n n n ‘. concat(e. i18n. t(“search. voice. recognition_retry”),’n
Boris Johnson admitted he “addressed the risk posed by Covid-19 much earlier” in the early days of the pandemic, while apologising for the “pain, loss and suffering” of his victims.
The first day of the former prime minister’s highly anticipated evidence to the UK Covid-19 Inquiry, which was hit by protests, also saw him defending the culture of his No 10 after other witnesses branded it “toxic”.
He rejected accusations that he had shown a lack of leadership by dithering over whether to implement strict restrictions in the early months of 2020.
Former advisers blamed Johnson’s tendency to take opposite measures in March of that year for delaying the shutdown.
But he argued that it was his duty to “test” this “totally new policy,” adding, “It’s vital to the livelihood of other people across the country. I had to go through the arguments and that’s what I did.
Asked about the slow reaction to the current crisis, Johnson said Whitehall had “underestimated” the need for action, adding that it was only when he saw the “horrors” of the epidemic in Italy that he realised the severity of the virus. .
He warned that the experience of past illnesses such as Sars, Mers and swine flu had clouded officials’ judgment while a coronavirus pandemic “was out of our life experience. “
Johnson said: “When you read that an Asian pandemic is about to sweep the world, you think you’ve heard it before. And that’s the problem.
“But I think it’d be fair to say that the scientific community within Whitehall at that stage was not telling us that – I was not being informed that – this was something that was going to require urgent and immediate action.”
The former prime minister said his government “could have acted differently” if it had believed some of the early predictions made about Covid-19, but was unable to “perceive the implications”.
“In Whitehall there was no loud enough alarm horn. “
The former Conservative leader defended his final decision to order England’s first lockdown on March 23, 2020, stating that by the middle of that month he had made arguments against restrictions “fairly quickly. “
“I didn’t have the luxury of waiting any longer. It’s over,” he said at Baroness Heather Hallett’s consultation.
Johnson gave the impression of getting emotional when he spoke of his “anxiety” about the imaginable behavioural fatigue if he imposed a lockdown too soon without a vaccination programme.
He looked on the verge of tears as he described 2020 as a “tragic, tragic” year.
Johnson did not deny questioning why his government “destroys everything for other people who will die soon anyway,” but cautioned that the comment is not “designed to be broadcast publicly. “
“It’s an indication of the ruthlessness of the national team that we’re up against and the terrible balancing act I’ve had to do during the pandemic,” he said when asked. He asked about a note written through his former assistant Imran Shafi stating that he had made the comment.
He said he regretted referring to long Covid as “” and the “Gulf War Syndrome” in the October 2020 notes, acknowledging the “harm and offense” caused to those suffering from the disease.
Johnson denied taking a “long” holiday in February 2020, after he was criticised for taking a mid-term break from his retirement from the Chevening crusade when the virus had exploded in Italy and there were cases in the UK.
He insisted he was “working throughout the period” after it previously emerged there was a 10-day period in which no notes on coronavirus were sent to Mr Johnson nor emergency Cobra meetings held.
Johnson admitted that, in hindsight, mass gatherings stopped more quickly and he did not shake hands with patients at a hospital where there were coronavirus cases.
His appearance before the inquiry was interrupted by protesters as he began apologizing to those affected by the pandemic, and four other people were ejected from the courtroom.
“Can I just say how pleased I am to be part of this survey and how sorry I am for the pain, loss and suffering of those suffering from Covid,” Mr Johnson said.