“We were wrong on certain points. » The former British Prime Minister is interviewed this Wednesday as part of the public inquiry into Covid-19. Boris Johnson, widely criticized for his handling of the pandemic, apologized to the families of coronavirus victims.
“I am deeply sorry for the pain, loss and suffering” of these victims and their families, said Boris Johnson, in the introduction to this highly anticipated hearing. These apologies were, however, interrupted by four demonstrators saying “we don’t want his apology!” », before being kicked out of the room. Covid has killed more than 232,000 people in the United Kingdom.
A Prime Minister described as overwhelmed and indecisive
The former head of the conservative government said he took “personal responsibility” for the decisions taken at the time. “I think we did our best (…) in very difficult circumstances. (…) Are there things we should have done differently? Unquestionably.” He will have to answer difficult questions during this hearing scheduled to last two days, after strong criticism from former collaborators.
Since the hearings began in June, several advisers and scientists have described an overwhelmed, indecisive Prime Minister, with little concern for victims when the pandemic broke out in early 2020, and a divided and chaotic government. Did Boris Johnson take too long to impose a first confinement at the end of March 2020? Had he taken stock of the pandemic? Did he understand the science? Was he indifferent to the victims and especially the elderly?
“He let the bodies pile up”
“It was the wrong crisis for the Prime Minister’s skills,” Lee Cain, former director of communications at Downing Street, told the commission at the end of October, recounting a Boris Johnson pushing back decisions and constantly changing his mind, in based on the last person who spoke to him. A brilliant speaker, Boris Johnson, 59, quicker to hit the mark with humor than to respond with precision, has a lot to do to convince that at the start of 2020 he was the man for the job.
His apology has already been rejected by Aamer Anwar, the lawyer for a Scottish association of Covid victims, Scottish Covid Bereaved. “Instead of resolving the crisis,” Boris Johnson has “presided over a totally disgusting orgy of narcissism,” he told reporters outside the building where the hearing is taking place. “He let the bodies pile up and the elderly be treated like toxic waste,” he denounced. The one who himself almost died of Covid-19 in April 2020, was also forced to resign in July 2022 after scandals over illegal parties in Downing Street, in the midst of British confinement. And his management of the virus could have other consequences for the former Prime Minister.