Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson is set to face a two-day questioning period at the Covid inquiry in order to defend his handling of the pandemic. It is expected that he will apologise for the mistakes that his government made during the pandemic. However, sources close to Mr Johnson have told the BBC that he will also argue he made big calls that ultimately saved lives.
Former colleagues who worked with Johnson during the pandemic have criticised him heavily. For example, his ex-director of communications, Lee Cain, said the pandemic was the “wrong crisis” for Johnson’s “skill set”, and the former chief scientific adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance, said Johnson was “bamboozled” by scientific data.
Nonetheless, there are figures at the centre of the UK’s response who have defended the former prime minister and his style of government. Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove has disputed claims that Johnson was “incapable of making decisions” about lockdowns and said that Johnson preferred “gladiatorial decision-making”. Similarly, former health secretary Matt Hancock said that Boris Johnson’s former chief adviser, Dominic Cummings, had created a “toxic” culture at the heart of government that undermined its pandemic response.
Mr Johnson will now have the chance to put his version of events on the record at the Covid inquiry. Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK hopes to see the ex-prime minister challenged “on clear falsehoods” during his testimony. The inquiry has requested all official communications regarding decision-making during the first lockdown, but Mr Johnson has been unable to provide any WhatsApp messages from February to June 2020.
Labour shadow cabinet minister Nick Thomas-Symonds criticised Johnson for his missing communications, saying that it was “typical and will be deeply disappointing” for bereaved families who “deserve nothing less than full disclosure”. However, Johnson’s spokesperson has denied that the former prime minister had deleted any messages and suggested that the Times report about the missing messages referred to a technical issue
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