Boris Johnson dodges bereaved families by arriving at Covid inquiry at 7am

Boris Johnson arrived three hours early to the Covid inquiry today, avoiding crowds of the bereaved families who had planned to protest his arrival.

A video, taken by a member of the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK group who also arrived early, was shared with openDemocracy and shows Johnson exiting a car in darkness at 7am carrying files.

Shouts of: “Will you apologise to the bereaved families Mr Johnson?” and “Did you make mistakes?” can be heard from the crowds in Paddington, west London, as he enters Dorland House.

Sioux Vosper, whose father John died from Covid, told openDemocracy it was “very disrespectful”. She added: “I thought it was sneaky, underhand and cowardly, just like when we asked him to walk the Covid memorial wall and he walked under the cover of darkness.”

The former prime minister is being quizzed for two days this week on his governance during the pandemic.

As his evidence got under way, four protesters were thrown out for standing up with signs that read: “The dead can’t hear your apology”, in reference to reports he was set to apologise for the pain, loss and suffering of Covid victims, which he then did do.

Inquiry chair Heather Hallett said: “I do understand emotions are running very high, I do, and I think it's most unfortunate when I have to ask people to leave, but we have to ensure that this hearing is effective, and it's got to be effective not just for people in this hearing room but for people watching on the online streaming. So, please, make sure your behaviour is appropriate for a statutory public inquiry.”

The inquiry has already heard how it was “awful” watching Johnson make sense of graphs and data, how he considered long-covid “bollocks” and the “toxic” environment he was responsible for inside Number 10.

This week openDemocracy spoke to three bereaved people who have been travelling hundreds of miles and spending thousands of pounds to attend the inquiry every day.

Watch our live stream of the inquiry here.

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