People removed from COVID inquiry as Boris Johnson interrupted while saying ‘sorry for pain and suffering’
Boris Johnson was interrupted as he apologised for the “suffering” caused by the COVID pandemic.
Four people were subsequently removed from the hearing, where they had been in the public gallery holding up pictures.
Mr Johnson told the inquiry: “I am deeply sorry for the pain and loss and suffering.”
One protester held up a poster reading: “The dead can’t hear your apologies.”
Mr Johnson went on to say he hoped the inquiry was able to “get answers to those very difficult questions” victims and their families are “rightly asking”.
The evidence session also heard:
• The government “underestimated the scale and pace of challenge” from COVID – thinking the peak would come in May or June;
• The tone of the private WhatsApps was a “reflection of the agony” the country was going through;
• Mr Johnson takes “full responsibility” for decisions made;
• Mr Johnson only read Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) minutes “once or twice”
Watch a Sky News special on Johnson’s day of evidence at 9pm
The former prime minister was speaking on the first day of his appearance at the official COVID inquiry he set up in order to learn the lessons of the pandemic for the future.
He is the inquiry’s most highly anticipated witness and follows on from fellow politicians including former health secretary Matt Hancock, former deputy prime minister Dominic Raab and Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove.
The inquiry, which is now examining decision-making and political governance, began with Baroness Hallett raising issue with the briefings ahead of Mr Johnson’s appearance, arguing that a leak “undermines the inquiry’s ability to do its job fairly, effectively and independently”.
Mr Johnson will be questioned for two days about decisions he made which took the country into three national lockdowns.
‘Should things have been done differently? Unquestionably’
The former prime minister told Hugo Keith KC, lead counsel for the inquiry, that “unquestionably” mistakes were made by his government during the pandemic, adding that he took “responsibility for all the decisions that we made”.
Pressed on what mistakes he felt were made, Mr Johnson cited communications and the different messaging coming from the different governments in the UK.
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COVID families don’t want Johnson ‘waffle’
Mr Johnson also said he took responsibility for the speed of the government’s response to the pandemic, the lockdown decisions and their timeliness, the circulation of the virus in the residential care sector and the Eat Out to Help Out scheme.
He said he acknowledged that “so many people suffered, so many people lost their lives”, the government was “doing our best at the time, given what we knew, given the information I had available to me at the time, I think we did our level best”.
Mr Keith KC ten turned to questioning Mr Johnson on why he did not forsee the scale of destruction the the COVID pandemic would cause in early 2020, given that
Mr Johnson admitted that the wider government “underestimated” the threat posed by the virus, saying the “concept of a pandemic did not imply to the Whitehall mind the kind of utter disaster that COVID was to become”.
He said in the “early days of March”, government figures and officials “were all collectively underestimating how fast it had already spread in the UK”.
“We put the first peak too late, we thought it would be May/June – that was totally wrong. I don’t blame the scientists for that at all.
“That was the feeling and it just turned out to be wrong.”
Johnson questioned on 5,000 missing WhatsApps
In the days leading up the inquiry there were reports anticipating Mr Johnson’s apology and the fact that not all of his WhatsApps would be made available to the inquiry – with about 5,000 messages on his phone from January 30, 2020 to June 2020 missing.
Mr Johnson said he did not know the “exact reason” they were not located, but said it was” something to do with the app going down and then coming up again, but somehow automatically erasing all the things between that date when it went down and the moment when it was last backed up”.
Mr Keith said a technical report provided by the former prime minister’s solicitors suggested there may have been a factory reset on the phone at the end of January 2020 followed by an attempt to reinstall its contents months later in June – something Mr Johnson said he did not remember.
“Can I, for the avoidance of doubt, make it absolutely clear I haven’t removed any WhatsApps from my phone and I’ve given you everything that I think you need?” he said.
As well as politicians appearing before the inquiry, other figures that have given evidence include top scientists at the time – including Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty and former chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance – and Mr Johnson’s former chief adviser Dominic Cummings.
Mr Cummings has previously given evidence to the inquiry in which he described Downing Street as in a state of “complete chaos” and claimed that he urged Mr Johnson to remove Mr Hancock – whom he claimed “lied his way” through the pandemic.
Read more:
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Government had ‘challenging and competing characters’
Mr Keith told Mr Johnson that the WhatsApp messages that have been shown to the inquiry “paints an appalling picture, not all the time but at times, of incompetence and disarray”.
Mr Johnson argued that plenty of successful governments have “challenging and competing characters whose views about each other might not be fit to print but who get a lot done”.
Asked about comments he made in which he called Mr Hancock “totally f***** useless”, Mr Johnson replied: “My job was not uncritically to accept that everything we were doing was good. I do think that the country as a whole had notable achievements during the crisis.”
He admitted that while he was aware Mr Cummings had a “low opinion” of the health secretary, he thought Mr Hancock “worked very hard, he had defects, but I thought that he was doing his best in very difficult circumstances”.
A man was ejected from Anfield after reports of racial abuse directed at Bournemouth winger Antoine Semenyo during the season’s opening Premier League game against Liverpool.
Match referee Anthony Taylor paused play in the 29th minute after Semenyo accused a spectator of racist abuse.
