Boris Johnson has lashed out at some of the “absolutely absurd” characterisations of the partygate debacle as he completed two days of at-times combative and emotional evidence to the Covid-19 Inquiry.
20.11.2023 - 14:45 / manchestereveningnews.co.uk
The Covid-19 Inquiry has heard that Prime Minister Boris Johnson was "bamboozled" by the graphs and data presented to him by scientists during the pandemic. Diary entries by former chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance were shown to the inquiry on Monday as Sir Patrick described dealing with the former prime minister.
The inquiry heard how Mr Johnson sometimes struggled to retain scientific information, was “clutching at straws” and at one point queried whether Covid was spreading “because of the great libertarian nation we are”.
One entry from May 4 2020 read: "Late afternoon meeting with the PM on schools. My God, this is complicated. Models will not provide the answer. PM is clearly bamboozled.
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Others, also written in May 2020, said: "
Other entries from May 2020 stated: "PM asking whether we've overdone it on the lethality of this disease. He swings between optimism, pessimism, and then this." and "PM still confused on different types of test. He holds it in his head for a session and then it goes."
In June, Sir Patrick wrote: "Watching the PM get his head round stats is awful. He finds relative and absolute risk almost impossible to understand."
An entry from September 2020 said: "Clare Gardiner talked PM through the graphs. It is difficult, he asks questions like which line is the dark red line is he colourblind? Then 'so you think positivity has gone up overnight?' then 'oh god bloody hell'. But it is all the same stuff he was shown six hours ago."
Sir Patrick told the inquiry: "I think I'm right in saying that
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