2023-12-06T15:00:54+00:00
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/ Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, on Wednesday, defended the way his government dealt with the Covid-19 pandemic, saying that his government “got some things wrong” but did its best.
This came in testimony given by Johnson during an interrogation under oath in the investigation led by a judge about his reluctance to announce a comprehensive lockdown in early 2020 and other fateful decisions.
Johnson began his testimony by apologizing “for the pain, loss and suffering suffered by Covid victims,” but did not apologize for any of his decisions.
Four people stood in court as he spoke, holding placards reading “Dead people can’t hear your apologies,” before security personnel led them out of the courtroom.
“In trying to deal with a pandemic in which we had to weigh the horrific harms of our decisions, we may have made mistakes. We certainly got some things wrong. But I think we were doing the best we could at the time,” Johnson said.
Among those demanding answers during the inquiry are the families of more than 230,000 people in the UK who have died after contracting the virus. A group gathered outside the administrative building where the investigation was being conducted, and some of them carried pictures of their relatives. They raised a banner reading “Let the bodies pile up high” – a statement attributed to Johnson by an aide. Another banner read: “Johnson celebrates while people die.”
The Conservative Party, which was led by Johnson, ousted the Prime Minister in mid-2022 after multiple ethical scandals, including the revelation that he and his employees had organized parties at the Prime Minister’s residence at 10 Downing Street in 2020 and 2021, in violation of the lockdown restrictions imposed by the government.
Johnson’s image worsened as his former colleagues, aides and advisers testified during the weeks-long investigation.
Patrick Vallance, Britain’s former chief scientific adviser, said Johnson had no respect for science.
Vallance added, in his memoirs, which were considered evidence against Johnson, that the latter was “obsessed that the elderly must accept their fate.”
For his part, Dominic Cummings, Johnson’s former chief advisor and now a fierce opponent, said that the Prime Minister asked scientists about the possibility of killing the virus by placing a hair dryer in the nose.
The United Kingdom has seen one of the highest coronavirus-related death rates in Europe, with the virus killing more than 232,000 people.