Ex-UK PM Johnson oversaw ‘chaotic’ response to COVID which led to more deaths, inquiry finds

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By Michael Holden

LONDON (Reuters) -Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson oversaw a toxic, chaotic and dithering response to the COVID pandemic, with a delay to locking the country down resulting in about 23,000 more deaths, a report by a public inquiry concluded on Thursday.

Britain recorded more than 230,000 deaths from COVID, a similar death rate to the United States and Italy but higher than elsewhere in western Europe, and it is still recovering from the economic consequences.

An inquiry, which Johnson ordered in May 2021, delivered a blistering assessment of his government’s response to COVID, criticising his indecisive leadership, lambasting his Downing Street office for breaking its own rules and castigating his top adviser Dominic Cummings.

‘TOXIC AND CHAOTIC CULTURE’ IN GOVERNMENT

“There was a toxic and chaotic culture at the centre of the UK government during the pandemic,” the inquiry chair, former judge Heather Hallett, said in her report.

Hallett said if earlier action had been taken to prevent the spread of the virus, lockdown might have been avoided altogether. But she said the failure to act made it unavoidable.

Hallett said Johnson had failed to appreciate the seriousness of the virus after it emerged at the start of 2020, believing it would amount to nothing and was distracted by other government business, with Britain at the time bogged down in talks over its departure from the European Union.

She said he had “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.”

When he appeared before the committee in 2023, Johnson said his government had been too complacent and had “vastly underestimated” the risks. He apologised and said he understood the public’s anger.

Johnson did not offer any immediate comment.

A campaign group for bereaved families said “it is devastating to think of the lives that could have been saved under a different Prime Minister”.

Hallett said by the time Johnson announced a lockdown on March 23 it was “too little, too late”, a repeated criticism she levelled at the British government and the devolved administrations of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Had Britain locked down just a week earlier on March 16, as the consensus of evidence said it should, the number of deaths in the first wave up to July would have been reduced by about 23,000 or 48%, the report concluded.

A failure to act sooner again as cases rose later in the year also led to further national lockdowns, it added.

Hallett said the inquiry recognised Johnson had to wrestle with profound decisions, but said he repeatedly changed his mind and failed to make timely decisions.

‘PARTYGATE’ SCANDALS

Johnson was forced from office in July 2022, with revelations of parties at Downing Street during COVID lockdowns among the many scandals that ended his premiership.

Both he and Rishi Sunak, the finance minister during the pandemic who later became prime minister, were fined for breaking lockdown rules.

Then health minister Matt Hancock also quit after photos emerged of him kissing and embracing an aide in his office in breach of restrictions. His “truthfulness and reliability” in meetings had also been a cause for concern, the inquiry found.

Some of the harshest language was directed at Cummings, who quit his job in November 2020.

While acknowledging his “commendable” role in helping change policy at the start of the pandemic, he was “a destabilising influence” who “used offensive, sexualised and misogynistic language” and strayed far from his proper role as an adviser.

Cummings told the inquiry that the Cabinet Office, which supports the running of government, had failed during the pandemic. Neither he nor Hancock made any comment on its findings.

Thursday’s report, which included 19 recommendations to improve the country’s response in a future pandemic, is the second tranche of findings by the inquiry. Its first module gave a damning assessment of Britain’s readiness, saying had preparation been better, the financial and human cost might have been less.

(Reporting by Michael Holden; Editing by Kate Holton and Philippa Fletcher)