For Jackie Inexperienced, whose mom died alone with Covid in hospital on the identical day that No 10 held a boozy Christmas get together, the considered a Boris Johnson comeback is horrifying.
“It’s completely mind-boggling to me that anyone might even be contemplating the truth that he ought to run once more,” she stated.
Inexperienced is one in every of many individuals whose family died throughout the pandemic who’re outraged that Johnson is considering standing as prime minister again.
“I don’t know whether or not to chortle or cry,” Inexperienced stated. “It’s simply unbelievable {that a} man who has frequently lied to parliament, frequently lied to the British public, disregarded his personal guidelines and created a tradition of entitlement inside his authorities is now being thought-about as soon as once more because the chief of this nation.”
Inexperienced, 60, final noticed her mom, Beryl Harris, on a video name earlier than she died. As a result of her mom was shielding in Warwickshire and Inexperienced lived in south London, they’d not been in a position to see one another in particular person for 10 months.
Beryl had been in hospital for a comparatively routine blood transfusion to deal with anaemia when she caught the virus. “It appeared to me that there have been no guidelines actually for hospitals when it comes to an infection management measures,” Inexperienced stated. “My mum was moved round 5 or 6 instances in two weeks.”
Beryl gave the impression to be getting higher, however the hospital referred to as within the early hours of 18 December 2020 to say she had died alone. The information was arduous to simply accept – and when Inexperienced later came upon that on the identical day, employees at No 10 had been guzzling wine and cheese and playing secret Santa – it solely grew to become tougher.
“The truth that they have been in shut quarters having an amazing get together, when solely hours earlier than I used to be advised that my mum had handed away from Covid was simply completely devastating to me. It was dangerous sufficient shedding my mum, however then it was like being kicked within the tooth afterwards, only for good measure.”
Whereas Johnson was not on the wine and cheese get together himself, Inexperienced sees it as a failure of his management.
“He created that tradition of entitlement inside his personal authorities,” Inexperienced stated. “No matter whether or not he was attending all of the events that went on, that’s irrelevant, he allowed them to go on. The person has completely no ethical fibre by any means.”
Johnson remains to be beneath investigation by a Commons committee after being accused of deceptive MPs about events held in Downing Avenue throughout lockdown that flouted guidelines. He additionally has nonetheless but to offer proof to the UK’s official public inquiry into Covid.
Foyer Akinnola, a spokesperson for the Covid-19 Bereaved Households for Justice marketing campaign, stated: “It’s devastating for bereaved households to suppose that anybody within the Conservative get together is contemplating bringing Boris Johnson again as PM.
“That is the person who oversaw the deaths of 200,000 British residents to Covid-19 on his watch. The person who partied while we needed to say goodbye to our family members over a display screen, after which spent six months months mendacity to us about it. The person who joked about ‘letting the our bodies pile excessive’ whereas he refused to study classes from the primary wave and let much more individuals die within the second.”
Mike Handley, 55, from Chorley in Lancashire, was planning his father Ian’s funeral over Zoom on the day Johnson allegedly held an “Abba party” at his flat on 13 November 2020.
Ian, a former bus driver, died with Covid aged 76. Handley, who’s now a carer for his mom, stated: “I’d be appalled if they permit him to return again.”
Handley rejoined the Labour get together this week and says he plans to inform the story of what his household went by throughout the pandemic to steer individuals to not vote Conservative on the subsequent election.
“I feel if he comes again, I can actually see civil unrest on the streets. I can see individuals marching on Downing Avenue, akin to the ballot tax riots of the late 80s. I simply can’t see most people accepting him coming again.”
Handley has not been on marches in London earlier than however stated he would severely think about it if Johnson re-entered No 10.
Lindsay Jackson, 64, was unable to see her mom, Sylvia, within the weeks earlier than she died of Covid in a nursing dwelling on 17 April 2020.
A retired civil servant from Bakewell in Derbyshire, Jackson stated: “I’m staggered and horrified on the considered him taking any function of accountability in our nation. We want an trustworthy, succesful, sober, dependable, competent, critical particular person to guide us out of the disaster that his and the next authorities have left us in. Not a single a type of adjectives in my listing applies to Johnson.”
She added: “At the least Truss’s incompetence has solely value us cash – thus far. Johnson’s value my mom her life and my household the human decency of being along with her when she died and of mourning her correctly. And he was so callous as to say he wished the our bodies to pile excessive fairly than take the unpopular resolution of locking down and defending individuals.
“He’s exactly the fallacious particular person to take management on this disaster. Anybody could be higher than him.”
