People bereaved by Covid have described watching Boris Johnson’s evidence to MPs about Downing Street lockdown events as “torture” and accused him of “pulling his usual tricks of deflection, self pity and blame”.
Fighting for his political future, Johnson strongly denied misleading parliament in a marathon session in front of the Commons privileges committee. Deborah Doyle, 55, whose mother, Sylvia Griffiths, died from Covid in a care home in Sunderland, said his evidence that Downing Street gatherings during tough social distancing rules were “essential for work purposes” was painful.
Only seven people were able to attend her mother’s funeral and they were not even allowed to gather outside for a wake to remember her life.
“He kept saying how much pressure the government was under,” she said. “So were the NHS and people at home; people who couldn’t be with their loved ones like me, who had restricted funerals”.
Her mother’s funeral in spring 2020 happened around the time of the gathering in the Downing Street garden attended by Johnson’s wife, Carrie Johnson, as well as aides and civil servants. It attracted police fixed-penalty notices.
“I would have loved to have sat with family and friends like they did,” she said, adding Johnson’s attitude during the hearing appeared “disrespectful”.
Lynn Jones, who lost her husband, Gareth, 66, in March 2021, said she was “disgusted” Johnson had repeatedly argued it was vital to say goodbye to staff members leaving, when she and thousands of others couldn’t see their loved ones in hospital before they died.
“Gareth must have been absolutely terrified,” she said, describing her husband’s last days. “It’s awful. And [Johnson] talked so flippantly about saying goodbye to a colleague. And he kept blaming advisers and that’s terrible. He was the leader. He set the tone.”
Saleyha Ahsan lost her father to Covid in December 2020 and worked as a doctor in intensive care units. She said Johnson’s claim that hosting leaving events in Downing Streets had been “necessary” made her “furious”.
After the cross-party committee showed the former prime minister pictures of an event on 27 November 2020 attended by Johnson and more than 20 others, he said officials “needed to be thanked and appreciated for their work in very trying circumstances”.
But Ahsan said one of the only times doctors would break social distancing guidelines was to work in teams to turn a struggling Covid patient who needed to be prone, or to attempt life-saving resuscitation.
“Even when we had breaks coming out of ICU in a red zone in PPE we had a defined number of people allowed in the staff room at one time,” she said.
But Johnson said of one leaving gathering: “I believe this event was essential for work purposes.”
Ahsan’s father, Ahsan-ul-Haq Chaudry, 81, was put on oxygen on the day the then Downing Street aide Allegra Stratton was filmed joked with colleagues about Downing Street gatherings not being socially distanced. He died from Covid on 28 December 2020.
When Johnson said it was not realistic to operate in Downing Street in a socially distanced way as if there was “an electrical force field”, Ahsan said: “We absolutely did that and it was the right thing to do. And it was government advice.”
“I am furious,” she said. “This is just someone trying to save their political career.”
Rivka Gottlieb, a spokesperson for the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice campaign group, described the hearing as “a new low” for Johnson.
“Bereaved families found it painful to watch him pull his usual tricks of deflection, self pity and blaming everyone but himself,” she said. “The fact that it appears he didn’t fully understand the rules he was setting and communicating to the nation is especially galling. He isn’t fit for public office and if had any respect he’d resign as an MP and quietly reflect on the pain and suffering he has inflicted on so many.”
