Families of Covid victims condemn Boris Johnson after he mocked those “still wrangling on” about pandemic deaths in a newspaper column, calling him “beyond contempt.”
The disgraced former prime minister has launched a scathing attack on the pandemic investigation itself rather than offering an apology for the 23,000 more COVID fatalities he is said to have caused by postponing action.
The COVID inquiry report, which was chaired by former Appeal Court judge Baroness Heather Hallett, condemned Mr. Johnson and other senior Tory ministers for the "toxic and chaotic" culture in Downing Street during the pandemic.
She came to the conclusion that needless lockdown delays resulted in an additional 23,000 deaths, and the families of those who perished have stated they are thinking about suing Mr. Johnson.
However, after first keeping quiet, the former prime minister attacked Baroness Hallett and the investigation he personally organized in a footnote in his Daily Mail column.
Campaigners demanding justice for individuals who died needlessly during the outbreak have been enraged by the remark.
A spokesman for the Covid Bereaved Families group said:
“It is beyond contempt that Boris Johnson has chosen to respond to the Covid Inquiry by attacking the Covid Bereaved for "wrangling on" about the deaths of our loved one.
Instead of showing regret, contrition or even apologising, Johnson is using a newspaper column to do what he couldn't do under oath at the Covid Inquiry - twist the truth, promote debunked myths and ignore the facts.
He has no place in public life and we are calling again for Boris Johnson to lose all of his ex-PM privileges following the inquiry report.”
Following the former PM's startling tirade in his weekly column, they responded.
Mr Johnson blasted:
“Some judge has just spent the thick end of £200 million on an inquiry, and what is the upshot?
She seems, if anything, to want more lockdowns. She seems to have laid into the previous Tory government for not locking down hard enough or fast enough – just when the rest of the world has been thinking that lockdowns were probably wildly overdone.”
He went on:
“Bozhe moi, you say, wiping away tears of laughter. My goodness, these Britskis!”
Rather, he stated unequivocally that closing down the nation at all was his greatest regret.
He asserted that Professor Neil Ferguson of Imperial College London's first estimate of 23,000 additional deaths was "speculative and unsubstantiated," claiming that his
"hysterical predictions were largely discredited at the time."
The accusation of causing additional deaths, he said, was
"totally muddled."
He defended himself by pointing out that he had started implementing steps on March 12, 2020, even though the nation went into complete lockdown on March 23, 2020.
He suggested:
“I think it’s pretty obvious. Lady Hallett has been unable or unwilling to address the really important questions.
So, faced with the agony of the Covid victims and their families – and their entirely understandable desire for catharsis of some kind – she has decided that the neatest thing is to administer a judicious kicking to the Tory administration, who no one much has an interest in defending except me, and to move on.”
How have Covid bereaved families responded and what actions are they taking?
Covid bereft families have responded with strong outrage, imprinting Boris Johnson's conduct and dismissive reflections as" insupportable" and" beyond disdain," especially in light of the government's running of the epidemic and the high death risk.
They emphasize that Johnson’s turndown to heed scientific advice and detention in enforcing lockdowns directly contributed to thousands of avoidable deaths. Deprived families continue to campaign. laboriously for justice and responsibility through groups like the Covid- 19 Bereft Families for Justice, demanding a full reckoning and systemic changes to help analogous failures in the future.