Boris Johnson offered to be injected with Covid live on television to reassure the public and “show it’s nothing to be scared of” — before he contracted the virus and was hospitalised.
The extraordinary claim came as Dominic Cummings gave evidence on the government’s handling of the pandemic, stressing that actions from ministers and officials during the crisis “fell disastrously short of the standards” expected.
Speaking at a Commons committee, the former No 10 aide told MPs: “The view of various officials inside No 10 was if we have the prime minister chairing Cobra meetings and he just tells everyone ‘it’s swine flu, don’t worry about it, I’m going to get Chris Whitty to inject me live on TV with coronavirus so everyone realises it’s nothing to be frightened of’, that would not help actually serious panic.”
The Daily Mail reported before the hearing that Mr Johnson had described the virus as “kung flu” at the onset of the pandemic, and that he was willing to be injected on television by England’s chief medical officer.
In April last year — shortly after ordering the country’s first national lockdown — the prime minister was infected with Covid-19 alongside other senior officials, and later spent several days in intensive care.
No 10 did not immediately comment on the specifics, but a government spokesperson said: “There is a huge task for this government to get on with. We are entirely focused on recovering from the pandemic, moving through the roadmap and distributing vaccines while delivering the public’s priorities.”
“Throughout the pandemic, the government’s priority has ben to save lives, protect the NHS and support people’s jobs and livelihoods across the United Kingdom”.
Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, earlier said he had “never” heard the prime minister used the term “kung flu”. Former US president Donald Trump used the phrase during a rally in June last year.
Asked on LBC Radio whether he had heard the prime minister say he wanted to infected live on TV, Mr Shapps replied: “No, never, again no.”
“It’s a bit of a circus from someone who was there at the time and had the facility and the ability to influence a lot of these decisions, of course,” he added.
Before the appearance, the former No 10 aide posted an image of a whiteboard from 13 March — 10 days before Mr Johnson ordered the first lockdown — showing a “Plan A” and “Plan B”.
He posted: “First sketch of Plan B, PM study, Fri 13/3 eve — shown PM Sat 14/4: NB. Plan A ‘our plan’ breaks NHS>4k p/day dead min.Plan B: lockdown, suppress, crash programs (tests/treatments/vaccines etc), escape 1st AND 2nd wave.”
Quizzed on how concerned he was over the former No 10 adviser might say later this morning, Mr Shapps told Sky News in a separate interview: “Well, I think he’s probably tweeted most of what he’s going to say already”.
He added: “I’ll leave others to determine how reliable a witness to all this he is. He was there at the time, what his motives would be I will leave to others”.
On Tuesday evening, it was also reported Mr Cummings will tell MP that the prime minister justified delaying lockdown in the autumn by claiming “Covid is only killing 80-year-olds”.
