Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson now reckons he “probably did go too far” with the lockdown rules for kids during the pandemic
Boris Johnson admitted there were a host of cock-ups in his handling of the Covid crisis which left him feeling “homicidal”. The ex-prime minister told the Covid Inquiry the “full horror” of coronavirus was “slow to dawn on the government”.
And he now reckons he “probably did go too far” with the lockdown rules for kids, saying he was close to expelling his education secretary Sir Gavin Williamson over the 2020 exam results scandal which left him in a “homicidal mood”.
Mr Johnson confessed: “I think that looking back on it all, the whole lockdowns, the intricacy of the rules, the rule of six, the complexity, particularly for children, I think we probably did go too far and it was far too elaborate. Maybe we could have found a way of exempting children.”
The former Tory leader added planning for the “nightmare idea” of closing schools in 2020 should have begun sooner – but insisted “work had been going on” to prepare for this.
He admitted the system had “failed” and the government had “got the wrong initial model”.
The blunders saw government education chiefs make a U-turn after its algorithm which aimed to prevent grade inflation saw 40% of predicted results downgraded.
The system was then axed with children awarded the grades they had been predicted by their teachers when 2020 GCSE and A-level exams were scrapped.
Then-education secretary Sir Gavin Williamson was blasted over the balls-up but clung onto his job for another year.
A message shown to the inquiry showed the then-Tory leader had considered sacking Sir Gavin in 2020.
Mr Johnson messaged his chief adviser Dominic Cummings moaning his break in Scotland had been interrupted and he was back at his Chequers retreat “in a thoroughly homicidal mood”.
He said: “We need a plan for the dept of education.
“We need a perm sec and we need better ministers and quite frankly we need an agenda of reform.
“We can’t go on like this.
“I am thinking of going into number ten and firing people.”
Grilled on whether he should have dumped Sir Gavin, Mr Johnson told the inquiry in London: “I think if I look back at my handling of my beloved colleagues over the three-and-a-bit years I was in government, I can think of all sorts of changes I might have made.”
Meanwhile, angry parents shouted “shame on you” at Mr Johnson as he swiftly left the building.
The group Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK said “ Boris Johnson’s evidence offered bluster instead of accountability,” adding “it is painfully clear he was out of his depth, and people died as a result.”
The inquiry continues.