BORIS Johnson has faced questions over the evidence of Dominic Cummings from opposition MPs.
Speaking at Prime Minister’s Questions this afternoon both Labour leader Keir Starmer and the SNP’s Ian Blackford challenged Mr Johnson over claims that he had mishandled the coronavirus pandemic, thought the virus was a “scare story” and joked about being injected with it on television.
He was also asked about the claims that Health Secretary Matt Hancock had lied to government ministers about the true scale of the problems throughout the crisis.
Mr Blackford, the SNP’s Westminster leader, said Mr Cummings’s evidence suggested Mr Johnson was a “negligent Prime Minister more concerned with his own self interest than the interests of the United Kingdom”.
He said: “When people were dying, the United Kingdom Government was considering chickenpox parties and joking about injecting the Prime Minister with Covid live on TV. We had a circus act when we needed serious government.
“Isn’t it the case that when the country needed leadership most, the Prime Minister was missing in action? Thousands have paid the ultimate price for his failure.”
Mr Blackford also asked the PM to apologise, saying he had “made a series of catastrophic errors”, and added: “ He went on holiday when he should have been leading efforts to tackle the pandemic. He was too slow to go into lockdown. He failed to secure our borders. He sent millions of people back to offices prematurely. There’s no doubt these mistakes cost many thousands of lives.”
Mr Johnson replied: “I take full responsibility for everything the Government did and will continue to do so.
“I take full responsibility for everything that has happened and, as I’ve said before both in this House and elsewhere, I’m truly sorry for the suffering that the people of this country have experienced.”
He added that there would be an independent public inquiry next year into the handling of the pandemic, but rejected his specific claims adding: “I don’t recognise the events he describes.”
Labour leader Mr Starmer challenged the Prime Minister over claims by his former senior aide that he had delayed a lockdown last year because “covid was only killing 80year-olds”.
He said: “Can I remind the Prime Minister that over 83,000 people over 80 lost their lives to this virus and that his decision to delay for 40 days from the Sage guidance on 21st September until 31st October will be seen as one of the single biggest failings of the last year.
“Does the Prime Minister accept that he used the words ‘Covid was only killing 80-year-olds’, or words to those effect?”
Mr Johnson replied: “Of course this will be a matter for the inquiry to go into … I am absolutely confident that we took the decisions in the best interests of the British people.
“When it comes hindsight, just to remind (him) … that he voted to stay in the European Medicines Agency which would have made it impossible for us to do the vaccine rollout at the pace that we have.”
On claims about Matt Hancock lying to government officials, Mr Starmer asked: “Can he confirm, did the Cabinet Secretary advise him the Prime Minister that he, the Cabinet Secretary, had – quote – lost faith in the Health Secretary’s honesty?”
Responding, Mr Johnson said: “The answer to that is no and I’m afraid I haven’t had the benefit of seeing the evidence that he is bringing to the House, but I must say that I think what the people of this country want us all to do is to get on with the delicate business now of trying to reopen our economy and restore people’s freedoms, get back to our way of life by rolling out the vaccine.”
Later, SNP MP Angus MacNeil challenged Mr Johnson to “respect” Scotland and not to block a second independence referendum.
He said the 2014 vote was “won on broken promises”, claiming Scots were told they would stay within the EU if they voted ‘no’, only to be taken out following the Brexit referendum.
The MP for the Western Isles said: “In 2016, without interference, the European Union respected the UK in the Brexit referendum process. Unfortunately, the last Scottish referendum did not see Scotland given the same respect.
“London, politicians promised Scotland their place in the European Union.
“They won that referendum very clearly on broken promises.”
He continued: “In the autumn when the Scottish Government has dealt with the health effects of the pandemic, economic parity will require independence as Norway and Ireland do.
“So Prime Minister, will Scotland be shown the same respect as the UK got from the EU, and this time, can our democracy not be interfered with and our referendum certainly not blocked?”
Mr Johnson said the Government had respected the result of the 2014 poll, adding that it was “a very substantial majority in favour of remaining in the UK, keeping our wonderful country together, not breaking it up”.
He said: “That was what the people of Scotland rightly voted for, and they did so in the belief that it was a once in a generation event.”
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