Boris Johnson suggested he thought COVID was ‘nature’s way of dealing with old people’
Boris Johnson suggested he saw COVID as “nature’s way of dealing with old people” and was “obsessed” with them accepting their fate, the inquiry into the pandemic has heard.
During a hearing on Tuesday, notes were shared from the government’s former chief scientist describing a “bonkers set of exchanges”.
Sir Patrick Vallance wrote in one of his notebooks in August 2020 that Mr Johnson was “obsessed with older people accepting their fate and letting the young get on with life and the economy going. Quite bonkers set of exchanges”.
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Another note from Sir Patrick in December 2020 suggested the then prime minister agreed with Tory MPs that COVID was “nature’s way of dealing with old people”.
Sir Patrick wrote: “PM told he has been acting early and the public are with him (but his party is not). He says his party ‘thinks the whole thing is pathetic and Covid is just Nature’s way of dealing with old people – and I am not entirely sure I disagree with them. A lot of moderate people think it is a bit too much’. Wants to rely on polling.”
The messages were shared during the evidence session of Lee Cain – Mr Johnson’s former director of communications.
He told the inquiry that the former prime minister was indecisive over whether or not to impose a circuit-breaker lockdown in September 2020 because it was “very much against what’s in his political DNA”.
Mr Cain said his own research led him to believe that the public mood was more cautious, contrary to that of the Tory Party.
Counsel to the inquiry Andrew O’Connor asked: “And was this one of the factors that underpinned the prime minister’s indecision later in 2020, September/October time, whether or not to have a circuit-breaker lockdown?”
Mr Cain said: “Yes…he felt torn where the evidence on one side and public opinion and scientific evidence was very much caution, slow – we’re almost certainly going to have to do another suppression measure, so we need to have that in mind – where media opinion and certainly the rump of the Tory party was pushing him hard (in) the other direction.”
The session also heard:
- Mr Cain thought Mr Johnson was the “wrong” prime minister for COVID as he “oscillated” on key issues;
- His inability to make a decision was described as “exhausting”;
- A lack of diversity in Johnson’s top team led to the “wrong decision” on certain policies, including free school meals;
- “Indecision” was a theme in Downing Street – and it took 11 days to implement a lockdown from deciding there needed to be one.
Johnson ‘in Jaws mode’ before announcing lockdown
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Cummings says PM was known as a ‘trolley’
Other messages shared at the session revealed Mr Johnson was “melting down” and going into “Jaws Mode” in the week before the UK’s first national lockdown.
The hearing heard that a crunch meeting on 14 March saw key government figures agree that a lockdown was needed – but one was not implemented until 10 days later.
In between that time, texts show Mr Johnson’s former top aide Dominic Cummings venting about the then prime minister returning to “Jaws mode” – a reference to the mayor in the Spielberg film who wanted to keep the beaches open.
The messages to Mr Cain on 19 March while Mr Cummings was in a meeting with Mr Johnson read: “Get in here he’s melting down.
“Rishi saying bond markets may fund our debt etc. He’s back to Jaws mode w****.
“I’ve literally said same thing 10 f****** times and he still won’t absorb it.
“I’m exhausted just talking to him and stopping the trolley.
“I’ve had to sit here for two hours just to stop him saying stupid s**t.”
Messages shared at the COVID inquiry between Dominic Cummings and Lee Cain
Cummings says ‘everyone called PM a trolley’
Mr Cummings, who was called to give evidence after Mr Cain, claimed that Mr Johnson was described as an indecisive “trolley” by “pretty much everyone” as defended the use of his expletives.
He apologised for another message in which he called ministers “useless f***pigs, morons, c****” but said if anything his language only “understated the position, as events showed in 2020”.
Mr Cain said he would not use some of the language Mr Cummings used – including calling the Cabinet Office “terrifyingly s***, but conceded there was “chaos” in government when COVID started to spread and the pandemic was the “wrong crisis for this prime minister’s skillset”.
He said: “It required quick decisions and you need people to hold the course and have that strength of mind to do that over a sustained period of time and not constantly unpick things because that’s where the problems lie.”
