TWO witnesses have come forward to say they are prepared to say on oath that Boris Johnson did say he would “rather see bodies pile up in their thousands” than order a third lockdown.
The insiders who claim the Prime Minister did make the remark have told ITN that they are prepared to speak publicly if he continues to deny doing so.
Johnson has strongly denied using the phrase, describing the reports that he did so as “total rubbish”, but the controversy has shown no sign of calming.
There are also expectations his former aide Dominic Cummings will make explosive revelations over the PM’s handling of the pandemic when he gives evidence to a Commons committee next month.
Johnson is said to have made the comments in a rage last autumn, just as England went into a second lockdown.
The alleged remark was first reported by the Daily Mail on Monday and comes amid a bitter war of words with Cummings, who has questioned the PM’s competency in his handling of the pandemic, and claimed he tried to shut down an inquiry into a leak last autumn about the second lockdown in England. According to the paper, the comment was allegedly made after Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove warned Johnson that soldiers would be needed to guard hospitals overrun with Covid victims.
Johnson agreed to fresh restrictions but his frustration is said to have boiled over after the crucial meeting at No 10 in October. “No more f***ing lockdowns – let the bodies pile high in their thousands!” he is alleged to have said.
Meanwhile, further claims emerged yesterday with The Times reporting that Johnson repeatedly told aides in September when discussing the Covid pandemic that he would rather “let it rip” than go into a second lockdown, describing it as “mad”.
As Johnson and his Cabinet met yesterday morning to try to move on from the crisis, the SNP said Johnson’s denials were “becoming threadbare” and repeated their demand for him to resign if the claims are true.
The party’s Westminster leader Ian Blackford said: “The evidence against Boris Johnson is now becoming overwhelming. And in the face of that evidence, including the accounts of people who are prepared to swear on oath that he did make these comments, his repeated and shifty denials are becoming threadbare.
“To make comments about letting covid ‘rip’ and allowing bodies to ‘pile up’ is utterly abhorrent, and if confirmed would show that Johnson is unfit to be Prime Minister.
“This Tory government is completely out of touch with millions of people across the UK, who have made huge sacrifices and lost friends, colleagues and family members to this awful disease.
“They deserve better than Boris Johnson’s glib attitude and disgusting comments.
“Now that witnesses are willing to swear on oath that the Prime Minister made these comments, is he willing to do the same?
“Johnson must come to parliament to make a statement, answer questions, and – if he did make these comments – accept responsibility and announce his resignation.”
In the Commons on Monday, Gove said he “never heard language of that kind” – in what commentators later pointed out was a careful form of words short of an absolute denial – in the meeting where Johnson ordered the second shutdown in England when pressed by the SNP MP Stephen Flynn.
“Does the Minister not accept that a prime minister who does not put public health first is no prime minister at all?” asked Flynn.
Gove said: “This is a Prime Minister who was in hospital himself, in
intensive care. The idea that he would say any such thing, I find incredible. I was in that room.
“I never heard language of that kind and I am afraid that the honourable gentleman, by seeking to make the points in the way that he does, I think diverts attention from the fact that so many people who have been affected by this pandemic rely on the Government, the NHS and others to strain every sinew.”
He added: “These decisions are never easy, but the Government made the decision, and the Prime Minister made the decision, to have a second and third lockdown, and I think we can see the evidence of the leadership that he showed then, not just in the courage that he showed, but also in the success of the vaccination programme, from which people across this whole United Kingdom have benefited.”
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