‘Grotesque’: UK ministers defend PM Boris Johnson’s coronavirus response after damning report

The UK government has defended its response to the coronavirus pandemic after a damning newspaper report claimed Prime Minister Boris Johnson skipped crucial emergency meetings in January and February while suggesting he was distracted by his personal life.

Johnson, who is still recovering following several days in intensive care with Covid-19, came under fire in a Sunday Times report as the nation’s official death toll passed 16,000 with 596 more deaths in 24 hours.

The newspaper, which had backed Johnson in the December general election, claimed the PM failed to start ordering protective personal equipment (PPE) for medical staff, ventilators and virus tests, and only started to take the threat seriously in March.

The newspaper also claimed Johnson slipped off to the Chevening grace-and-favour country retreat with his girlfriend Carrie Symonds for a fortnight in February, as the country also reeled from flood damage, before announcing her pregnancy.

“There’s no way you’re at war if your PM isn’t there,” an unnamed source, allegedly one of Downing Street’s own advisers, told The Sunday Times. “And what you learn about Boris was he did not chair any meetings. He liked his country breaks. He did not work weekends. It was like working for an old-fashioned chief executive in a local authority 20 years ago. There was a real sense that he did not do urgent crisis planning. It was exactly like people feared he would be.”