Johnson ‘failed to recognise tsunami of death’
It comes a day after the inquiry heard evidence from Martin Reynolds, the civil servant dubbed “Party Marty” due to his role in the partygate scandal.
The hearing revealed Mr Johnson’s closest advisers sent despairing messages about his apparent indecision at the height of the pandemic, with one venting that he “cannot lead” and was making government “impossible.
Deborah Lewis, the founder of a group for bereaved COVID families, said hearing about government failures during the inquiry is making it hard to “get closure” and move on.
She said when Mr Johnson appears before the inquiry he will need to answer “why he failed to recognise the tsunami of death that was heading towards us and why he didn’t take it seriously in the first place.”
She told Sky News: “We need to know why (the government) did that. Why were all of our loved ones not protected in the way they should have been by our government? “
UK
Mohamed al Fayed ‘carried Viagra’ and ‘cherry picked’ women from Harrods shop floor, ex-employee claims
A former member of the Harrods management team has told how Mohamed al Fayed would “cherry pick” women from the shop floor.
Speaking to Sky News anonymously, the woman described the billionaire, who died last year aged 94, as “demonic” and said he “controlled everything with fear”.
Lawyers representing 37 alleged victims of sexual abuse at the hands of Fayed branded him a “monster” who was “enabled by a system that pervaded Harrods” at a news conference on Friday.
The former employee of the luxury department store, which the Egyptian businessman took control of in 1985, worked at Harrods at the height of his power.
“We were all told Harrods is the greatest place on Earth – but he controlled everything with fear,” she said.
“The power dynamic was so strong, in the blink of an eye you would lose your career and they would try and destroy you. It was this dark psychological trap and everybody was caught.”
She said she heard stories Fayed, known to staff as “the chairman”, would grope people although she was never a victim herself.
Harrods department store in London. Pic: AP
“The chairman would walk around the store and he would cherry pick people from the shop floor, if you had blond hair and brown eyes you were favoured,” she said.
“He used to say, ‘I want that one up in my office now’. He used to carry Viagra around in his pocket, and people were so scared of his ‘floor walks’ – if you weren’t smiling enough you were in the shit, if you smiled too much you were also in the shit.”
Read more: Egyptian tycoon was never far from controversy
The ex-employee, who worked at Harrods in her first job after leaving university, said when women were called to Fayed’s office they “couldn’t say no”.
“I would sit her down and I would say I need to let you know what you are walking into,” she said.
“It’s suddenly a pay rise, and you’ll be invited to expensive events and lavished with expensive gifts but really you need to be aware of something.
“I said you will get invited to Park Lane, and parties where there will be lots of rich men, and you would be invited to sleep with people.”
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She said she was once asked to see Fayed in his lounge-like office where he was wearing his slippers and said: “When are you going to come up and work for me here?”
The woman said she told him she did not want to work there and went back to her normal job.
“Afterwards he would smile at me and was courteous but then I started getting extra money in my pay packet. I went to the pay office and they said it’s a bonus for what you are doing. It didn’t last long but it happened just after he’d asked to meet him.”
The woman said she now feels “really conflicted” as she was “vulnerable too”.
“It was my first job leaving university. It leaves me feeling angry that we put up with things in that generation, that was our norm,” she added.
Harrods has said in a statement it is “utterly appalled” by the allegations of abuse and apologised to Fayed’s alleged victims.
The department store has also set up a page on its website inviting former employees to come forward if they have allegations.
A body has been found in the search for a missing hospital chaplain who starred in a Channel 4 documentary.
Katherine Watson, 50, was last seen in the Heaton Road area of Newcastle, at about 1pm on Thursday and Northumbria Police had become “increasingly concerned” for her welfare.
But after “extensive searches”, the force said a body had been found in the Jesmond Dene area of the city. Although formal identification has yet to take place, “it is believed to be Katherine”, they added.
“Her next of kin have been made aware and are being supported by specially-trained officers,” it said.
“This is an incredibly sad outcome and our thoughts are with Katherine’s loved ones at this difficult time. We will continue to support them in any way we can and we ask that their privacy is respected.”
