Chaos at the core of his government and his failure to take it seriously led to 23,000 deaths, according to a damning report on decision-making during the pandemic.
The report concluded that over 20,000 lives could have been saved in England if it had been implemented just a week earlier in March 2020. Westminster and the three devolved nations were judged to be doing “too little, too late” as the virus spread
From 16 March 2020, the lockdown and social distancing came into effect, with schools and pubs closing later that week, before ministers took the unprecedented step of the first full lockdown on 23 March.
“If stricter restrictions had been imposed, without a full lockdown, earlier than March 16 […] the mandatory quarantine imposed could have been short or possibly not necessary at all,” the report said. However, if the mandatory lockdown had come into force from 16 March, “models show that the number of deaths in England in the first wave by 1 July 2020 would have fallen by 48%, equivalent to around 23,000 fewer deaths”.
φωτ. AP/Alberto Pezzali
What else did the report show?
- Partygate and other cases of breaking the Covid rules caused “immense distress” to the public, particularly “people who had lost loved ones and complied with the rules and guidelines despite huge personal and financial costs”. The Downing Street party affair, in particular, has led to a “self-reported” drop in people’s adherence to the rules over Christmas 2021.
- Boris Johnson “repeatedly changed his mind” in September and October 2020 “on whether to introduce tighter restrictions” and “failed to make timely decisions”. The report says his “vacillation allowed the virus to continue to spread rapidly” and led to the second lockdown in November.
- The summer 2020 Eat Out to Help Out scheme, which offered discounted restaurant meals to support the restaurant industry, was “designed without scientific advice” and “undermined public health messages”. Johnson and his chancellor, Rishi Sunak, “failed to seek scientific advice” on the potential risks of the program, despite recommendations from Professor (now Sir) Chris Whitty, the country’s chief medical officer, about the dangers of indoor spaces.
- Efforts to relax the rules at Christmas 2020 to find families, which then had to be curtailed or revoked, “created false hope” for citizens.
- The health secretary at the time, Matt Hancock, “gained a reputation among senior officials and advisers in No 10 for over-promising and under-delivering”. Sir Chris Wormald, now the country’s most senior civil servant, who ran the Department of Health and Social Care at the time, did not “correct the over-enthusiastic impression” Hancock had given. Their actions together “hid the reality and the need for more action” during the spring of 2020.
- There was no “clear plan setting out procedures” and Dominic Raab, first secretary of state, was “unclear how he would carry out his work” when Johnson was incapacitated by Covid. There was no “clear plan setting out the procedures to ensure continuity of leadership and decision-making”. The report says it is “unclear how critical decisions would have been made” if the then prime minister had fallen ill earlier in March, before “key decisions” were made, or if he had not recovered.
AP photo/Frank Augstein
