LONDON: Britain’s former prime minister Boris Johnson slammed an inquiry report critical of his government’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic as “hopelessly incoherent” in a social media post Saturday.
“More than three years after the end of the pandemic, they are still wrangling about what went wrong,” Johnson, 61, also wrote in an article for the Daily Mail tabloid, days after the inquiry slammed his government for its “chaotic” response to the global pandemic costing thousands of lives.
The inquiry led by retired senior judge Heather Hallett said Johnson’s government “lacked” urgency in the early days of the health emergency, and that the first national lockdown came “too late.”
The UK, which went into lockdown later than most other European countries, suffered one of the worst Covid-19 death tolls in Europe, recording more than 128,500 fatalities by mid-July 2021.
UK families who lost their loved ones during the pandemic on Friday called for all privileges given to Johnson as a former prime minister to be removed.
Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK accused Johnson of “one of the gravest betrayals of the British public in modern history.”
“I repeat that I remain full of regret for the things the government I led got wrong and full of sympathy for all those who suffered — whether from the disease or from the steps we took to protect the population,” Johnson wrote in the article published late Friday.
“All I can say is that everyone involved was doing our level best, under pretty difficult circumstances, to get it right and to save lives,” added Johnson, who commissioned the independent inquiry in 2021 when he was still leader.
However, he criticized the second report published by the inquiry on Thursday as “muddled” and “incoherent,” including for its position on lockdowns as being both devastating and necessary.
He also said it “failed” to answer two questions about the pandemic: “where did the virus come from — and were the lockdowns worth the terrible price we paid?“
He added that imposing restrictions before the government did at the end of March 2020, “would have been to contradict the scientific advice we were getting.”
“Namely that you had to make sure that you did not go too early because of the risk of exhausting public patience with the restrictions,” the former leader wrote.
UK ex-PM Boris Johnson hits back at ‘incoherent’ Covid inquiry report
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UK ex-PM Boris Johnson hits back at ‘incoherent’ Covid inquiry report
- The inquiry led by retired senior judge Heather Hallett said Johnson’s government “lacked” urgency in the early days of the health emergency
- “I repeat that I remain full of regret for the things the government I led got wrong and full of sympathy for all those who suffered,” Johnson wrote
Sweden wants to strip organized crime leaders of citizenship
- A bill submitted to parliament on Friday includes a proposal that would allow revoking passports of double citizenship holders convicted of “crimes”
STOCKHOLM: The Swedish government on Friday proposed changes to the constitution that would allow revoking the citizenship of some criminal gang leaders, as part of its work to combat widespread organized crime.
In January, a cross-party parliamentary committee proposed constitutional changes to allow stripping the passports of people with dual nationality convicted of espionage or treason, but stopped short of suggestions targeting organized crime.
“The government has chosen to go further than the committee’s proposal precisely to make it possible to also revoke citizenship from, for example, gang leaders who are guilty of very, very serious harm to society,” Justice Minister Gunnar Strommer told a press conference.
He said a bill submitted to parliament on Friday includes a proposal that would allow revoking passports of double citizenship holders convicted of “crimes that gravely affect vital national interests” such as serious gang crime.
Sweden has been plagued by organized crime-related violence for well over a decade.
The government and its backers, the far-right and anti-immigration Sweden Democrats, won the 2022 election on a promise to reduce immigration and gang crime, which they say are linked. New general elections are due in 2026.
To change the Swedish constitution, the proposals need to pass a vote in parliament with a simple majority, followed by a general election and then a second Riksdag vote.
Strommer said he aims for the proposed changes to the constitution to enter into force at the start of 2027.
