Boris Johnson rejects claim his government did not prepare for pandemic school closures

Boris Johnson told the UK Covid-19 inquiry that the government was functioning within ‘exceptionally difficult circumstances’. Photograph: UK Covid-19 inquiry/AFP/Getty Images

Boris Johnson rejected claims that his government failed to prepare for school closures at the outbreak of the pandemic, telling the Covid-19 inquiry that it would be “amazing” if the Department for Education (DfE) had not realised that plans were needed.

Gavin Williamson, the then education secretary, had told the inquiry that he hadn’t acted sooner because “there was no suggestion that the Department for Education should prepare a plan or a policy for mass school closures”.