anyway soon”, he replied that it was “an indication of the cruelty of the choice that we faced, and the appalling balancing act that I had to do throughout the pandemic”.  He further apologised for dismissing Long Covid – health issues persisting or developing after the initial Covid-19 infection – as ‘bollocks’.

His apology, which was briefly interrupted by protestors, was slammed as “hollow” by relatives of Covid-19 victims.

Following the Wednesday hearing, pressure group Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK stated, “Today we saw an exhibition of Johnson’s characteristics that failed us so badly during the pandemic. He was evasive and non-committal, claimed to be ‘unable to remember’ what happened to his WhatsApp messages and wouldn’t even accept his mistakes had led to excess deaths.

“This was not the conduct of a man who wanted lessons to be learnt, and his apology rang utterly hollow. It’s a painful reminder of his refusal to take Covid seriously in early 2020 and start preparing testing and other public health measures. His indecisiveness when he refused to lockdown, causing the NHS to become overwhelmed. And his failure to learn from his mistakes in the second wave, leading to an even larger death toll than in the first.”

The statement concludes, “Tomorrow [Thursday], after three years of campaigning to hold Johnson to account, the lawyers representing bereaved families will finally question him on our behalf. We will get to the truth about what happened, so that lessons can be learned and lives can be saved in the future. The memory of our loved ones demands it.”

The Covid-19 Inquiry continues.

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