London: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson denied a newspaper report that he had said he would rather bodies piled “high in their thousands” than order a third COVID-19 lockdown.
Johnson is facing a stream of allegations in newspapers – all of them denied – about everything from his muddled initial handling of the COVID-19 crisis to questions over who financed the redecoration of his official apartment.
The Daily Mail newspaper cited unidentified sources as saying that, in October, shortly after agreeing to a second lockdown, Johnson told a meeting in Downing Street: “No more fucking lockdowns – let the bodies pile high in their thousands.”
Asked whether he had made the remark, Johnson told broadcasters: “No, but again, I think the important thing, I think, that people want us to get on and do as a government is to make sure that the lockdowns work, and they have.”
The Daily Mail did not respond to a request for comment but the BBC later also reported that Johnson made the remark in a “heated discussion” about lockdowns. Reuters was unable to immediately verify the reports.
Though Johnson has over the years repeatedly weathered gaffes, crises over Brexit and disclosures about his adultery, he is now grappling with an array of accusations which opponents say show he is unfit for office. He or his supporters have denied all of them.
Opposition Labour Party leader Keir Starmer, who has cast Johnson’s government is “sleazy”, said he was astonished to read the Daily Mail’s report.
“If he did say those things, he’s got to explain it,” he said.
Johnson did impose the third lockdown, in January, though critics say it could have been avoided had he yielded to pressure from senior ministers to make the second lockdown more stringent.
Britain has the world’s fifth-largest official COVID-19 death toll, with 127,681 deaths, after the United States, Brazil, Mexico, and India, according to the Johns Hopkins University of Medicine. Reuters
