Covid inquiry UK: Boris Johnson dismisses ‘absurd’ Partygate response and denies ‘let it rip’ approach to pandemic

The former prime minister, Boris Johnson, also claimed he avoided co-operating with the devolved administrations during the pandemic over “political friction” and to “avoid leaks”

Published 7th Dec 2023, 17:49 GMT Updated 7th Dec 2023, 17:51 GMT Boris Johnson[1] has dismissed the “absurd” response to ‘Partygate’ as he denied adopting a “let it rip” approach to the pandemic.

On his second day of evidence[2] before the UK Covid inquiry, the former prime minister insisted he was not “reconciled” to Covid deaths, despite claims as such from his former scientific advisers. Inquiry lead counsel Hugo Keith KC pressed Mr Johnson about the lockdown[3]-breaching parties that were held in Downing Street[4], which eventually led to Mr Johnson’s exit from Number 10 last year.

Protesters wait outside the UK Covid-19 Inquiry at Dorland House in London, where the former prime minister Boris Johnson was giving evidence.

Mr Johnson was presented with a WhatsApp message, dated December 17, 2021, that saw him tell Cabinet Secretary Simon Case: “In retrospect, we all should have told people – above all Lee Cain – to think about their behaviour in No.10 and how it would look. But now we must smash on.”

The former PM told the inquiry: “When I went into intensive care, I saw around me a lot of people who were not actually elderly. They were middle-aged men and they were quite like me. And some of us were going to make it, some of us weren’t.

“And what I am trying to tell you in a nutshell, the NHS – thank God – did an amazing job and helped me survive[5]. But I knew from that experience, what an appalling disease this is. “I had absolutely no personal doubt about that from March onwards.

To say that I didn’t care about the suffering that was being inflicted on the country is simply not right.” Mr Keith responded: “I have never suggested you didn’t care about the suffering. I suggested you didn’t care about the reaction to the behaviour.”

Appearing before Lady Hallett’s probe, Mr Johnson also complained about how the scandal[6] has been presented to the public. He said “the dramatic representations that we’re now having of this are absolutely absurd”. “I really want to emphasise, and you talk about the impression, the version of events that has entered the popular consciousness about what is supposed to have happened in Downing Street is a million miles from the reality of what actually happened in Number 10,” he said.

The former prime minister said he was speaking on behalf of “hundreds and hundreds of hard-working civil servants who thought that they were following the rules”, adding reports were “a travesty of the truth”. Mr Johnson also dismissed his use of the phrase “let it rip”, insisting it was just a phrase, rather than his Government’s approach as cases rose in September 2020. Diary extracts from Sir Patrick Vallance[7], the Government’s former chief scientific adviser, said Mr Johnson was “obsessed with older people accepting their fate and letting the young get on with life and the economy going”.

In another entry from October 2020, the top scientist said the then-prime minister was “obsessed with the average age of death being 82”. Later, in May 2021, Sir Patrick wrote: “PM meeting – Cx [Chancellor, then Rishi Sunak] suddenly pipes up on incentives already in place. Argues that we should let it rip a bit.”

Mr Johnson firmly denied the extracts represented a glimpse into a government that favoured no national lockdown “until the last possible moment” and instead backed a tiered system. Pointing to the “the accounts that you have culled from people’s jottings from meetings that I’ve been in”, he defended the measures taken by the Government. “I think, frankly, it does not do justice to what we did – our thoughts, our feeling, my thoughts, my feelings, to say that we were remotely reconciled to fatalities across the country or that I believed that it was acceptable to let it rip,” he said.

Mr Johnson said the “let it rip” phrase was in “common parlance” and that he was “representing the only layperson in the meeting”. The session also saw Mr Johnson claim he avoided co-operating with the devolved administrations during the pandemic over “political friction” and to “avoid leaks”. It followed evidence on Wednesday where the inquiry heard Mr Johnson was reluctant to meet the leaders of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, including Nicola Sturgeon[8], during the pandemic because he thought it would be like a “mini EU”.

Asked by Bethan Harris, on behalf of the Covid-19 Bereaved Families[9] for Justice Cymru, about communication, Mr Johnson claimed he didn’t trust everyone in the meetings. He said: “My considerations were – to be absolutely frank with the inquiry – the risk of pointless political friction and grandstanding because of the well-known opposition of some of the [devolved administrations] to the government – and also to avoid unnecessary leaks. “And I thought the way to minimise divergence and tensions – and you can quarrel with this judgment – was to take the temperature down, and to have business-like practical meetings between the [devolved administrations] and [the-then chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Michael Gove] … and I think, by and large, it was extremely effective”.

Mr Johnson did admit there had sometimes been “a dissonance in the message” when ideally there would have been “complete coherence”. The former Conservative Party leader said: “I think we had excellent communications across all of the DAs [devolved administrations]. And I think that the overall performance of the UK in the pandemic as a single entity was remarkable, and every part of the UK played an important part in the effort.

“If you look at it, there was a huge amount of joined up work going on across the whole country.” Mr Johnson also rejected a suggestion by his former chief of staff Lord Udny-Lister that he had “no real personal relationship” with then-first minister Ms Sturgeon[10]. Taking questions from Claire Mitchell KC, who represents the Scottish Covid Bereaved group, Mr Johnson said he had “no ill will whatsoever” with the former SNP leader.

He added: “When I have talked to her, we have got on very well and had a friendly relationship.”

References

1. ^ Boris Johnson (www.scotsman.com)
2. ^ evidence (www.scotsman.com)
3. ^ lockdown (www.scotsman.com)
4. ^ Downing Street (www.scotsman.com)
5. ^ me survive (www.scotsman.com)
6. ^ scandal (www.scotsman.com)
7. ^ extracts from Sir Patrick Vallance (www.scotsman.com)
8. ^ Nicola Sturgeon (www.scotsman.com)
9. ^ Covid-19 Bereaved Families (www.scotsman.com)
10. ^ Sturgeon (www.scotsman.com)