The claims against Johnson – from letting Covid rip to a virus-killing hairdryer

Former prime minister Boris Johnson, who is set to be grilled by the Covid inquiry today, has been a frequent topic of discussion in the weeks leading up to his appearance.

Several senior No 10 aides and scientific advisers from his time in Downing Street have made strong claims about Mr Johnson’s handling of the pandemic and his responses during key moments of the crisis.

During his grilling by Hugo Keith KC, Mr Johnson will likely be quizzed on the many claims made by his former colleagues.

In his defence, the former prime minister is expected to argue that the chaos in Government at the time of the pandemic was due to constantly changing scientific advice.

Here are some of the key claims made by those close to Mr Johnson about his handling of the pandemic:

‘Bamboozled’ by scientific modelling

During his evidence to the Covid inquiry, Sir Patrick Vallance, the UK Government’s chief scientific adviser during the pandemic, revealed that Mr Johnson struggled to understand some graphs.

An extract from Sir Patrick’s contemporaneous diary, shown to the inquiry, said the prime minister was at times “bamboozled” by scientific modelling.

Sir Patrick said that the then-PM had last studied science at the age of 15 and “would be the first to admit it wasn’t his forte”, and claimed he would often pretend to misunderstand things to test out whether an alternative could be true.

Getting injected with Covid-19 on live TV

Lord Eddie Lister, who was Downing Street chief of staff between 2019 and 2021, told the inquiry that during the pandemic Mr Johnson “suggested to senior civil servants and advisors that he wanted to be injected with Covid-19 on television to demonstrate to the public that it did not pose a threat.”

He described the comment as “unfortunate” and “made in the heat of the moment”, before adding that it was made “at a time when COVID was not seen as being the serious disease it subsequently became”.

Former senior aide Dominic Cummings has also previously claimed Mr Johnson made this comment in his evidence to a parliamentary committee in 2021.

Asking if hairdryers could kill Covid-19

In his evidence to the Covid inquiry, Mr Cummings claimed that Mr Johnson asked scientific advisers whether people could kill Covid by using a “special hair dryer” up their nose.

“A low point was when he circulated a video of a guy blowing a special hair dryer up his nose ‘to kill Covid’,” he wrote in his statement.

Mr Cummings said that Mr Johnson had sent the video clip to Sir Patrick and Sir Chris Whitty, the Chief Medical Officer, in a WhatsApp group to ask them “what they thought” of it, but did not detail their response.

Covid-19 should ‘wash through the country’

In an interview with the BBC in 2021, Mr Cummings claimed that Mr Johnson wanted to let Covid “wash through the country” rather than destroy the economy and that he dismissed its impact on the NHS.

Mr Johnson was reportedly very imposed to implementing an autumn lockdown in late 2020 as he thought people dying from it were “essentially all over 80”, Mr Cummings has claimed.

He said the prime minister had messaged him to say: “I no longer buy all this NHS overwhelmed stuff.”

Downing Street said at the time that Mr Johnson, who was still prime minister at the time, had taken the “necessary action to protect lives and livelihoods, guided by the best scientific advice” throughout the pandemic.

Boris Johnson argued for ‘letting it all rip’ during pandemic

Sir Patrick also claimed in his diaries that, during a meeting in October 2020, Mr Johnson argued for “letting it all rip”.

The extract read: “PM meeting – begins to argue for letting it all rip. Saying yes there will be more casualties but so be it – “they have had a good innings’”.

The same entry quoted Johnson as saying: “Most people who die have reached their time anyway.”

Looking for a ‘dead cat’ to distract from the pandemic

Mr Cummings alleged in his witness statement that Mr Johnson had asked him in late 2020 to find a “dead cat” – a story used to distract the media – to draw attention away from the pandemic.

He claimed that Mr Johnson “wanted to declare Covid ‘over’ even though this would obviously backfire” at the time.

“At one point in autumn he told me to ‘put your campaign head back on and figure out how we dead-cat Covid, I’m sick of Covid, I want it off the front pages,’” Mr Cummings added.

“I said that no campaign could ‘dead-cat Covid’ and I would not spend my time on such a project,” he added.

‘Let the bodies pile high’

Mr Cummings first told a parliamentary committee in 2021 that he heard Mr Johnson say “let the bodies pile high” when discussing whether he should implement a second lockdown.

In his statement, Lord Lister said: “In September 2020, the R number was rising. A circuit breaker was proposed in response to this increase and the health secretary was pushing hard for this to take place.

“The opposition to another lockdown was intense.”

He says that when presented with the prospect of a circuit breaker lockdown, he heard Johnson say “let the bodies in pile high” during a meeting in September 2020.

The former prime minister has denied ever using the phrase.

‘Obsessed with older people accepting their fate’

In extracts from Sir Patrick’s diaries, the former chief scientific adviser described a “bonkers set of exchanges” in a meeting from August 2020.

He said Mr Johnson appeared “obsessed with older people accepting their fate” and letting younger people get on with their lives during the pandemic.

In another entry, he claimed that Mr Johnson suggested the right of his party thought Covid was “pathetic and Covid is just nature’s way of dealing with old people” before adding: “I am not entirely sure I disagree with them”.

‘Macho culture’ in Downing Street

In her evidence, former deputy cabinet secretary Helen MacNamara told the Covid inquiry a “toxic” environment affected decision-making during the crisis.

She suggested that there was a “macho culture” in Downing Street, and accused Boris Johnson of failing to tackle “misogynistic language” used by Mr Cummings.

WhatsApp messages shown to the inquiry, referring to Ms MacNamara, saw Mr Cummings saying he wanted to “personally handcuff her and escort her from the building”.

“We cannot keep dealing with this horrific meltdown of the British state while dodging stilettos from that c**t,” Mr Cummings wrote about her in one message from August 2020.

Mr Cummings apologised for his language in the message before the inquiry, claiming it was “obviously appalling”.

Pandemic was the ‘wrong crisis’ for Boris Johnson

Lee Cain, who was Mr Johnson’s director of communications and a close ally of the ex-PM, told the inquiry that the pandemic was the “wrong crisis” for Mr Johnson’s “skill set”.

He said his former boss would “often delay making decisions” and “change his mind on issues” after seeking advice from multiple sources.

WhatsApp messages between Mr Cain and Mr Cummings also described Mr Johnson as “melting down” in March 2020 as the pair vented their frustrations over his handling of the crisis.

“I’ve literally said same thing ten f****** times and he still won’t absorb it,” Mr Cain said in one message.

Coronavirus was not a ‘big deal’ and would ‘be like swine flu’

Mr Cummings claimed that the then prime minister did not thing in March 2020, just weeks before the first lockdown, that coronavirus was a “big deal”.

In a WhatsApp messaged sent to Mr Cain on 3 March 2020 discussing Mr Johnson, he said: “He doesn’t think it’s a big deal and he doesn’t think anything can be done and his focus is elsewhere, he thinks it’ll be like swine flu and he thinks his main danger is talking [the] economy into a slump.”

Mr Cain’s written statement also noted that Mr Johnson did not attend at least four Cobra meetings in early 2020 as he was focusing on other issues and taking a two-week holiday.