Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson is in the midst of his second day of questioning for the Covid-19 inquiry, and opened up about his experience with the virus for the first time.
Speaking of his time in hospital, he held back tears as he recalled he was around other ‘middle-aged men’ – some of whom ‘would make it’ and others who wouldn’t.
He added: ‘What I’m trying to tell you in a nutshell – and the NHS thank God did an amazing job and helped me survive – but I knew from that experience what appalling disease this is.’
Speaking on ethnic minorities affected during covid, Mr Johnson said: ‘They’ve put themselves in the frontline of danger in many cases and particularly sadly those from ethnic minority backgrounds paid a terrible price.’
Questioning resumed this morning and has focused on the decision making process in the late fall of 2020 and spring of 2021 for lockdown.
Notes in Sir Patrick Vallance’s diary also quoted Mr Johnson blaming high rates of Covid in Wales on ‘singing and obesity’.
Sir Patrick wrote: ‘Wales very high – PM says “It is the singing and the obesity… I never said that.”‘
He also spoke of the vaccination rollout, saying: ‘I remember vividly going to Northern Ireland in 2021 and seeing how very, very much faster vaccines were being rolled out in Northern Ireland than they were in – and I don’t think you will thank me for saying it – but I’ve got to say that they were over the border in the EU.’
When asked about the reported ‘high-handed, incommunicative approach by Westminster’ with communication across the UK, Mr Johnson said: ‘I don’t recognise that version of events.’
After telling the inquiry: ‘I don’t believe your evidence stacks up,’ Rt Hon Baroness Heather Carol Hallett DBE, presiding over the inquiry, appealed to the bereaved families of Covid victims in the gallery.
She said: ‘I know emotions are high but I have to ask the public gallery to stay quiet. I do understand but it has to stop.’
When asked by Mr Keith about his decision making process for lockdown in the spring of 2021, Mr Johnson said: ‘We couldn’t have made the decision earlier because the facts as we understood them were different.’
He later added: ‘Clearly if you make any decision too late, then there’s going to be a cost – in the case of covid in there’s a cost of human life.’
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Speaking about the Omicron variant, which emerged in November 2021, Mr Johnson said: ‘Omicron was absolutely terrifying, it was very transmissible and it seemed a real risk that it would do a huge amount of damage to a lot of people.’
Wearing a grey Grimsby Town Football Club beanie and coat over his suit, the 59-year-old was seen sneaking in while still dark outside as he clutched a wad of paperwork.
Boris Johnson once again arrived three hours early for his second day at the Covid inquiry.
The former prime minister opted for the same tactic on Wednesday morning and meant he avoided grief-stricken families of people who died of coronavirus.
Mr Johnson began yesterday by apologising for the ‘pain and loss’ families experienced but was briskly interrupted by protesters at the inquiry.
Four people had to be escorted out for heckling the ex-Tory leader and one later told reporters outside: ‘We didn’t want his apology.’
Kathryn Butcher, 59, who lost her sister-in-law to Covid, said: ‘When he tried to apologise we stood up. We didn’t block anybody. We were told to sit down.
‘We didn’t sit down straight away. One of us said stayed standing, so the rest of us came out in solidarity.’
Mr Johnson admitted that his government ‘underestimated’ the threat of the virus but said he was ‘not sure’ whether his decision-making had led to ‘materially’ a larger number of excess deaths.
Bereaved family members criticised Mr Johnson’s management from 2020 onwards and many echoed that his apology was ‘meaningless’.
Jane Basham, 61, whose sister Sandra died in January 2021 after contracting Covid, said she held him responsible for her sibling’s death aged 61.
Sandra Basham had been caring for older people in their homes near Dartford, Kent, before she was admitted to hospital, with Ms Basham adding her family did not see her because they were taking the virus seriously.
Ms Basham, of Ipswich, Suffolk, said: ‘His apology is meaningless to me, and many of us who are bereaved.
‘If Boris Johnson was truly sorry then he would have delivered a public inquiry when it was first requested and not forced a group of traumatised bereaved relatives to have to fight for it.
‘He would have shown humility and met the bereaved families who stand outside the inquiry every day rather than scuttling in before dawn.’
She added: ‘We didn’t know it then, but Sandra was doomed from the moment he dragged his heels on the second lockdown – he knew precisely how serious it was by then so there’s no excuses.
‘He ignored the science, showing utter disregard for people’s lives. I hold him responsible for Sandra’s death.’
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Mert Dogus, 21, whose father died of Covid, said that Mr Johnson ‘should be giving answers for some of his actions’ at the inquiry.
His father, cab driver Haci Ali Dogus, 49, died in March 2020, leaving behind his wife and two sons.
In response to Mr Johnson’s claims that the government’s decisions hadn’t led to more deaths, Mr Dogus said: ‘He can’t really say that. Boris waited, and he waited and waited and then obviously it spread a lot more and then it turned into this huge thing.
‘If you caught it whilst it was early, I think it wouldn’t have been as bad.’
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