BORIS Johnson refused to apologise for the UK Government’s actions at the start of the pandemic and dodged responding to any of Dominic Cumming’s allegations during PMQs.
The Prime Minister was probed by SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford on some of the shocking evidence that has been revealed this morning as Cummings spoke to the joint Science and Technology Committee and Health and Social Care Committee.
Blackford asked the Prime Minister to “own up and apologise” for his mistakes that “cost many thousands of lives” after Cummings apologised to the UK public this morning at the beginning of his evidence session.
Blackford said:”Mr Speaker, 128,000 people have died of coronavirus in the United Kingdom. This morning the Prime Minister’s most senior former advisor Dominic Cummings apologised on behalf of the UK Government.
“He said ‘when the public needed us most, we failed’. We know that the Prime Minister made a series of catastrophic errors throughout the crisis, 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 their offices prematurely.
“There’s no doubt that these mistakes cost many thousands of lives, but even a disgraced figure like Dominic Cummings is willing to own up and apologise, isn’t it time that the Prime Minister did the same?”
In response, the Prime Minister said: “Mr Speaker, I take full responsibility for everything that happened, as I have said before as he will recall both in this house and elsewhere, I am truly sorry for the suffering the people of this country have experienced.
READ MORE: Dominic Cummings: Civil servant said UK 'absolutely f****d'
“But I maintain my point that the Government acted throughout with the intention to save life and protect the NHS in accordance with the best scientific advice, that’s exactly what we did.”
Blackford went on to say that Cummings evidence was “extraordinary but sadly not surprising” and continued to grill the PM on claims the Government was considering “chicken pox parties”.
He said: “It paints a familiar pattern of behaviour, a negligent Prime Minister, more concerned with his own self interest than the interests of the United Kingdom. When people were dying, the United Kingdom Government was considering chicken pox 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. When will the Prime Minister finally accept responsibiliy for the failures of his government?”
Again, the PM repeated the line he takes “full responsibility” but said he did not “recognise the events he describes”.
Johnson also failed to deny Cumming’s claims that he had said Covid was “only killing 80-year-olds” under questioning by Labour leader Keir Starmer.
READ MORE: Dominic Cummings: Boris Johnson wanted to be injected with Covid on live TV
Starmer said: “Another central allegation briefed overnight is that the Prime Minister delayed the circuit-break over the autumn half term because ‘Covid was only killing 80-year-olds’.
“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 September 21 until October 31 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 [that] effect?”
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 European Medicines Agency which would have made it impossible for us to do the vaccine rollout at the pace that we have.”
To which Starmer said: “I note that the Prime Minister’s careful not to refute these allegations.”
It comes as Cummings also said during the evidence session that a top civil servant told him the UK was “absolutely f****d” and thousands of people may die because there was no pandemic plan in place - a week before the first lockdown came in.
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