A heartbroken daughter who lost both her parents to coronavirus has hit out at Boris Johnson over lockdown parties at Downing Street.
Restrictions meant Jill McCallie was unable to be with either dad Roger Bates or mum Sandra in their final days.
And she was left furious when the Prime Minister last week admitted he’d attended one gathering in the Downing Street garden in May 2020, saying he thought it was a work event.
Jill, who lives in Dalbeattie, said: “I don’t think I’ve ever felt so angry about anything.
“He was having drinks with people around him, laughing and joking, and my mum and dad died alone.
“There are 150,000 people who died whose families are in the same position as me and my brother. It’s not just us, all those other families are grieving. People have died alone and nobody deserves that.
“He’s taking no responsibility for his actions, he thinks he’s invincible and will get away with it and he probably will. This is a person that is meant to be running our country who we are meant to respect.
“We did everything we were meant to do because we were trying to protect ourselves and others. He has shown an utter disregard for anybody else.”
In December, 2020 – the same month it is alleged there was a Christmas party at Downing Street – 76-year-old Roger was taken into hospital with a collapsed lung.
He was then moved to Lindsey Lodge Hospice in Lincolnshire, where he and wife of 54 years Sandra lived. Jill and her brother John visited him every day.
Jill, a retired midwife, said: “He was quite bright and cheery. We sat with him every day and he was a wonderful man.
“One day we got a phone call saying there was a patient with Covid but he was being moved to another part of the hospice so we could still go to see him.
“We then had a phone call on December 18 saying dad had Covid and they closed the doors to visitors which was utterly devastating because we were all really close.
“We could speak to him on the phone but he was struggling for breath as Covid got hold of him. We could talk to him through the nurses who were fantastic – all the staff we’ve come across have been phenomenal.
“My brother and I both phoned him on Christmas Day to say we loved him. I got a phone call at 10 past midnight to say he had died.
“Before he got Covid it was sad but we could sit with him and have a laugh. That last week of his life when he really needed us we couldn’t be with him. It was devastating.”
The restrictions at the time meant Jill and her brother couldn’t even dress her dad for the funeral which could be attended by just 20 people.
And the family was dealt another blow with the loss of Sandra in March, 2021.
Jill, who is 53, said: “My mum had gone to hospital with a broken nose. We potentially think that’s where she caught Covid as she hadn’t been anywhere else but I’m not blaming anyone, it is what it is.
“About a week later she went into hospital and was automatically put on an oxygen machine. Forty eight hours later she died on her own.
“We couldn’t believe it when the doctors told us she was going to die that night or the next day.
“The only thing that gave us a bit of comfort is thinking Dad couldn’t manage without her. He had come down to collect her.
“We organised another funeral for the same 20 people. It shouldn’t have been like that.
“We all deserved better than this. It is wrong and unacceptable that our Prime Minister can disregard the rules and receive no punishment for that.”
