Boris Johnson has said he is no longer sure about “medieval” lockdowns as the former Prime Minister becomes increasingly convinced Covid was a “botched experiment” from a Chinese lab.
Johnson, 60, described pandemic restrictions as “literally medieval in their savagery and consequences” as he likened himself to King Canute and questioned whether it was possible for Whitehall to “repel the waves of a highly contagious disease”.
Writing in his explosive tell-all memoir ‘Unleashed’, the former Prime Minister appeared to demonstrate a significant change of thinking compared to the time he was leading the UK’s response to the pandemic.
At the Covid inquiry last December, Johnson acknowledged “appalling harms on either side of the decision” and apologised for his mistakes.
Boris Johnson made the revelations in his memoirs Unleashed
PA
However, with extracts of his memoir being serialised in The Mail on Sunday, Johnson seemingly took a harsher approach on the effectiveness of lockdowns.
“It was only later that I started to look at the curves of the pandemic around the world – the double hump that seemed to rise and fall irrespective of the approaches taken by governments”, he said.
“There were always two waves, whether you were in China, where lockdowns were ruthlessly enforced, or in Sweden, where they took a more voluntary approach.”
Johnson added: “I am not saying that lockdowns achieved nothing; I am sure they had some effect.
“But were they decisive in beating back the disease, turning that wave down? All I can say is that I am no longer sure.”
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS:
At the Covid inquiry last December, Johnson acknowledged “appalling harms on either side of the decision” and apologised for his mistakes
PA
England’s first national lockdown was introduced by Johnson in March 2020, with measures loosened in June.
A number of local lockdowns followed and the “rule of six” was imposed in England in September 2020.
However, the then-Prime Minister was forced into enforcing a second national lockdown in November 2020, with a third being reintroduced in early January 2021.
Speaking about the origin of coronavirus, Johnson wrote: “The awful thing about the whole Covid catastrophe is that it appears to have been entirely man-made, in all its aspects.
Boris Johnson introduced a series of lockdowns
PA
“It now looks overwhelmingly likely that the mutation was the result of some botched experiment in a Chinese lab.”
Ex-President Donald Trump, who is running for the White House in a third successive election, echoed claims about the virus leaking from Wuhan’s Institute of Virology.
The FBI claimed it believes it is “most likely” that the virus originated in a Beijing-controlled lab.
The coronavirus pandemic resulted in the deaths of just under 230,000 Britonsm, with 1,490 people dying on January 19, 2021, alone.