'Johnson may not remember but those who lost family to Covid can't forget'

06 December 2023 , 20:03

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Boris Johnson giving evidence at the Covid Inquiry (Image: AP)

Boris Johnson began his evidence to the Covid Inquiry with an apology but none of the rest of his testimony suggested he was genuinely contrite.

The tone was set with one of the first questions posed by Hugo Keith KC, the counsel to the Inquiry, when he asked Mr Johnson to expand on his admission that “mistakes were made.” After much huffing and shuffling, the former Prime Minister pointed to the conflicting messaging coming from the Westminster and Scottish governments.

He couldn’t bring himself to mention the deaths in care homes, the failure to grasp more quickly the threat posed by the virus, the dysfunction in No 10, the problems with Test & Trace and how Downing Street became party central. The most repeated phrase to come from his lips was “I don’t remember.”

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At least a dozen times Mr Johnson found his memory failed him. It cannot be a coincidence this amnesia was most apparent when he faced questions about his slowness to recognise the seriousness of the virus, the mayhem and discord within No 10 and his haphazard style of leadership.

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The Prime Minister’s memory may have been selective. The recollections of those who lost loved ones to Covid are all too real.

Jason Beattie