Boris Johnson asked if government ‘believes in long COVID’, coronavirus inquiry hears
Boris Johnson described long COVID as “b*******”, the inquiry into the pandemic in the UK has heard.
A document from October 2020 described the symptoms of the condition, beside which the then prime minister wrote “b*******” and “this is Gulf War Syndrome”.
Mr Johnson repeated similar remarks in a WhatsApp message four months later, the UK COVID-19 Inquiry heard.
In February 2021, Mr Johnson wrote: “Do we really believe in long COVID? Why can’t we hedge it more? I bet it’s complete Gulf War Syndrome stuff.”
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COVID ‘chaos’ at No 10
Professor Chris Brightling, professor of respiratory medicine, and Dr Rachael Evans, clinical associate professor and honorary consultant respiratory physician, both at the University of Leicester, said they were disappointed the condition was apparently dismissed at such a high level.
Giving evidence on Friday, Prof Brightling said: “I’m deeply saddened and extremely angry at the same time.
“There are people in this room, there are people who are watching who have either suffered with long COVID themselves or their loved ones had long COVID, and I would be surprised if there are people in this room who do not at least know somebody who’s had long COVID.”
He went on to question whether Mr Johnson was saying “b******* to the science”, which he said was “clearly wrong because the science was already quite compelling that this was a problem”.
Prof Brightling added: “Is it b******* to the patients because he actually didn’t really feel that they deserved a voice?”
Prof Brightling said the comments and the fact Mr Johnson’s view appeared not to change as the pandemic progressed was “yet another unbelievable thing that happened”.
He added: “We don’t know how much this influenced the activity from government, and what government then did. But you would expect if the prime minister’s view was such it may well have had an influence on other people in government.”
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Mr Johnson and his wife Carrie
‘Shocking and just beyond disappointing’
Dr Evans said the condition is “a very real phenomenon”.
Asked for her reaction to Mr Johnson’s words, she said: “It’s shocking and just beyond disappointing, and I still feel very emotive when you see it because obviously we’ve got people here, as Chris has said, that are living through this absolutely dreadful illness.”
She added: “To see that your own prime minister has written something like that, I just can’t begin to think how people living through it feel.
“And actually, as clinicians and researchers, we were already feeding back very clear descriptions of what this illness looked like, even if we didn’t know exactly what was causing it and all the rest of it. It was a very real and is a very real phenomenon.”
Anthony Metzer KC, speaking on behalf of Long COVID Kids, Long COVID SOS and Long COVID Support, previously told the inquiry Mr Johnson initially “denied the truth” of the suffering of long COVID patients.
He said: “The UK’s senior-most decision-makers were dismissing, diminishing and disbelieving the very existence and risk of long COVID.”
Mr Johnson with his cabinet secretary Simon Case in May 2022
‘PM meetings aren’t working’
The inquiry also released an undated draft report containing responses from over 45 people predominantly working closely in Number 10 and the Cabinet Office who were asked about what problems had occurred and what could be done better.
The document said there were “some universal themes”, including: “PM meetings aren’t working”, “Decisions are never final” and “We have a hundred actions and no plan”.
Staff were also “exhausted and stressed”, the document added. It said: “‘No one listens to anyone else’. Views ignored. Bad behaviour from senior leaders tolerated. Too much politics (small p).”
It also noted: “No 10 always at war with someone. Everyone wants to be in the room with the PM.
“Lots of people (including those who had talked over junior women) mentioned junior women being talked over or ignored.”
Politics
US ambassador to Israel calls cabinet minister ‘delusional’ for claim UK played key role in Gaza peace deal
The US ambassador to Israel has called cabinet minister Bridget Phillipson “delusional” after she told Sky News the UK played a key role in the Gaza peace deal.
The education secretary told Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips that Sir Keir Starmer’s presence at a signing ceremony for the ceasefire deal in Egypt on Monday “demonstrates the key role that we have played”.
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She did not say exactly what the UK’s role in the ceasefire, largely attributed to Donald Trump, is or was.
But she added: “We have played a key role behind the scenes in shaping this.
“It’s right that we do so because it’s in all of our interest, including our own national interest, that we move to a lasting peace in the region.
“These are complex matters of diplomacy that we are involved in. But we do welcome and recognise the critical role that the American government played in moving us to this point.”
However, the US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, reposted the Sky News clip of Ms Phillipson’s comments and said: “I assure you she’s delusional.
“She can thank Donald Trump anytime just to set the record straight.”
Mr Huckabee was part of the negotiating team for the peace deal, with Mr Trump calling the former Arkansas governor “AMAZING” as he said he “worked so hard, and did so much, to bring about peace in the Middle East”.
In August, Mr Huckabee said the UK and other European nations who said they would declare a Palestinian state were “having the counterproductive effect that they probably think that they want”.
Israel: UK did not play key role in peace deal
Israel’s deputy foreign affairs minister, Sharren Haskell, told Sky News the UK played “the opposite” of a key role in the peace deal after the Palestinian state declaration, which eventually happened in September.
She accused the PM’s initial threat “at a very sensitive time” in July of having “pushed Hamas to embolden their position and to refuse a ceasefire two months ago”.
“I think that right now, the quiet that was given during the negotiation, and to President Trump, had probably played a bigger role than what the government had done two months ago,” she said.
“The message that the UK government has sent Hamas was the message that: the longer they continue this war, they will be rewarded.
“I mean, you must understand that when a terrorist organisation is thanking you. You are on the wrong side of history.”
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Final preparations for hostages in Israeli hospital
Ms Phillipson stood by the decision to declare a Palestinian state, saying it was “the right thing to do”.
Husam Zomlot, the Palestinian ambassador to the UK, told Sky News it was a “moment of leadership” for the UK to declare a Palestinian state, and a “responsibility to begin to correct a century of the gravest historic injustices committed against our people”.
He added: “That moment three weeks ago, when the UK did recognise, is a moment when we can say that the wheels of history are turning in a different direction.”
No plans for British troops on the ground
The education secretary also told Sky News the government has “no plans” to put British troops into Israel or Gaza as part of a stabilisation force after the ceasefire.
The US military will help establish a multinational force in Israel, known as a civil-military coordination centre, which is likely to include troops from Egypt, Qatar, Turkey and the UAE.
Tens of thousands of Palestinians have walked back to Khan Younis in southern Gaza. Pic: AP
On Friday, US officials said up to 200 US troops already based in the Middle East will be moved to Israel to help monitor the ceasefire in Gaza.
The day before, President Trump announced Israel and Hamas had “signed off on the first phase” of a peace plan he unveiled last week.
Pic: Reuters
Aid trucks have been gathering in Egypt to cross into Gaza after months of warnings by aid groups of famine in parts of the territory.
In Israel, the remaining hostages are due to be returned from Gaza by Hamas on Monday under the first phase of the peace plan. Twenty are believed to still be alive, 26 have been declared dead, while the fate of two is unknown.
The ceasefire agreement has been made two years after Hamas stormed Israel on 7 October 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages.
Israel’s military offensive has killed more than 67,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, which the UN deems reliable.
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