Covid Inquiry concludes Boris Johnson’s late lockdowns killed 1000’s

The Covid-19 Inquiry has delivered a damning verdict on Boris Johnson’s handling of the pandemic which cost thousands of lives.

The biggest public inquiry in British history branded government inaction “inexcusable” and said it was repeatedly slow to bring in restrictions, costing thousands of lives and making full lockdowns necessary. Inquiry chair Baroness Heather Hallett found the Partygate-PM and his chief adviser Dominic Cummings presided over a “toxic culture” and said “rule-breaking was not swiftly addressed” causing people to abandon lockdown rules.

Baroness Hallett said 230,000 lives were lost due to the virus and that such “devastating consequences” were in part due to the “decisions taken to respond” to the pandemic.

In her conclusion, top judge Baroness Hallett said: “The Covid-19 virus spread around the world rapidly and caused untold misery and suffering. The number of deaths across the UK for which the virus was responsible is now over 230,000. This appalling loss of life resulted from the virus spreading across the UK in three successive waves.

She added: “Ministers and officials in the UK government had been given clear advice that, in the reasonable worst-case scenario, up to 80% of the population would be infected – with a very significant loss of life – but did not appreciate the increasing likelihood of this scenario materialising. At the same time, it was clear that the test and trace system was inadequate for a pandemic. The lack of urgency on the part of all four governments, and the failure to take more immediate emergency steps, are inexcusable.”

The 800-page report is the second from the Covid-19 Inquiry and covered political decision-making during the pandemic. It found that the first lockdown may only have been needed because the government acted too late.

Baroness Hallett’s damning key findings on the first lockdown stated: “The UK government introduced advisory restrictions on 16 March 2020, including self-isolation, household quarantine and social distancing. Had restrictions been introduced sooner – when the number of cases was lower – the mandatory lockdown from 23 March might have been shorter or not necessary at all.

“This lack of urgency and the huge rise in infections made a mandatory lockdown inevitable. It should have been introduced one week earlier. Modelling shows that in England alone there would have been approximately 23,000 fewer deaths in the first wave up until 1 July 2020.”

The report highlighted how Boris Johnson failed to chair the government’s crisis coordination COBR meetings until 2 March 2020.

It continued: “Mr Johnson’s own failure to appreciate the urgency of the situation was due to his optimism that it would amount to nothing, his scepticism arising from earlier UK experiences of infectious diseases, and, inevitably, his attention being on other government priorities.

“This was compounded by the misleading assurances he received from the Cabinet Office and the Department of Health and Social Care that pandemic planning was robust, as well as the widely held view that the UK was well prepared for a pandemic.”

The devolved UK governments of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland were also criticised for failing to appreciate the scale of the threat at the start of the pandemic.

But Baroness Hallett concluded the same mistakes were made by Boris Johnson’s government during the second deadly Covid wave in autumn 2020. Her key findings contrasted the “weak restrictions, allowing the virus to continue to spread rapidly” in England, with Scotland where “quick introduction of stringent, locally targeted measures” avoided a second national lockdown.

The report said: “The easing of the majority of restrictions in England took place on 4 July 2020, despite Mr Johnson being informed by scientific advisers that this was an inherently high-risk approach as it would create an environment where infections could grow more quickly and overwhelm the ability of test and trace systems to control further outbreaks.

“A more cautious approach should have been taken by the UK government. Mr Johnson acknowledged that a second lockdown would be a disaster, but the approach to releasing restrictions increased the risk of this being necessary.”

The key findings concluded that if a “circuit breaker” lockdown had been introduced in late September or early October 2020 then “the second UK-wide lockdown on 5th November could have been shorter or possibly avoided entirely”.

The report said Boris Johnson “repeatedly changed his mind on whether to introduce tougher restrictions and failed to make timely decisions”. It added: “For those restrictions that were introduced, such as the ‘rule of six’, SAGE had warned that they were unlikely to be effective, but Mr Johnson continued to reject SAGE’s advice to implement a ‘circuit breaker’ lockdown.

“The weakness of the restrictions used and Mr Johnson’s oscillation enabled the virus to continue spreading at pace, and ultimately resulted in a four-week lockdown from 5 November 2020.”

On Partygate…

During the pandemic parties and gatherings were repeatedly held in Downing Street and later exposed by the Daily Mirror.

The scandal engulfed the Conservative government after Boris Johnson and his Chancellor Rishi Sunak were both fined by the Metropolitan Police for attending gatherings or parties that broke the Covid rules their government had imposed.

The report said: “Events that have become known as ‘partygate’ were first reported in the media in November 2021. The Metropolitan Police Service confirmed that it had made 126 referrals for fixed penalty notices in respect of social events taking place within 10 Downing Street, in breach of the regulations at the time, but did not specify to whom they were issued.

“Mr Johnson and Mr Sunak both confirmed that they had received a fixed penalty notice for their attendance at an event at 10 Downing Street on 19 June 2020.425 The events resulted in public outcry.”

The Partygate scandal caused a fall in people who were willing to comply with pandemic rules. A YouGov survey found that, of the 46% of people who reported that they were unlikely to follow restrictions over Christmas 2021, 21% stated that this was because “Government don’t stick to rules/Downing Street parties”

The Mirror first broke the Partygate story in November 2021, by revealing that Mr Johnson and his No10 staff were accused of attending parties the previous Christmas.

After eighteen months of acrimony and scandal, Mr Johnson was found by the House of Commons ‘ Privileges Committee to have deliberately misled parliament when he insisted to MPs that all rules had been followed.

The Mirror also uncovered the first ever Partygate video – showing Tories drinking, dancing and laughing at a December 2020 bash at Conservative Campaign Headquarters in central London, despite Brits being forced to spend Christmas apart from their families that year due to Covid rules.

On rule breaking…

The Mirror also exposed how Boris Johnson’s chief adviser Dominic Cummings breached the first lockdown by driving from London to a property in County Durham despite his family experiencing symptoms of the killer virus.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock was also forced to resign for breaking restrictions after being filmed in a romantic embrace with a co-worker.

Baroness Hallett’s report said: “The pandemic response also exposed wider cultural issues. The very least the public should be entitled to expect is that those making the rules will abide by them.

“Instances where ministers and advisers appeared to break Covid-19 rules caused huge distress to the public. This was especially the case for people who had endured huge personal costs to stick to the rules, with many bereaved people unable to be with their loved ones when they died.

“Instances where rule-breaking was not swiftly addressed also undermined public confidence and increased the risk of people not complying with the rules designed to protect them.”

On Boris’s government and Dominic Cummings…

“There was a toxic and chaotic culture at the centre of the UK government during the pandemic, with the Inquiry hearing evidence about the destabilising behaviour of a number of individuals – including Dominic Cummings, an adviser to the Prime Minister.

“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.”

Eat Out to Help Out

Then-Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s scheme was criticised for being decided with Mr Johnson without proper consultation with the Government’s scientific advisers – who insist it drove up infection rates.

Eat Out to Help Out offered discounts for eating out at pubs and restaurants during August 2020.

The report quotes from Lord Patrick Vallance, who was then the UK Government’s Chief Scientific Adviser, who said it undermined public health messaging about the importance of social distancing and being cautious socialising indoors.

Professor Vallance explained that “up to that point the message had been very clear: … interaction between different households and people … was a high risk activity. That policy completely reversed it.”

The report said that Boris Johnson initially told the Inquiry that the Eat Out to Help Out scheme was “properly discussed, including with Chris [Whitty] and Patrick [Vallance]”.

It added: “However,he subsequently confirmed that no scientific advisers were present at his meetings with Mr Sunak at which the scheme was discussed.”