All we learnt from Boris Johnson at Covid Inquiry including sweary WhatsApps
Boris Johnson was shamed into silence at the Covid Inquiry as he was forced to listen to evidence that he wanted to let the virus "rip" in Autumn 2020.
The ex-Prime Minister rejected the idea he backed this strategy - despite being presented with claims he was "obsessed with older people accepting their fate". The clash came as he endured a second Covid Inquiry interrogation, where he was quizzed on tiers rules and the decision to delay the second lockdown.
He was also questioned over the Partygate scandal that led to his early exit from No10 as WhatsApps showed he boasted the Government would "come out on top". Mr Johnson was jeered as he left the Inquiry tonight, as protesters outside shouted "murderer" and "shame on you".
Rishi Sunak, who was Chancellor throughout the Covid crisis and spearheaded the controversial Eat Out to Help Out scheme, will take the stand under oath at the Covid Inquiry on Monday next week.
Here are the key moments from Mr Johnson's gruelling day of evidence.
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Protesters outside the Covid-19 Inquiry at Dorland House, in west London, as Boris Johnson gave evidence (PA)Boris Johnson boasted he would 'get through' Partygate and 'come out on top'
Boris Johnson boasted on WhatsApp that he would "get through" the Partygate scandal and "come out on top", the Covid Inquiry heard. The Mirror first exposed the lockdown-busting gatherings held in No10 with our front page, "Boris Party Broke Covid Rules", on December 1 2021 - which paved the way for his political downfall.
Evidence showed the ex-PM exchanged messages with Cabinet Secretary Simon Case over the issue over two weeks later, on December 17 2021. Mr Johnson wrote: "Cab sec I am really sorry this thing is now causing you any kind of grief at all. The whole business is insane. We will get through it and come out on top."
Mr Case was forced to step down from his role investigating lockdown-busting parties inside No10 after it emerged a gathering had been held in his own office. Mr Johnson also told Mr Case: "In retrospect we all should have told people… to think about their behaviour in number ten and how it would look. But now we must smash on.”
Asked if it showed he didn’t care about the rule-breaking, Mr Johnson told the Covid Inquiry: “I did care.” He added: “Yes, I think that we could have done more in No10 to insist that people thought about the way their behaviour would be perceived by others.
"I made this point repeatedly to the various inquiries that have been held already into this matter. We should have thought about what it would look like to have people out in the garden when other people were not allowed in the garden even though the garden was being used as a place of work.”
Former PM Boris Johnson was grilled on the Partygate scandal (Ian Vogler / Daily Mirror)Dominic Cummings' Barnard Castle trip was a 'bad moment', Boris Johnson admitted
Boris Johnson admitted that the row over Dominic Cummings breaking lockdown on his infamous trip to Barnard Castle was a “bad moment”. The Mirror broke the story that the PM’s top aide had driven 264 miles from London to his parents’ property in Durham in March 2020 despite having coronavirus symptoms.
Mr Johnson told the Inquiry: “It was a bad moment, I won’t pretend otherwise. But actually, I think that what happened thereafter was fascinating in that whatever the rights and wrongs of that position I took on that episode, people continued to want us to get on with the job of fixing the pandemic.”
Dominic Cummings admitted to going to Co Durham during the first lockdown (POOL/AFP via Getty Images)The Inquiry previously heard claims Mr Johnson wanted to rush to scrap Covid restrictions as a distraction to distract from Mr Cummings's rule-breaking In a diary entry two days after the Mirror published its scoop in May 2020, Sir Patrick Vallance warned that Mr Cummings’ trip was “clearly against the rules”.
The-then Chief Scientific Adviser wrote: "PM seems very bullish and wants to have everything released sooner and more extremely than we would. Wants to divert from the DC (Dominic Cummings) fiasco.”
Boris Johnson loses his cool over 'let it rip' comments
The ex-PM was confronted over claims he was willing to "let it [Covid] rip" as those who would die had had "a good innings". The PM sat silently and appeared visibly irritated as the Inquiry's lead counsel Hugo Keith KC read out a series of offensive details in evidence.
