{"id":584997,"date":"2025-11-21T16:00:13","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T16:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/584997\/"},"modified":"2025-11-21T16:00:13","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T16:00:13","slug":"covid-bereaved-call-for-boris-johnson-to-lose-ex-pm-benefits-over-inquiry-report-covid-inquiry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/584997\/","title":{"rendered":"Covid bereaved call for Boris Johnson to lose ex-PM benefits over inquiry report | Covid inquiry"},"content":{"rendered":"

Covid-bereaved families have called for Boris Johnson to lose access to public funds and said they will pursue all legal options for personal accountability after a damning report into his handling of the pandemic<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The families said they wanted all privileges Johnson received as a former prime minister \u2013 including his ministerial pension, his place on the privy council and access to the public duty costs allowance \u2013 to be withdrawn.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis actions during the pandemic amount to one of the gravest betrayals of the British public in modern history. His decisions, delays and refusal to listen to warnings cost tens of thousands of lives that could and should have been saved,\u201d Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe must be held accountable. We are not asking for an apology. We are asking for consequences. Boris Johnson<\/a> should have no role in public life and no further entitlement to public funds.\u201d<\/p>\n

The second report from the public inquiry into the pandemic published on Thursday found Johnson\u2019s government had acted \u201ctoo little, too late\u201d<\/a>, and that locking the country down a week earlier in March 2020 could have saved about 23,000 lives.<\/p>\n

The inquiry, led by the retired judge and crossbench peer Heather Hallett, found he had \u201crepeatedly changed his mind on whether to introduce tougher restrictions and failed to make timely decisions\u201d.<\/p>\n

It also said he had presided over a \u201ctoxic and chaotic culture\u201d in Downing Street that hampered decision-making, and that he had \u201cintentionally fostered conflict and a chaotic working environment\u201d.<\/p>\n

Criticism was also levelled at the leaders of the devolved nations, but Johnson was the most severely rebuked for his actions.<\/p>\n

As a former prime minister, Johnson is allowed to claim as much as \u00a3115,000 a year from the public duty costs allowance. He claimed the full amount in 2024-25.<\/p>\n

The statement by Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK said: \u201cIt is intolerable that bereaved families are expected to subsidise the lifestyle of the man whose decisions led to the deaths of our loved ones. That must end.\u201d<\/p>\n

The campaign group, which has about 7,000 members from across the UK, also said it would pursue \u201call available legal options to seek personal accountability for Johnson\u2019s decisions during the pandemic\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow that the inquiry has spoken, there must be accountability,\u201d it said. \u201cWhile our focus has always been on learning lessons to save lives in the future, individual accountability must be part of delivering justice.<\/p>\n

\u201cJustice for those we lost means real consequences for those who failed them, and we will not stop until that justice is delivered.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The former cabinet minister Michael Gove apologised on Friday for mistakes the government made during the pandemic, but defended Johnson over the claim he fostered a chaotic atmosphere in Downing Street.<\/p>\n

\u201cCan I just take an opportunity to apologise to all those who lost loved ones during the pandemic and many others who made huge sacrifices, who will feel, I\u2019m sure, a sense of, not just grief, but understandable anger as they read some of the conclusions in this report,\u201d he told BBC Radio 4\u2019s Today programme.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to, on behalf of the government and also the Conservative party, apologise for mistakes that were made during that period.\u201d<\/p>\n

He rejected some of the report\u2019s findings, saying that while locking down earlier would have been \u201cmore prudent\u201d, it was a \u201cleap\u201d to claim it would have saved 23,000 lives.<\/p>\n

He also disagreed that there had been a toxic and chaotic working environment. \u201cI do certainly think there were moments when voices were raised, words were used, attitudes were struck that were far from ideal, but the business of government during a crisis can\u2019t be carried on in the manner of a Jane Austen novel,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Covid-bereaved families have called for Boris Johnson to lose access to public funds and said they will pursue…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":584998,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[13,12,14],"class_list":{"0":"post-584997","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-stories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115588525135595484","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=584997"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584997\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/584998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=584997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=584997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=584997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}