Boris Johnson to face second day of questioning at COVID inquiry
Boris Johnson will face a second day of questioning at the COVID inquiry today following his five hour quizzing on Wednesday.
The former prime minister will return to the hearing having been booed by crowds of bereaved families as he left.
Partygate, a scandal over rule-breaching gatherings at No 10 during the pandemic that dogged Mr Johnson’s premiership, is expected to feature during today’s proceedings.
Victims’ families will also be given another chance to read out impact statements.
During yesterday’s evidence he admitted he should have “twigged much sooner” about the threat posed by COVID-19 in the early days of the pandemic, as he apologised for “the pain and the loss and the suffering” of its victims.
He also told the inquiry that:
- The government “underestimated the scale and pace of challenge” from COVID – thinking the peak would come in May or June;
- The tone of private WhatsApp exchanges was a “reflection of the agony” the country was going through;
- A denial he was on holiday over the half-term break in February 2020 – as claimed by former aide Dominic Cummings
- Mr Johnson explaining that he “can’t say” whether he would have “gone earlier” in ordering the first lockdown, but that he took “full responsibility” for the decisions made;
- The former prime minister offering an apology to sufferers of long COVID, having described the condition as “b*****ks” in 2021;
- He stood by Matt Hancock, saying the then health secretary did “a good job” whatever his “defects”.
The first day of the former prime minister’s evidence, which was hit by protests, saw him defending the culture in No 10 after it was branded “toxic” by other witnesses.
He rejected accusations he had shown poor leadership by vacillating over whether to back tough restrictions in the early months of 2020.
Former aides have blamed his tendency to waiver on key decisions in March of that year for delaying the lockdown.
But he argued it was his job to “test” the “completely novel policy”, adding: “It matters to the livelihoods of people up and down the land. I had to go through the arguments and that is what I was doing.”
Challenged over the slow response to the crisis, Mr Johnson said Whitehall “underestimated” the need for action, adding that it was only when he saw the “horrors” of the outbreak in Italy that he realised the seriousness of the virus.
He suggested the experience of previous diseases such as SARS, MERS and swine flu clouded officials’ judgment while a coronavirus pandemic was “outside our living experience”.
The former Tory leader defended his eventual decision to order England’s first lockdown on 23 March 2020, saying by the middle of that month he was giving arguments against restrictions “pretty short shrift”.
“I no longer had the luxury of waiting. It was over,” he told Baroness Heather Hallett’s probe.
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Johnson leaves to crowd of protesters
Mr Johnson appeared to become emotional as he discussed his “anxiety” about possible behavioural fatigue if he imposed a lockdown too early without a vaccination programme.
He looked on the verge of tears as he described 2020 as a “tragic, tragic” year.
Mr Johnson did not deny questioning why his government was “destroying everything for people who will die anyway soon”, but suggested the comment was not “designed to be publicly broadcast”.
“It’s an indication of the cruelty of the choice that we faced and the appalling balancing act that I had to do throughout the pandemic,” he said when asked about a note written by his former aide Imran Shafi which recorded that he had made the remark.
Read more:
Whatever Boris Johnson said, the evidence pointed to leadership failures
Key points from Boris Johnson’s evidence
Mr Johnson conceded, with hindsight, that mass gatherings should have been stopped earlier and he should not have shaken hands with patients at a hospital where there were coronavirus cases.
His appearance before the inquiry was interrupted by protesters as he began by issuing an apology to victims of the pandemic, with four people removed from the hearing room.
“Can I just say how glad I am to be at this inquiry and how sorry I am for the pain and the loss and the suffering of the COVID victims,” Mr Johnson said.
He went on to acknowledge that his government made “mistakes” and took “personal responsibility for all the decisions that we made”.
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Boris Johnson heckled by protesters
Among those decisions were the speed of the government’s response to the pandemic in 2020, the lockdown decisions and their timeliness, the explosion of the virus in the residential care sector, the Eat Out to Help Out scheme, and the decision not to introduce a circuit-breaker later in 2020.
Mr Johnson said that, with hindsight, “it may be possible to see things that we could have done differently”, but at the time “I felt… we were doing our best in very difficult circumstances”.
He claimed he was “not sure” whether government decision-making had led to “materially” a larger number of excess deaths as a result of the pandemic.
UK drivers are “confused” by the country’s electric car transition, ministers are being warned.
Although most drivers are not hostile towards electric vehicles (EVs), many are confused about what changes are coming and when, according to new research from the AA.
In a survey of more than 14,000 AA members, 7% thought the government was banning the sale of used petrol and diesel cars.
Around a third thought manual EVs exist, despite them all being automatic.
More than one in five said they would never buy an EV.
The government’s plan for increasing the number of electric vehicles being driven in the UK focuses heavily on increasing the supply of the vehicles.
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What you can do to reach net zero
In 2024, at least 22% of new cars and 10% of new vans sold by each manufacturer in the UK had to be zero-emission, which generally means pure electric.
Each year, those percentages will rise, reaching 80% of new cars and 70% of new vans in 2030.
Manufacturers will face fines of £15,000 per vehicle if electric vehicle sales fall short of 28% of total production this year.
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By 2035, all new cars and vans will be required to be fully zero emission, according to the Department for Transport.
Second-hand diesel and petrol cars will still be allowed to be sold after this date, and their fuel will still be available.
There are more EVs – but will people buy them?
In February, 25% of new cars were powered purely by battery and in January, they made up 21% of all new cars registered in the UK.
But despite the growth of electric sales, manufacturers continue to warn that the market will not support the growth required to hit government EV targets, and called for consumer incentives and the extension of tax breaks.
The AA suggested the government’s plan focuses on “supply but does little to encourage demand for EVs”.
It called on ministers to co-ordinate a public awareness campaign alongside the motoring industry which directly targets drivers who doubt the viability of EVs.
“Our message to government is more needs to be done to make EVs accessible for everyone,” said Jakob Pfaudler, AA chief executive.
Which? head of consumer rights Sue Davis said: “When it comes to making sustainable choices such as switching to an electric car, our research shows that people are often held back by high costs, complex choices or uncertainty.
“The government needs to provide the right information on electric vehicles and other sustainable choices so that people have the confidence to switch.”
A Department for Transport spokesperson said: “We’re investing over £2.3bn to help industry and consumers make a supported switch to EVs.
“This includes installing a public charge point every 28 minutes, keeping EV incentives in the company car tax regime to 2030, and extending 100% first-year allowances for zero-emission cars for another year.
“Second-hand EVs are also becoming cheaper than ever, with one in three available under £20,000 and 21 brand new models available for less than £30,000.
“We’re seeing growing consumer confidence as a result.”
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