Former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson came at a public hearing on Wednesday, where he is anticipated to be quizzed about his government’s response to the COVID-19 outbreak.
Johnson, who has been chastised by former aides for his indecisiveness and lack of scientific understanding during the pandemic, is likely to admit that he “unquestionably made mistakes” at the two-day inquiry in London.
The former British prime minister arrived three hours early for the proceedings, which are scheduled to begin at 1000 GMT.
By mid-July 2021, about 130,000 individuals had died from COVID in the UK, making it one of the worst official per capita deaths among Western nations.
Johnson appears poised to contend that the decisions he made saved hundreds of thousands of lives, according to the Times, citing an unpublished draft statement.
‘Bamboozled’
The Times said he would argue he had a “basic confidence that things would turn out alright” on the “fallacious logic” that previous health threats had not proven as catastrophic as feared.
However, he is anticipated to claim that the administration achieved its major goal of keeping the state-run health sector from becoming overwhelmed by making the “right decisions at the right times.”
He would also claim that, despite the country’s high death toll, the epidemic “ended the pandemic well down the global league table of excess mortality.”
According to The Times, Johnson has evaluated 6,000 pages of evidence and spent hours speaking with attorneys after resigning in part because to revelations about lockdown-breaking parties in Downing Street.
He can expect to be questioned about his belief that the government was initially complacent about the pandemic, despite evidence that a more proactive strategy was required.
He will also have to explain why he chose March 23, 2020, as the date for the first UK lockdown, which some top ministers, officials, and scientific advisers now say was too late.
Johnson is anticipated to argue that shutting down the country went against all of his personal and political impulses after being treated in hospital intensive care for COVID early in the outbreak.
But he had no choice since “ancient and hallowed freedoms were in conflict with the community’s health.”
Johnson’s grasp of expert advice is expected to be called into question when his former chief scientific officer, Patrick Vallance, stated that the former premier was frequently “bamboozled” by statistics.
Comments about lockdowns and the death toll, including a claim that Johnson suggested the elderly might be allowed to die because they had “had a good innings”, could also be raised.
Johnson has denied claims he said he would rather “let the bodies pile high” than impose another lockdown.
Hesitations?
When giving evidence at the inquiry, Johnson’s former senior adviser Dominic Cummings and communications chief Lee Cain both criticized their former boss.
Cummings described a “low point” in Johnson’s career as “a guy blowing a special hairdryer up his nose ‘to kill Covid’.”
Cain claimed that Covid was the “wrong crisis” for Johnson’s skill set, and that he became “exhausted” dealing with the problem due to his apparent hesitation and oscillation.
“He’s somebody who would often delay making decisions, would often seek counsel from multiple sources and change his mind on issues,” Cain said.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who was Johnson’s finance minister during the pandemic, is due to be questioned at the inquiry in the coming weeks.