THE lead solicitor for the Scottish Covid Bereaved Group has rejected Boris Johnson’s apology for the “pain and loss” of the Covid pandemic.
During his appearance at the UK Covid Inquiry, Johnson had started giving evidence and apologised to Covid victims before he was interrupted by protesters.
He said: “Can I just say how glad I am to be at this inquiry and how sorry I am for the pain and the loss and the suffering of the Covid victims.”
Johnson (below) went on to acknowledge that his government made “mistakes” and that he takes “personal responsibility for all the decisions that we made”.
However, bereaved families have not accepted Johnson’s apology, lead solicitor for the Scottish Covid Bereaved Group Aamer Anwar told a press conference.
“Mr Johnson apologised today but that apology is not accepted by many of the bereaved because he also claimed the Government saved thousands of lives,” he said.
“And that, for many, is a gross distortion of the truth.”
Anwar had also issued a statement outside the inquiry, saying it must be “fearless in raising its voice for the truth”.
“The Scottish Covid Bereaved demand that all witnesses who appear at the inquiry must speak with absolute candour and are brutally honest," he said.
While giving evidence to the inquiry, Johnson took aim at the Scottish Government as he appeared to blame mixed messaging for some of the mistakes that were made.
“We were relying so much on messaging to help contain the virus and we needed the public to understand the message in as straightforward a way as possible, and they really did, by and large,” Johnson said.
However, he then said that because of the “very natural and proper right of the devolved administrations to have their own approach,” sometimes there would be “one message from Number 10, then a slightly different one from Scotland or wherever”.
