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
Changes to US security strategy ‘largely consistent’ with Russia’s vision: Kremlin
- Kremlin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the current US administration was “fundamentally different from the previous ones”
MOSCOW: Russia has welcomed changes in the US National Security Strategy, saying the adjustments that marked a radical departure from Washington’s previous policy were “largely consistent” with Moscow’s vision.
Washington’s new National Security Strategy, published early Friday, took aim at allies in Europe, calling it over-regulated, lacking in “self-confidence” and facing “civilizational erasure” due to immigration.
The document stated that the United States would also prevent other powers from dominating but added: “This does not mean wasting blood and treasure to curtail the influence of all the world’s great and middle powers.”
Commenting on the new US strategy, the Kremlin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the current US administration was “fundamentally different from the previous ones.”
“The adjustments we’re seeing, I would say, are largely consistent with our vision,” Peskov said in an interview with state TV station Rossiya aired Sunday.
“President Trump is currently strong in terms of domestic political positions. And this gives him the opportunity to adjust the concept to suit his vision,” Peskov added.
The publication of the updated security strategy came as officials from Kyiv held talks in Florida with Trump’s envoys on the US-drafted plan to end the near four-year war in Ukraine.
Three days of talks produced no apparent breakthrough.
President Volodymyr Zelensky committed to further negotiations toward “real peace,” as Russia in the early hours of Saturday launched another series of drone and missile strikes at Ukraine.
Zelensky is due to meet with European leaders — French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz — in London on Monday to take stock of the negotiations.
