Bereaved families explain why they disrupted Boris Johnson
The four women who were removed from the Covid Inquiry have explained why they disrupted Boris Johnson. They held up signs saying "the dead can't hear your apologies" as the former PM said sorry at the beginning of today's hearing.
Speaking outside Dorland House in west London, Kathryn Butcher, 59, from London, said: “Personally, I won't ever accept his apology for the way he handled the pandemic. I was never going to accept it.” She was holding a photo of her sister-in-law Myrna Saunders, 56, and a photo of Jake Corser, 15, a friend’s son, who were both lost to Covid.
“Jake was a perfectly healthy 15-year-old who was just about to finish school and looking forward to going to college, planning out what he was going to do for his future. And he cruelly had that cut short in July 2020,” she said.
Kirsten Hackman, 57, from south London, who had a photo of her mum Sìne Watt, 85, who had a fall at the end of March 2020 on the Isle of Wight. “She was admitted to hospital and she called me on the phone before the ambulance came and said: ‘I don't want to go into hospital. I’ll catch the virus and I'll die.’ She was in hospital for four weeks, and after four weeks, when they were looking at discharging her, she tested positive. And she died a week later. So she left that hospital in a hospital gown and was put into a body bag. That sealed body bag was put into a coffin,” she said. “She was 85 but she still had so much living to do.”
Speaking about Mr Johnson, she said: “His apologies today have just been empty words. He needs to be honest and tell the truth and I don't think we're going to get that.”
Fran Hall, 62, from Denham, Bucks, was holding a photo of her husband Steve Mead, 65, who died three weeks after they married in September 2020. “He caught Covid at a hospital appointment, we think, and was taken to hospital and was given a ceiling of care that meant he wouldn't get given a ventilator because he had a diagnosis of prostate cancer. And eventually he just couldn't cope with the CPAP [breathing aid] any further and the doctors withdrew treatment and he died,” she said.
“I think we all feel very strongly that Mr Johnson is trying very hard to control the narrative and we didn't want him to be grandstanding in the hearing centre in the hearing room today making an apology to bereaved people and then carrying on giving his evidence without us making our feelings heard.”
Ms Hall said Mr Johnson was a “failed leader”, adding: “We are one of the richest countries in the world and we have one of the worst death tolls so yeah.”
(AFP via Getty Images)