A son who lost his dad to Covid in the height of the pandemic has blasted Boris Johnson and the government for their shameful partying.
In April 2020 David Jackson took this heartbreaking image of his dad Norman, just minutes before he died.
David and his sisters, Sally and Wendy, had obeyed the Covid rules and were not allowed inside the home of Norman and their ill mum Christine, in Wickford, Essex, as the health of both started to fail.
David, a keen photographer, decided to take the final image of his father as he lay in his hospital bed in Basildon, Essex.
Before now, he has not shown the picture to others.
But after the Sue Gray report which highlighted raucous partying inside Number 10 while the rest of the nation followed Boris Johnson’s rules, David, 61, had enough.
“That was his last day, he died minutes later,” David told the Mirror.
“I know he would have been fully supportive of me taking that image.
“I’ve kept that photo to myself but after recent events I wanted to share it.
“He died within a couple of minutes of it being taken.”
David would travel down from his home in Huddersfield to help his sisters with their parents’ ill health.
“My mum has had poor health for some time and my dad was her carer,” he said.
“The carers didn’t want us in the house because of the covid restrictions.
“They finally relented so we could spend a little bit of time with our parents.
“But we couldn’t have who we wanted to at dad’s funeral, we couldn’t say goodbye to our amazing dad in the way we wanted to.
“We stuck to the rules and then Boris Johnson and his lot were partying.
“I’m over the emotional side of my father’s death now. Now it’s just anger.
“Anger at how we did what we were asked as he died while those who made the rules happily broke them on a regular basis.
“It’s just not right. It’s not right. I’m not the sort of person to vent or want to go public, but this has just done it for me.
“I saw the report on Wednesday and that was it, I just wanted to tell our story.”
He said Norman, 85, was a “really special person” who worked hard as a chief public health inspector to provide for his family.
“He always took care of us and our mum,” he said.
“My dad was a very stoic, stern-minded man who would never speak about people behind their back. An honest man who would tell you to your face.”
Asked what his dad would have made of Boris and his parties, he said: “He would have been incredibly upset at the unfairness of it all. Because that’s what it is - it’s just unfair.”