Also known as Reverend Captain Katie Watson, she joined the army in her late teens, serving in Bosnia in the 1990s and as part of the Royal Military Police.
“Once you have seen genocide first-hand on the streets of a European country, there is nothing left in the world that can faze you after that,” she told the Church Times in 2022, as the Geordie Hospital documentary was first aired on Channel 4.
“I have seen the worst of humanity and I have seen, and continue to see, the very best of it.”
Ms Watson worked at the Newcastle-Upon-Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust for more than 16 years and was made head of chaplaincy in 2020.
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Channel 4’s documentary Geordie Hospital was a six-part series that filmed hospital staff through a shift, featuring a cast including porters, surgeons, dental nurses and chaplains.
Speaking about her role in the show, Ms Watson said: “We only have two things to offer, the gifts of time and presence, but we give them whole-heartedly.”
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There was an outpouring of support online for Ms Watson following the news she was missing.
“She baptised our baby boy when he passed away at birth and presided over his funeral,” one person wrote on X. “She’s such a wonderful person who gave us unwavering support through our darkest hours.”
Another said: “The compassion and care you gave me and my family when our mum passed last year was a tremendous blessing and support.”
Sir Keir Starmer will no longer accept donations in the future to pay for clothes, Sky News understands.
Rachel Reeves and Angela Rayner also announced they would take the same approach moving forward.
The decision by the prime minister, chancellor and deputy prime minister follows scrutiny of Sir Keir Starmer and his wife for accepting donations.
The prime minister has accepted work clothing donations worth £16,200, and multiple pairs of glasses, to the value of £2,485.
According to the MP register of interests, Ms Rayner has accepted clothing donations too, to the value of £2,230.
Sky News understands that in June, the deputy prime minister also received a donation by Lord Waheed Alli, a television executive who has donated to Labour over the last 20 years, of £3,550.
The donation was registered but its nature, now understood to be work clothing, was not published.
Sky News understands that since the backlash over the freebies, the registrar was contacted to ensure the donation was published with all the necessary details.
The chancellor has not accepted any such donations, according to the MPs’ register of interests.
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Nigel Farage has called out the PM for accepting free gifts
Sky News revealed the scale of Sir Keir’s donations this week as part of our Westminster Accounts investigation.
Sir Keir was found to have received substantially more gifts and freebies than any other MP as his total in gifts, benefits, and hospitality topped £100,000 since December 2019.
This had all been declared as per the rules but backbench MPs had been expressing concern that the government’s rhetoric of tough decisions on the economy jars with the image of a prime minister accepting freebies.
The row started over the weekend with controversy over Sir Keir’s wife’s clothes.
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Jess Phillips, minister for safeguarding and violence against women and girls, said earlier today she is “satisfied” with the prime minister’s explanation of why he has taken the freebies.
She said if he “wasn’t doing a good job in our country” then she “would be more concerned”.
Ms Phillips went on to say it’s not that she doesn’t think it’s important, but added: “I haven’t had a single email about it.
“I have had lots of emails about people not being able to get on a housing list.”
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People react to the prime minister receiving gifts and freebies
Challenged on the fact that it looks bad having just taken away the winter fuel allowance from pensioners, Ms Phillips said these are “completely separate things”.
“And had he never been to watch the Arsenal, there would still be a £22bn black hole that had to be paid for,” she added.
She said: “All I can say is I’m absolutely knackered trying to make things better.”
What has the PM said in response to criticism?
Speaking to journalists this week, the prime minister said “all MPs get gifts” and he thinks the need to declare them is “a good framework”.
“Wherever there are gifts from anyone, I’m going to comply with the rules,” he said.
“It’s very important to me that the rules are followed. I’ve always said that. I said that before the election. I reinforced it after the election.”
On his acceptance of Arsenal tickets, he added: “I’m a massive Arsenal fan. I can’t go into the stands because of security reasons. Therefore, if I don’t accept a gift of hospitality, I can’t go to a game. You could say: ‘Well, bad luck.’
“That’s why gifts have to be registered. But… never going to an Arsenal game again because I can’t accept hospitality is pushing it a bit far.”
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