n n n ‘. concat(e. i18n. t(“search. voice. recognition_retry”),’n
(Bloomberg) — Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson will face two days of questioning over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, the latest senior figure to give evidence to the UK’s Covid-19 inquiry.
Most on Bloomberg
Apple prepares new iPad M3 and MacBook Air to fight falling sales
Elon Musk’s SpaceX valued at $175 billion or in takeover bid
Global Bonds Advance as Dovish Bets Take Over: Markets Retreat
Kevin McCarthy Leaving House Months After Ouster as Speaker
Biden Says He Wouldn’t Have Sought Reelection Had Trump Not Run
Johnson admits his government has made mistakes and will apologize to victims, said a user familiar with his testimony. The former prime minister is due to appear in court at 10 a. m. London time on Wednesday.
Johnson’s evidence session is the most keenly awaited of all the inquiry’s hearings so far, as retired judge and cross-bench peer Heather Hallett probes the UK’s response to a pandemic that claimed the lives of more than 200,000 people in Britain.
Public hearings so far have painted a picture of a chaotic and ill-prepared 10 Downing Street, with former Health Secretary Matt Hancock describing the culture as “toxic.” Johnson’s former senior aide Dominic Cummings told the inquiry that he and other officials thought the premier should have sacked Hancock, while another former senior official, Helen MacNamara, said pandemic rules were broken daily in Johnson’s Downing Street offices.
Johnson plans to claim that he made the right decisions, such as getting vaccines independently of the EU, and will say that he followed clinical recommendations at all times until the first lockdown in 2020, according to the user who spoke. on condition of anonymity because the hearing has not yet taken place.
A spokesman for Johnson said he hoped to contribute to the investigation in his work.
Sam Power, a senior lecturer in politics at the University of Sussex, said the hearing will be significant for Johnson’s chances of restoring his damaged reputation and making a return to front-line politics after he quit Parliament earlier this year.
“Boris Johnson has made no secret of his long-term political ambitions, so those hearings have only one purpose: to protect his legacy,” Power said in a statement. Johnson will need to make sure it “doesn’t break permanently through the evidence that has already been provided,” he said.
Johnson left office in September 2022 after being forced to resign following a succession of scandals including the ‘Partygate’ furore over illegal gatherings held in Downing Street during the pandemic. He explored running to be Conservative leader again when his successor, Liz Truss, resigned just seven weeks into her own premiership, but withdrew from the contest ultimately won by current premier Rishi Sunak.
–With assistance from Kitty Donaldson.
Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek
The Untold Story of an HHS Hack in the Early Days of Covid
Nobody Wants to Be a Bank Examiner Anymore
Hong Kong targets go rogue in crackdown on illegal construction
The Prospect of Space Mining Is Venture Capital Money, Not Asteroid Gold
It is too dry for the once prosperous avocado of southern Spain
©2023 Bloomberg L.P.