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This vast infrastructure has been built since the assassination of President John F Kennedy in Dallas in 1963. Four of the 44 presidents have been assassinated (Trump is often called the 45th president, but he is actually the 44th): Grover Cleveland, president from 1885-89 and 1893-97, is counted as the 22nd and 24th President). That’s almost one in 10 presidents who have been assassinated: John F Kennedy, Abraham Lincoln, James A. Garfield, and William McKinley.
And that is why the level of presidential medical care is so high compared to the level of the Prime Minister: only one Prime Minister has been assassinated; Spencer Perceval in 1812.
Still, many experts were concerned about the level of care Boris Johnson received when he contracted the coronavirus in April this year. The Prime Minister was at St Thomas’ Hospital in South London for a week, with three days in intensive care. He received excellent care at the NHS hospital, by two nurses in particular, whom he thanked in his subsequent broadcast for taking care of him “when things could have gone anyway.” The government said they did not put him on a ventilator, but instead received “standard oxygen treatment.”
Concerns were expressed over reports that the prime minister was sicker than officials revealed in the days before he was admitted to the hospital. A government medical team would have diagnosed the infection earlier. Downing Street was a hotbed of infection: the prime minister’s senior adviser, Dominic Cummings, also contracted coronavirus.
Downing Street’s low level of healthcare reflects the fact that the prime minister is not head of state, unlike Donald Trump in the United States. The Queen, our head of state, has far more medical care than Boris Johnson. On all fronts, the prime minister has lower levels of pampering than the president. You have to pay for all meals for Checkers guests who are not there on political business.
And the four-room flat at 11 Downing Street, where the prime minister lives with his girlfriend Carrie Symonds, baby Wilfred, and the dog Dilyn, is remarkably non-presidential. I’ve been there and while it’s a great thrill to live above the store in the heart of the British government, 10 Downing Street is still essentially a row house, albeit grand, compared to the palace that is the White House. a palace with its own hospital.
Harry Mount is the author of The Wit and Wisdom of Boris Johnson (Bloomsbury)
