EBN- Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson defended his handling of COVID-19 on Wednesday at a public inquiry into the pandemic. He further said that the government “got some things wrong” but did its best.
Johnson said that he was deeply sorry for the loss of life during the COVID-19 pandemic. He also said he accepted he had made mistakes, but struggled to say specifically what he could have done differently.
Boris Johnson said he took personal responsibility for all decisions that were made, and he understood the public’s anger after the inquiry heard testimony of government incompetence, backstabbing and misogyny as it battled the biggest health crisis in decades.
“Inevitably, in the course of trying to handle a very, very difficult pandemic in which we had to balance appalling harms on either side of the decision, we may have made mistakes,” Johnson said. “Inevitably, we got some things wrong. I think we were doing our best at the time.”
Johnson had arrived at the inquiry venue at daybreak, several hours before he was due to take the stand, avoiding a protest by relatives of some of those victims.
Among those wanting answers from the inquiry are the families of some of the more than 230,000 people in the UK who died after contracting the virus.
A group gathered outside the office building, while some of them holding pictures of their loved ones. A banner declared: “Let the bodies pile high” — a statement attributed to Johnson by an aide. Another sign said: “Johnson partied while people died.”
