Partygate Leader's comments are an insult, say Covid bereaved

Families bereaved by the Covid pandemic say they feel insulted by Kemi Badenoch's claim that the Partygate scandal was "overblown".

- Matthew Weaver

The new Conservative party leader also told the BBC that Boris Johnson had fallen into a "trap" of breaking lockdown rules that should never have been introduced.

Nazir Afzal, a former chief crown prosecutor for north-west England whose brother Umar died of Covid while self-isolating, said: "Ms Badenoch needs to remember that people were dying and being stored in industrial fridges while those in government partied in breach of the rules that they created for the rest of us. It was a question of trust and integrity and such a failure cannot ever be overblown."

Naomi Fulop, whose mother, Christina, died in January 2021 six days before one of the Downing Street parties, said Badenoch's comments were "insulting and extremely painful".