An anti-discrimination message was read out to the Anfield crowd, and it is understood that police officers went into the referee’s room at half-time.
Merseyside Police said an investigation is under way after the 47-year-old man’s identity was confirmed and he was removed from the ground.
Chief Inspector Kev Chatterton, the match commander for the Liverpool v Bournemouth game, said: “Merseyside Police will not tolerate hate crime of any form.
“We take incidents like this very seriously, and in cases like this we will be proactively seeking football banning orders, with the club, against those responsible.”
He added: “There is no place for racism and it is vital that anyone who witnesses such an offence reports it to stewards, or the police immediately, so we can take the necessary action like we did this evening.
“As with all matches, we work very closely with both Liverpool and Everton FC to ensure the safety of the public, and the players.”
A spokesperson for Liverpool said the club was “aware of an allegation of racist abuse made during our Premier League game against Bournemouth”.
Semenyo with his teammates during the match. Pic: PA
The Liverpool spokesperson said: “We condemn racism and discrimination in all forms, it has no place in society, or football.
“The club is unable to comment further as tonight’s alleged is incident is the subject of an ongoing police investigation, which we will support fully.”
After the incident, Semenyo scored twice in the second half to help bring Bournemouth back from two goals down at Anfield before Liverpool went on to eventually win the contest 4-2.
Bournemouth captain Adam Smith told Sky Sports News afterwards: “It shouldn’t be happening. I don’t know how Ant’s played on to be honest and come up with those goals. It’s totally unacceptable.
“Something needs to be done. Taking the knee isn’t having an effect. We’re supporting him and hopefully he’ll be OK.
“I wanted him to react because that’s what I would have done, but this shows what type of man he is…to come up with those goals showed the type of guy he is.
“To be fair the Liverpool players were very supportive as well towards Antoine and the rest of the team. It was handled in the right way but… so angry.
“I don’t know what else we can do. No one’s getting it. I don’t know what to say anymore. I just feel for Ant… shocking.”
The Premier League said in a statement that its “on-field anti-discrimination protocol” had been followed and the incident “will now be fully investigated”.
“We offer our full support to the player and both clubs,” it added. “Racism has no place in our game, or anywhere in society. We will continue to work with stakeholders and authorities to ensure our stadiums are an inclusive and welcoming environment for all.”
Read more from Sky News:
Thousands more Afghans affected by second data breach – minister
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The Football Association said it was “concerned” about the allegation of racism towards Semenyo and that it would ensure “appropriate action” would be taken.
The incident comes two days after Tottenham Hotspur player Mathys Tel faced racist abuse online following a missed penalty in his team’s UEFA Super Cup victory over Paris Saint-Germain.
Thousands more Afghan nationals may have been affected by another data breach, the government has said.
Up to 3,700 Afghans brought to the UK between January and March 2024 have potentially been impacted as names, passport details and information from the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy has been compromised again, this time by a breach on a third party supplier used by the Ministry of Defence (MoD).
This was not an attack directly on the government but a cyber security incident on a sub-contractor named Inflite – The Jet Centre – an MoD supplier that provides ground handling services for flights at London Stansted Airport.
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July: UK spies exposed in Afghan data breach
The flights were used to bring Afghans to the UK, travel to routine military exercises, and official engagements. It was also used to fly British troops and government officials.
Those involved were informed of it on Friday afternoon by the MoD, marking the second time information about Afghan nationals relocated to the UK has been compromised.
It is understood former Tory ministers are also affected by the hack.
Earlier this year, it emerged that almost 7,000 Afghan nationals would have to be relocated to the UK following a massive data breach by the British military that successive governments tried to keep secret with a super-injunction.
Defence Secretary John Healey offered a “sincere apology” for the first data breach in a statement to the House of Commons, saying he was “deeply concerned about the lack of transparency” around the data breach, adding: “No government wishes to withhold information from the British public, from parliamentarians or the press in this manner.”
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July: Afghan interpreter ‘betrayed’ by UK govt
The previous Conservative government set up a secret scheme in 2023 to relocate Afghan nationals impacted by the data breach, but who were not eligible for an existing programme to relocate and help people who had worked for the British government in Afghanistan.
The mistake exposed personal details of close to 20,000 individuals, endangering them and their families, with as many as 100,000 people impacted in total.
Read more from Sky News:
Data breach victims sent spam emails
Afghan data leak timeline
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A government spokesperson said of Friday’s latest breach: “We were recently notified that a third-party sub-contractor to a supplier experienced a cyber security incident involving unauthorised access to a small number of its emails that contained basic personal information.
“We take data security extremely seriously and are going above and beyond our legal duties in informing all potentially affected individuals. The incident has not posed any threat to individuals’ safety, nor compromised any government systems.”
In a statement, Inflite – The Jet Centre confirmed the “data security incident” involving “unauthorised access to a limited number of company emails”.
“We have reported the incident to the Information Commissioner’s Office and have been actively working with the relevant UK cyber authorities, including the National Crime Agency and the National Cyber Security Centre, to support our investigation and response,” it said.
“We believe the scope of the incident was limited to email accounts only, however, as a precautionary measure, we have contacted our key stakeholders whose data may have been affected during the period of January to March 2024.”
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