Boris Johnson could face legal action over the failures during the pandemic that led to 23,000 excess deaths – as families who lost loved ones to Covid call for him to be barred from public life.
After the Covid inquiry found that thousands of lives could have been spared if the country had locked down a week earlier and that the culture at the heart of No 10 contributed to the government’s pandemic failings, the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK group said the former prime minister “must be held accountable”.
Meanwhile, senior Tories have refused to acknowledge some of the report’s findings, with Michael Gove – who was a cabinet minister throughout the pandemic – warning against “oversimplifying” the conclusions while former health minister Nadine Dorries described it as “sensationalist”.
Mr Johnson has so far refused to comment on the report since it was published on Thursday, despite strong criticism of his leadership during the pandemic.
Bereaved families described the former prime minister’s silence as “deafening”, adding: “We are not asking for an apology; we are asking for consequences. Boris Johnson should have no role in public life and no further entitlement to public funds.
“His actions during the pandemic amount to one of the gravest betrayals of the British public in modern history.
“We will therefore now be pursuing all legal options to hold Boris Johnson personally responsible for his actions during the pandemic. Justice for those we lost means real consequences for those who failed them, and we will not stop until that justice is delivered.”
The Independent understands that the campaign group is considering its options with regard to legal action, including potentially bringing a private prosecution.
While Tory leader Kemi Badenoch has also refused to apologise for the government’s handling of the pandemic, Lord Gove apologised for “mistakes” made by the government, but also defended the “toxic” culture in Mr Johnson’s No 10.
Ms Dorries, who was a close ally of the former PM and shas ince defected to Reform UK, told Times Radio: “I just don’t recognise the picture she paints as to the political management of Covid at the time. I was a health minister in health throughout the Covid pandemic. And what I saw were people working very hard and doing their very best to ensure that we approach the pandemic in the right way and saved as many lives as possible.
“So I just don’t recognise that finding. And I find it quite sensationalist. And I find it also doesn’t take into account how we suddenly found ourselves in that position very rapidly, and how hard people worked to put both measures in place and a process of how we responded towards the elderly, the vulnerable, care homes, schools, children, and all the different groups which needed to be accounted for during that process. that no account seems to have been taken for that.”
Meanwhile, Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, the chair of the public accounts committee, hit out at the report’s author, Heather Hallett, a former Court of Appeal judge, accusing her of trying to “rewrite history”.
He said: “I think it’s frightfully easy to come up with an inquiry after the event, looking back with hindsight. After all, we MPs were given a briefing a week before the lockdown, and at that point people were confidently predicting that over 2 million people were going to be hospitalised, of which 450,000 were going to die. So you know, people really didn’t know what was going to happen.
“I think it’s just rewriting history, and it’s with hindsight, and I’m not sure the evidence is there to back up some of those claims that 23,000 people died because of that week’s delay. I think that just sounds to me not right.”
The inquiry found that a total lockdown could have been avoided in 2020 if restrictions had been introduced sooner and painted a picture of chaotic decision making at the heart of government.
Some of the clashes in Downing Street during the handling of the pandemic were “far from ideal”, Lord Gove admitted, but he denied that a “toxic” culture led to preventable deaths, arguing that the “business of government during a crisis can’t be carried on in the manner of a Jane Austen novel”.
Asked whether he accepts that a toxic culture in Downing Street led to deaths, the former cabinet minister told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “No, I don’t accept that either.
“I do certainly think that there were moments when voices were raised, words were used, attitudes were struck that were far from ideal, but the business of government during a crisis can’t be carried on in the manner of a Jane Austen novel.
“It is the case that we were dealing with, as everyone across the world was, an unprecedented crisis with a novel virus that most intelligence agencies now believe was a lab leak rather than a naturally occurring virus, and of course under pressure with imperfect information, mistakes are made, voices are raised.”
Former cabinet minister Rory Stewart said: “Congratulations to the COVID committee. The UK government was criminally slow and indecisive . The should have acted 3 weeks earlier. Even 1 week earlier would have saved 23,000 lives. And the lessons have not been properly absorbed.”
While, Kemi Badenoch also remained silent, Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey called on her to make a full apology on behalf of her party.
He told BBC Breakfast: “I hope that Kemi Badenoch on behalf of the Conservative Party will now issue a full apology.”
