As\u00a0we report this morning, there has been plenty of coverage in the papers about what Boris Johnson is likely to say to the Covid inquiry. In fact, there has been more advance leaking than you get with a budget. Some of this seems to be authorised, although probably not all of it. (If the editor wants a story on what Johnson is expected to say, a resourceful journalist will provide one, regardless of whether or not the Johnson camp are cooperating.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If Johnson is trying to influence Lady Hallett, the inquiry chair, he is bound to fail; you can\u2019t spin a judge. But if his team has been engaged in a pre-briefing operation, as seems likely, their target will be public opinion, not the inquiry team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Here is a round-up of what the papers have been saying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Saturday<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n The pre-hearing coverage kicked off with\u00a0this story in the Times, in which\u00a0Steven Swinford, Chris Smyth<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0Oliver Wright<\/strong>\u00a0said Johnson would admit to mistakes. They said:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Boris Johnson will next week admit that he \u201cunquestionably made mistakes\u201d over Covid but insist that the decisions he took ultimately saved hundreds of thousands of lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In his evidence to the Covid public inquiry the former prime minister is expected to issue an unreserved apology and say that he and his government were initially far too complacent and vastly underestimated the risks posed by the virus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He will argue that he had a \u201cbasic confidence that things would turn out alright\u201d on the \u201cfallacious logic\u201d that previous health threats such as BSE and Sars had not proven as catastrophic as feared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, he is expected to say that, overall, the government succeeded in its central aim of preventing the NHS from being overwhelmed by making the \u201cright decisions at the right times\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n On Sunday<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n There was plenty more on Sunday, of which the best article was probably\u00a0Tim Shipman<\/strong>\u2019s\u00a0in the Sunday Times<\/a>. He said Johnson would argue that the first lockdown was delayed because scientists argued that \u201cbehavioural fatigue\u201d would stop people complying with lockdown measures after a while, which meant they should not start too early. Shipman said:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Johnson has spent, aides say, almost a year preparing for his appearance in front of Baroness Hallett and her panel. He will make the case that many of the\u00a0explosive WhatsApp exchanges\u00a0that have left his government looking like it was in the middle of a civil war were simply conversations around the issues, or \u201cdark humour\u201d \u2014 but that the key decisions were made in formal meetings based on this official advice. One minister from the Johnson government who has read his written evidence said: \u201cI think he gives a good account of himself, actually.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n In the Sun <\/a>Sophia Sleigh<\/strong> also said Johnson would seek to deflect blame onto the scientists. She said:<\/p>\n\n\n\n An ally of the ex-PM told The Sun on Sunday: \u201cThe only trolley involved were the trolleys full of vaccines Boris helped deliver for the UK. Boris only changed his views when the scientific advice changed. The experts kept changing their tune on issues.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n And Glen Owen<\/strong> in the Mail on Sunday<\/a> said Johnson wants more focus on whether the Covid virus was invented by the Chinese.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On Monday<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n On Monday Ben Riley-Smith<\/strong> in the Daily Telegraph <\/a>said Johnson would deny Dominic Cummings\u2019 claim that in February 2020 he was on holiday at Chevening trying to finish his book about Shakespeare instead of focusing on Covid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On Tuesday<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
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