Boris Johnson’s sister claims the Covid report makes him sound like ‘the Grim Reaper’
Boris Johnson’s sister has accused the Covid Inquiry report of regarding the former Prime Minister as “the Grim Reaper himself” – dismissing the 800 page document as “expensive vindictive rubbish”
Speaking on LBC Radio about the report, in which judge Baroness Heather Hallett summarised the UK’s response as “too little, too late,” Rachel Johnson said: “It only took 800 pages.
“It only took a mere £200 million of our money – i.e. £160,000 a day and a modelling graph – for Lady Hallett to conclude that Boris Johnson’s decision to lockdown a week late caused 23,000 deaths.
“A figure, I should remind you, based on data supplied by the discredited former government scientist Professor Neil Ferguson.”
The report describes a “toxic and chaotic” culture at the heart of Mr Johnson’s government during its pandemic response which, in turn, affected the quality of decision making and advice.
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Baroness Hallett found that “rule-breaking was not swiftly addressed” and that this, in turn, caused people to abandon lockdown rules. Mr Johnson, according to the report, “should have appreciated sooner that this was an emergency that required prime ministerial leadership to inject urgency to the response.”
Baroness Hallett also said: “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.”
In response to the report’s conclusions, Ms Johnson told LBC listeners on Friday night: “This conclusion is being received as though my brother was the Grim Reaper himself and personally visited each bedside to deliver the mortal blow.
“This is expensive, vindictive rubbish, crafted with the 20/20 vision of perfect hindsight, and it cannot pass without comment from me.”
Baroness Hallett’s criticisms of the former Prime Minister also said he was too “optimistic.” She stated: “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.”
But Ms Johnson remained defiant, speaking up for her brother and also reiterating her long-held views that lockdowns were not only ineffective, but that they were the “worst” decision since the Second World War.
She said: “I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – I thought lockdowns were, likely as not, unnecessary. We should have protected the vulnerable and the elderly.
“We should never have shuttered the economy and closed schools and playgrounds. In my view, it was a contender for the worst policy decision of the postwar period.”
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