Lord Bethell says Boris Johnson did ‘everything he could’ to avoid focusing on pandemic in early days of crisis
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    8 months ago

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    Brexit was prioritised over tackling Covid-19 in the early days of the outbreak, a former health minister has said, as the inquiry into the UK response to the pandemic gathers pace.

    Lord Bethell, who was appointed a health minister in March 2020, the month the UK went into its first lockdown, said Boris Johnson did “everything he could” to avoid focusing on the pandemic.

    “I know [Boris Johnson] found the prospect of a pandemic personally very difficult to focus on, it was bad news of a kind he doesn’t like to respond to, and he did everything he could to try to avoid the subject,” he said.

    On Monday, the diary of a former private secretary submitted to the inquiry suggested he had asked why damage was being inflicted on the economy during the pandemic “for people who will die anyway soon”.

    The WhatsApp message was sent to Dominic Cummings, at the time Johnson’s chief adviser, by the cabinet secretary, who confided in the midst of an oscillating government response to the pandemic: “I am at the end of my tether.”

    “He changes strategic direction every day (Monday we were all about fear of virus returning as per Europe, March etc – today we’re in ‘let it rip’ mode cos [sic] the UK is pathetic, needs a cold shower etc.

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