A hero nurse who saved Boris Johnson’s life when he caught Covid has attacked him over Partygate saying "more respect" should have been shown to the British public.
Luis Pitarma was one of two critical care nurses who looked after the prime minister when he was in intensive care at St Thomas' Hospital in London, in April 2020.
The PM went on to publicly thank “Luís [Pitarma] from Portugal” and “Jenny [McGee] from New Zealand” for saving his life.
However, the Portuguese nurse has spoken out about the PM’s cavalier attitude after he was found to have broken the law over Partygate.
The 31-year-old said that Mr Johnson should have had “more respect for the British people and all the people that worked very hard fighting this pandemic”.
He went on to slam the PM's attitude in the face of all the hard work the public did to fight the virus.
Luis said: “I don’t think it [having all those parties] was the best attitude. They should have had a little more regard and a little more respect for the British people and for all the people that worked very hard fighting this pandemic, especially in the UK.”
The prime minister announced he had tested positive for Covid on March 27, back in 2020.
On April 3 he claimed he was feeling better but was admitted to hospital two days later.
On April 6 his condition worsened and he was transferred to ICU where he spent three nights where Luis and Jenny both looked after him.
Luis is a Senior Staff Nurse at St Thomas’ hospital and has worked with the trust since 2016.
He made the comments as he spoke to Portuguese journalists on Friday night at a hotel in central London after he was given the ‘Ordem do Mérito’ award.
When asked about his award, Luis said: “I'm very proud of the work I did and the decoration I received. It is a recognition of the efforts and hard work over the years.
“I took care of the PM as I would take care of anyone else. I would like to share this distinction with all the other Portuguese nurses working in the UK. I am sure my colleagues are doing as excellent a job as the one I did”.
In recent months, after a series of damning revelations and stories, Johnson has come under heavy criticism for partygate, the ongoing saga about parties held at No10 and by government personnel during the height of the pandemic.
As the rest of the country were unable to be with loved ones as they died or see their families, staff in No10 parties and held raucous events that ran late into the night.
Attending one of these events led to Boris Johnson being fined, and becoming the first ever sitting prime minister to break the law.
This came after Mr Johnson narrowly avoided being toppled by his own MPs last week in a no-confidence vote largely triggered by Partygate.
A damning report by civil servant Sue Gray found there had been ”failures of leadership in Number 10 and the Cabinet Office”.
Mr Johnson was also issued with a fixed penalty notice over a birthday party held for him at Downing Street in June 2020.
The prime minister's wife Carrie and Chancellor Rishi Sunak were also fined over the same gathering.
His former colleague Jenny McGee, who cared for Mr Johnson as he battled C ovid, publicly resigned from the NHS in May 2021 citing lack of “respect” for health workers.
In an interview with Channel 4, she said: “Lots of nurses felt that the Government hadn’t led very effectively, the indecisiveness, so many mixed messages. It was just very upsetting,”,
Later in the interview she added: "We’re not getting the respect and now pay that we deserve. I’m sick of it. So I’ve handed in my resignation.”
His comments come in the same week 41 per cent of the PM’s own party voted to oust him in a confidence vote, in light of Gray's Partygate report
She had carried out a probe into 16 events that took place between May 2020 and April 2021.
Twelve of these were also probed by the Metropolitan Police.
After surviving the vote, the PM has since scrambled to secure his position in the face of two upcoming by-elections.
Just before the vote in a meeting with the 1922 Committee, Mr Johnson boasted "I'd do it again" when confronted over Partygate leaving drinks at a showdown with his backbenchers.
A spokesperson for Boris Johnson said: "The Prime Minister will always be grateful to Luis Pitarma for the care he took of him while he was suffering from Covid in Spring 2020."
