Boris Johnson refuses to apologise for saying Covid only kills over-80s

Things have changed ‘since we were thinking in those ways’, says prime minister

Boris Johnson has refused to apologise in the House of Commons for saying that coronavirus only kills over-80s.

Mr Johnson was challenged by Sir Keir Starmer at prime minister’s questions over a WhatsApp message published by his former adviser Dominic Cummings.

The PM made no attempt to deny the authenticity of the message, sent in October last year, in which he resisted a second lockdown on the grounds that the majority of those dying were above the average life expectancy, joking: “Get Covid and live longer.”

Mr Johnson appeared to admit that Cummings was correct about his determination to prevent the reimposition of lockdown last autumn, telling MPs that things had changed “since we were thinking in those ways”.

Starmer demanded an apology from the prime minister, telling Johnson that every over-80 who lost their life left behind “grieving families and loved ones”.

Dodging the call to apologise, Mr Johnson said that “nothing I can say… could make up for the loss and the suffering” felt by those affected by Covid.

Giving evidence by video-link from Chequers, where he is isolating after coming into contact with Covid-positive healths secretary Sajid Javid, he said that the government had made “incredibly tough” decisions in the effort to balance controlling the disease with the suffering caused by lockdown to mental health and young people’s life chances.

But Starmer said the government was “all over the place” on its imposition of of controls as England emerges from lockdown, following confused messages on Tuesday over whether workers should self-isolate.

And SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford accused the PM of being “glib” about the prospect of an early death for thousands of elderly people and treating the over-80s as “expendable”.

He repeated his call for the public inquiry into the handling of the pandemic to be brought forward from Mr Johnson’s preferred date in 2022, so that he and other ministers can be made to answer questions under oath about their performance.

Following the PM’s use of three-word slogans like “Get Brexit Done” and “Hands Face Space”, Sir Keir said Johnson should now adopt “On The Hoof” to describe his Covid policies.

“When it comes to creating confusion, the prime minister is a super-spreader,” the Labour leader told the Commons chamber, which was fuller than it has been for many months following the relaxation of coronavirus controls on Monday.

Repeating his warning of a “summer of chaos”, Starmer said: “Yesterday his business minister said the app was an advisory tool only, another government minister - and I kid you not - said yesterday the app is just to allow you to make ‘informed decisions’. What on earth does that mean?”

He added: “The prime minister and the chancellor spent the weekend trying to dodge isolation altogether.

“The British people are trying to follow the rules, how can they when his ministers keep making them up as they go along?“

And he asked: “Why is it OK to go to a nightclub for the next six weeks without proof of a vaccine or test, and then from September it will only be OK to get into a nightclub if you’ve got a vaccine ID card?”

Boris Johnson accused Sir Keir of trying to “score cheap political points” and noted: “Everybody can see we have to wait until the end of September, by which time it is only fair to the younger generation, when they will all have got the two jabs, before we consider something like asking people to be doubled jabbed before they can go into a nightclub.

“That’s blindingly obvious to everyone, it’s common sense.”

Mr Johnson said it would also “encourage” younger people to get jabs.