Graham Brady, the former leading Tory backbencher, has revealed that Boris Johnson asked him “How many people would you let die?” when he said Lord Sumption was right to challenge lockdown. It shows how deeply Boris had been taken in by his Government’s own fearmongering about the virus, particularly after being hospitalised with it himself. Here’s an excerpt from Brady’s memoir, published in the Telegraph.
I watched much of the Government’s early handling of the COVID-19 pandemic unfold with deep concern. On Thursday March 19th 2020, the Government pushed emergency legislation through the House of Commons without a vote. The legislation would give the Government sweeping powers, especially to spend taxpayers’ money. David Davis had the presence of mind to table an amendment to require six-monthly renewal, which a number of us supported. This was the first of many moments during the pandemic when the complete absence of a functioning Opposition was felt. Surely Sir Keir Starmer should have wanted to ensure Parliamentary oversight of the Government during a crisis?
In the middle of May 2020, I secured an in-person meeting with Johnson, the first since December. He looked weary, certainly not back to full strength after contracting Covid himself. He seemed oblivious to the massive economic, social and non-Covid health costs that the lockdown would cause.
He readily agreed with me that the evidence suggested that the important interventions were hand hygiene and disinfection of surfaces, but when I suggested that the two-metre ‘social distancing’ rule should be reduced, he recoiled with horror.
“It’s people like us who get it really bad!” he exclaimed, looking at me. “Not athletic… I was a fatty… 17 and a half stone when I went into hospital.”
That same month, after stories emerged about the PM’s Chief Adviser, Dominic Cummings, having broken lockdown rules by driving from London to his parents’ home in Durham, with a side trip to Barnard Castle, I saw Boris again. He opened the door to his office looking like shit: frizzy hair and black rings around his eyes. I was astonished to see that on this occasion, his chaperone was the Chancellor, Rishi Sunak.
I started with substantive points about the restrictions, reminding him of the impact on the aviation sector, which threw him a bit. Rishi said nothing but was obviously enjoying seeing someone else try to make the case for more nuanced restrictions that would do less collateral damage. I then launched into Cummings. “This is damaging the party, the Government and damaging you personally. Colleagues are really angry.”
Boris spat back: “I think backbench MPs have been contemptible! They have been spineless chickenshit. They need to develop some backbone. The 2019 guys need to understand that they wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for Dom.”
I said that I had no personal animus against Cummings but that the row was hugely damaging and most of us thought he should resign.
“But don’t you believe his account? I believe it!”
“The Barnard Castle story is obvious bullshit – no sane person would drive his wife and small child 30 miles to test his eyesight!”
Boris looked totally perplexed at this. “HE’S NOT SANE!” he replied, as though that should have been obvious.
I briefly wondered whether Boris was also losing it.
As I left, Rishi left with me and invited me into his office to discuss the two-metre rule further. “You’re right, of course; it’s all going wrong because it was a mistake to put the Chief Medical Officer and Chief Scientific Officer in the press conference every day,” he said. “We thought it would give us cover, but now we can’t do anything sensible without them denouncing it as a risk.”
Days later, I requested a meeting with Boris about another matter but he phoned me first. “First, can I apologise for being intemperate with you when we met… it’s not your fault, you’re just doing your job, and you do it brilliantly… And I do understand the frustration of colleagues. I responded like that because I was so f—— angry myself. The f—— Barnard Castle optician trip for Christ’s sake!”
On schools, Boris said he agreed. “It’s this stupid f—–g two-metre rule, we’re going to review it – we’ll sort it. It’s these f—–g scientists!” It seemed he was being hoist by his own petard.
I bumped into Sir Robert Syms in the corridor. “There’s no leadership, no direction!”
In mid-June, I finally got a slot for the whole executive committee to meet with Boris. I started by asking the PM to talk us through the balance of risks between COVID-19, non-Covid health, economic cost and civil liberties. He vomited forth a torrent of words. One of his favourite tactics is talking rapidly while not leaving space for anyone to interject.
About 10 minutes in, I tried to push him on getting Britain back to work and ending the 14-day quarantine period. This merely triggered more waffle. “Moving as fast as we can! It’s the bloody scientists! It’s like that terrible Freudian dream where your feet are moving rapidly – but you don’t go anywhere.” Looking vaguely shifty, he asked me, “Do you have that?”
“No,” I replied. “Thankfully not.” I was tempted to add that it might be because my conscience was clear.
Long after the easing of restrictions and the introduction of the ‘Rule of Six’, I was invited to meet Boris for a drink in his Commons office, after having had no contact through the summer. I assumed that I would, at least, find him well briefed.
I tried to have a rational conversation with him about how the earlier link between infection rates and hospitalisation had been broken. He looked desperate to prove me wrong. “Hospital numbers are rising! It’s 192 this week, last week it was 100, the future looks grim.” He told me why Lord Sumption was wrong to make the case that people should be trusted to manage their own risk. “What about the people you infect?”
I replied that I was with Jonathan Sumption. People can also take responsibility for those around them. He gave me a frightened look. “How many people would you let die?”
We had already looked at the figures showing that hospital admissions and transfer to ICU were no longer tracking infection rates. I added that quality of life matters too. I asked him when the ‘Rule of Six’ would end and by what criteria. He gave me a bewildered look, as though it was a crazy question.
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