ABJECT FAILURE

Bereaved families' fury as ex-PM says sorry for pain and loss and admits 'not twigging' the Covid danger sooner, dodging crucial meetings, resisting first lockdown, shaking hands in hospital and allowing mass events

- JOHN STEVENS

TO avoid coming face to face with the families of people killed by Covid-19, cowardly Boris Johnson crept into Dorland House before dawn, at 7am, three hours before the hearing was to begin.

After taking an oath, swearing to tell the truth for a change, the former Prime Minister then began with an apology, saying: "Can I just say... how sorry I am for the pain and the loss and the suffering of Covid victims.

He admitted he should have realised the dangers of Covid sooner, and that he missed five COBRA meetings in early 2020. He said shaking hands with people in hospital and allowing mass gatherings as he resisted lockdown may have been mistakes - but he did not apologise for any of that.

The hearing was briefly interrupted as four women held up signs that read, "The dead can't hear your apologies", before being ushered out.

Kathryn Butcher, 59, who lost a sister-in-law, later said: "Personally, I won't ever accept his apology for the way he handled the pandemic. I was never going to accept it." She held a photo of her sister-inlaw Myrna Saunders, 56, and another of Jake Corser, 15, a friend's son, who both died. She said:

"Jake was a perfectly healthy 15-year-old who was just about to finish school and looking forward to going to college, planning out what he was going to do for his future. He cruelly had that cut short in July 2020.