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Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab told a conservative virtual conference that he feared Boris Johnson may have died of coronavirus.
Raab replaced the Prime Minister after Johnson was admitted to intensive care after his COVID-19 diagnosis in the spring.
Watched on screens by delegates, the First Secretary of State said at the conference: “He almost took the life of our prime minister, our friend and our leader.
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“They ask me a lot how I felt when I covered it.
“Well, I was really worried that we might lose him, and I was worried about Carrie (Symonds), pregnant with baby Wilf.
“But I always had faith that with the excellent care he received from the NHS and his fighting spirit, he would come through.”
While US President Donald Trump was being treated in hospital after becoming infected with the virus, Raab revealed that he was anxious that Johnson could have been one of the tens of thousands of people killed by the disease in the UK. .
Johnson admitted, after his discharge from the hospital on Easter Sunday, that his life had been in danger, saying “it could have gone either way.”
Since then he has tried to lose weight, having discovered that it is the obese who are most at risk.
In an interview with the Daily Telegraph, the prime minister said that he had lost almost two stones.
Johnson was treated at St Thomas’ Hospital in London
“I try not to eat too much sometimes, and it’s basically about exercising a lot and not eating as much,” he told the newspaper.
He also told the BBC that claims that he planned to resign next year were “sinister disinformation.”
Rumors circulated in recent months that the prime minister would not see a full term in office because he was fighting in the wake of his coronavirus battle.
During his speech at the conference, Raab said he felt the need to pray that the country would “rise to the height” of the “greatest challenge in a generation” as the pandemic took hold.
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He admitted that there were “lessons to be learned” from the crisis, adding: “I have to say that, for every obstacle we faced, with every heartbreaking loss, there was also a story of courage, a moment of inspiration.”
Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove, also speaking at the Conservative Party conference, said the Conservative leader had made an “astonishing recovery” and called the prime minister the “liveliest wire in the room.”
Gove used his speech at the conference to add that he wants to move large government departments out of London to support Boris Johnson’s so-called “leveling” agenda.
He said it is time for public officials to be “closer to where the action is,” arguing that home work during the pandemic shows that upheaval can work.
The conservative virtual conference opened on Saturday with the announcement that the party plans to open a second headquarters in Leeds in an attempt to “show our commitment to the blue wall seats,” party co-chair Amanda Milling said.
He added that the goal was to have the headquarters open next year. Gove has said the Civil Service should follow suit as the party seeks to create jobs outside of London.