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In one diary entry from Sir Patrick Vallance in August 2020, he said Mr Johnson was "obsessed with older people accepting their fate and letting the young get on with life and the economy going". In another entry from October, the top scientist said the-then PM was "obsessed with the average age of death being 82". Later, in May 2021, Sir Patrick wrote: "PM meeting - Cx (Chancellor, then Rishi Sunak) suddenly pipes up on incentives already in place. Argues that we should let it rip a bit."
But Mr Johnson told the Inquiry: "If you look at what we actually did, never mind the accounts that you have culled from people's jottings from meetings that I've been in, if you look at what I actually said and what I actually did, there is an abundance of quotation from me, millions of words that I've spoken in Parliament or in press conferences or whatever, if you look at what we actually did, we went into lockdown as soon as we could for the first time round.
He added: "We sensibly went for a regional approach when the disease picked up again, and then again went into lockdown on October 30/31. "I think, frankly, it does not do justice to what we did - our thoughts, our feeling, my thoughts, my feelings, to say that we were remotely reconciled to fatalities across the country or that I believed that it was acceptable to let it rip."
Boris Johnson appeared to blame Wales' high Covid rate on 'singing and obesity'
A bizarre entry from Sir Patrick Vallance's diary claims Mr Johnson blamed high Covid numbers in Wales on the "singing and obesity". The extract from September 2020 appears to show the-then Prime Minister callously joking about soaring cases of the virus in Wales.
Notes from the Chief Scientific Adviser show concern about the virus heading into the winter, with an upward spike in case in care homes. "Here we go again," Sir Patrick wrote. His notes say hospital admissions were beginning to increase and NHS England boss said Covid admissions were beginning to double. Sir Patrick added: "Wales very high - PM says 'It's the singing and the obesity... I never said that'.
Boris Johnson ranted "F*** YOU Daily Mail" over rule of six
The former PM apologised to the Inquiry for saying "F*** YOU Daily Mail" in a rant about the rule of six during the pandemic. As cases of the virus were beginning to spike again, Sir Patrick Vallance claimed the PM said, "we need to remember the grim history of March".
His diary extract adds: "[PM] Called for package of actions. Hancock says 'we have care home winter plan. PM 'everyone says rule of 6 so unfair, punishing the young, but F*** YOU Daily Mail - look this is all about stopping deaths. We need to tell them'".
Appearing embarrassed, Mr Johnson told the Covid Inquiry: "I apologise for my language". He also apologised to the Daily Mail - but said there must have been something the newspaper published at the time over the rule of six that had "wound me up".
Mr Johnson landed a job as a high-profile columnist for the newspaper only days after he resigned as an MP over a damning Partygate report from the Privileges Committee. It is understood he will received around £1million for the column over two years.
Tiers system didn't work but was 'worth a try', Boris Johnson said
Mr Johnson acknowledged that the regional tier system - introduced in Autumn 2020 - did not work, but said it was "worth a try". The former PM, who ruled out a two-week circuit breaker lockdown despite the advice of officials, told the Inquiry: "I thought a regional approach could still save us".
He said: "I want to try to just remind everybody of the context, but when we're coming out of the first lockdown, because what's happening is that the disease is very diversely spread over the country. And there are parts of the UK where it's barely present.
"Some places, sadly, Leicester, some parts of the north barely came out of restrictions throughout 2020. And so the question would have been, do we continue with national measures the whole time... that would just write off 2020.
Counsel to the Inquiry Hugo Keith KC said: "In the event, the tiers as we know didn't work." Mr Johnson replied: "Well they didn't and I'm very sad about that, but I think that they were logically, rationally - as we came out of the restrictions in the summer - they were, they were worth a try. The former PM also claimed not to remember his former Health Secretary Matt Hancock suggesting at the time the tiered system would not work when it was announced.
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