Boris Johnson presided over a “toxic and chaotic culture” at No 10 while poor decision-making and delays in introducing a lockdown contributed to the deaths of more than 20,000 people during the pandemic, a highly critical report has found.
The second report of the UK Covid-19 Inquiry also found that the views of women were often ignored by the then prime minister and his closest aides, while Mr Johnson is also said to have demonstrated a “failure to appreciate the urgency of the situation” during the early days of the pandemic.
During a series of hearings, the chair of the inquiry, Heather Hallett, a former Court of Appeal judge, heard wide-ranging criticisms of Mr Johnson and his team, with WhatsApp messages and emails detailing disagreements disclosed to the inquiry.
Evidence was taken from more than 160 witnesses, including Mr Johnson, his then aide Dominic Cummings, and the then health secretary, Matt Hancock. They were questioned on measures such as public testing, social distancing, and the Eat Out to Help Out scheme, which it had been hoped could inject cash into businesses that had been forced to shut during the spring lockdown.
Summarising her findings, Baroness Hallett found that while No 10 had been forced to make decisions under pressure, the response was “too little, too late”, and 23,000 lives could have been saved had measures been implemented a week earlier.
Here are the key takeaways from the damning report.
‘Toxic culture’ at No 10
The report found that Mr Johnson had failed to appreciate “the urgency of the situation” after the virus began to spread in early 2020, and displayed “optimism that it would amount to nothing”.
He was also found to have “repeatedly changed his mind” in September and October 2020 on whether to introduce tougher restrictions, and “failed to make timely decisions”. The report says that his “oscillation enabled the virus to continue spreading at pace” and led to the second four-week lockdown that November.
His senior advister, Mr Cummings, was described as a “destabilising influence” whose behaviour “contributed significantly to a culture of fear, mutual distrust and suspicion that poisoned the atmosphere in 10 Downing Street and undermined the authority of the prime minister”.
The report said: “By failing to tackle this chaotic culture – and, at times, actively encouraging it – Mr Johnson reinforced a culture in which the loudest voices prevailed and the views of other colleagues, particularly women, often went ignored, to the detriment of good decision-making.”
Mr Hancock also “gained a reputation among senior officials and advisers at 10 Downing Street for overpromising and underdelivering”, according to the report.
Lockdowns and deaths ‘could have been avoided’
The inquiry into the government’s core decision-making and political governance found that more than 20,000 lives could have been saved in England if the lockdown had been implemented just a week earlier than it was, in March 2020.
“Had more stringent restrictions short of a ‘stay at home’ lockdown been introduced earlier than 16 March […] the mandatory lockdown that was imposed might have been shorter or conceivably might not have been necessary at all,” the report says.
However, had the mandatory lockdown been in place from that earlier 16 March date, “modelling has established that the number of deaths in England in the first wave up until 1 July 2020 would have been reduced by 48 per cent – equating to approximately 23,000 fewer deaths”.
Partygate ‘undermined confidence’
Alcohol-fuelled parties in Downing Street, involving Mr Johnson, Rishi Sunak and senior staff, “undermined public confidence in decision-making” and significantly increased the risk of the public abandoning lockdown rules, according to the report.
They were also considered a blow to people who had “endured huge personal costs” to stick to the rules – including those who had been “unable to be with their loved ones when they died”.
The Downing Street party saga, in particular, led to a “self-reported” reduction in people following the rules over Christmas 2021.
The final weeks of 2021 were dominated by reports of alleged rule-breaking by officials in government buildings while lockdown rules were in place. This included a gathering of around 30 people in the Cabinet Room on 19 June 2020 to present Mr Johnson with a birthday cake, at a time when most indoor gatherings were banned.
Both the prime minister and Mr Sunak received fines after a Met Police investigation.
Eat Out to Help Out went against advice
The ‘Eat Out to Help Out’ scheme in summer 2020 was “devised in the absence of scientific advice” and “undermined public health messaging”, the report found.
While its intention was to inject cash into the hospitality industry by offering discounted restaurant meals, Mr Johnson and his chancellor Mr Sunak “failed to seek scientific advice”.
This was despite being warned about the potential risks of the scheme by Professor Chris Whitty (now Sir), the government’s chief medical officer.
Children ‘failed’ by school closures
While the lockdowns of 2020 and 2021 undoubtedly saved lives, the report found that they had also “left lasting scars on society and the economy, brought ordinary childhood to a halt, delayed the diagnosis and treatment of other health issues and exacerbated societal inequalities”.
The vast majority of children were not at risk of serious direct harm from Covid-19, “but suffered greatly from the closure of schools and requirement to stay at home”.
Children “were not always prioritised” and the government was not prepared for the “sudden and enormous task” of educating children in their homes.
