Coronavirus: Former Pizza Express boss angers Question Time audiences by referring to ‘government propaganda’

Businessman Luke Johnson implies UK has overreacted to Covid-19 crisis

The former chairman of Pizza Express has been strongly criticised on social media for saying the government has been running “a campaign of fear” during the coronavirus crisis.

Speaking on BBC One's Question Time on Thursday evening, the entrepreneur Luke Johnson implied the UK has overreacted to the threat caused by Covid-19.

Among other claims, he suggested that only 350 people below the age of 60 without “other morbidities” have died from coronavirus in the UK, adding that people were “more likely” to die by drowning.

Fiona Bruce, who presents Question Time, said in response that more than 4,000 people under 65 had died from Covid-19.

She also emphasised that people with other “morbidities” were not necessarily "going to die anyway” and could have lived with their conditions.

As well as his comments on the coronavirus death toll, Mr Johnson said the UK is facing an economic “depression”, adding that he would not be surprised if two million more people became unemployed within a year.

But Devi Sridhar, chair of global public health at the University of Edinburgh, told the programme it was a “mistake” to put economic considerations against public health.

Ms Sridhar said: “These are both on the same side. Containment and public health is good for the economy.”

She said this was demonstrated by countries that enforced lockdown quicker than the UK, which are now opening up again.

Mr Johnson attracted headlines when Patisserie Valerie, the business he used to chair, collapsed in January last year after internal fraud was revealed.

He had previously written about the blight of financial illiteracy and the need to protect against fraud.