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Boris Johnson faces harsh end-of-term questioning on COVID-19 by senior MPs after stating that the UK is making progress a year after its first lockdown.
In addition to the prime minister’s latest question showdown with Sir Keir Starmer for three weeks, he faces questions from MPs who chair select committees from all parties.
Their double barbecue comes on the eve of a potentially large Conservative rebellion in a Commons vote on lockdown restrictions on the last day before Parliament’s Easter recess.
After the PMQs, the Prime Minister faces a lengthy session in front of the Liaison Committee on his response to COVID, as well as questions about the UK’s place in the world and the economy.
Johnson’s latest interrogation comes after an emotional day marking the one-year anniversary of his first confinement, in which the nation fell silent to remember those who died during the pandemic.
From the steps of 10 Downing Street, to Blackpool Tower and Bradford City Hall, and from commercial towns to small villages, the day was rounded off with candlelight and light shows for the victims.
And in a press conference in Downing Street To mark the anniversary, a tired-looking Johnson, who nearly died from COVID last year, spoke of his own emotions.
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‘It was unlike any other fight in my life’
“I certainly think this is something that we will all remember and deal with in different ways, during, certainly in my case, as long as I live,” she told Sky News’ Beth Rigby.
“It has been an extraordinary moment in our history and a deeply difficult and harrowing period.”
When asked about the lessons learned, he said: “In retrospect, there are probably many things that we wish we had known and many things that we wish we had done differently at the time, in retrospect, because we were fighting a new disease under circumstances. very different from what any previous government would have imagined. “
The prime minister promised a memorial to those who died in the pandemic and said the nation was “step by step, blow by blow” on the road to “regain our freedoms.”
But after the gloomy tone of his Downing Street press conference, it was reported that addressing Tory MPs later, Johnson, risked igniting the EU vaccine war by joking that the reason for the UK’s success was “capitalism” and “greed”.
According to the Sun, he told MPs at a 1922 Committee meeting on a Zoom call: “The reason we have the vaccine success is because of capitalism, because of greed my friends.”
He was reported to have added: “Actually, I’m sorry I said so.” And it was also reported that he repeatedly urged deputies: “Forget I said that.”
A Downing Street spokesman later declined to comment on what happened during the meeting, but there was no denial of the comments reported by the prime minister.
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Which wave of COVID was the most deadly?
At the Liaison Committee meeting, leading the parliamentarians’ attack against COVID will be:
• Yvette Cooper, Labor Chair of the Home Affairs Committee, who has been a fierce critic of government policy on border controls and coronavirus quarantine measures;
• Meg Hiller, Labor Chair of the Public Accounts Committee, critical of test and trace flaws and poor value for money in COVID contracts;
• Jeremy Hunt, former health secretary who chairs the Health and Social Care Committee, who has at times criticized the prime minister’s shutdown strategy;
• William Wragg, who chairs the Committee on Constitutional Affairs and has been at the forefront of demands for a public investigation of COVID;
• Stephen Crabb, who chairs the Wales Affairs Committee, who has called for more help for people from low-income households during the pandemic.
This is Johnson’s third appearance before the Liaison Committee, chaired by an ally of Brexiters, Conservative MP Sir Bernard Jenkin, since he became prime minister.
In his last appearance, on January 13 of this year, Johnson confronted Cooper about border controls and also spoke of his concern about a new Brazilian variant of COVID-19.
MPs on the committee also questioned why the new rules requiring all travelers to test negative before entering the UK were introduced 10 months after the pandemic started.
Asked why the UK borders were not immediately closed to travelers from Brazil after the warnings of the new strain, Cooper said: “Why are they not taking immediate preventive action?”
He added: “It seems every time that you only delay all difficult and uncomfortable decisions until the last possible minute and when so many lives are at stake, Prime Minister, is this the leadership we really need?”
In response, Johnson rejected Cooper’s claims, saying that large amounts of checks were being carried out to see if people were self-isolating.
