Boris: I was in intensive care...To say I didn't care about the suffering being inflicted on the country is simply not right

BORIS Johnson yesterday launched an emotional defence of his leadership during the pandemic vehemently denied suggestions he didn't care about Covid victims.

- Steph Spyro and Christan Calgie

The former Prime Minister insisted his own brush with the killer virus left him in no doubt about how people would suffer.

And he was adamant he was not "reconciled" to deaths from coronavirus or thought it wise to "let it rip" when he appeared for a second day of questioning at the Covid Inquiry.

Mr Johnson became emotional as he spoke about his time in hospital in April 2020.

He said: "When I went into intensive care, I saw around me a lot of people who were not actually elderly. They were middle-aged men and they were quite like me.

"And some of us were going to make it, some of us weren't.

"The NHS, thank God, did an amazing job and helped me survive.

"But I knew from that experience, what an appalling disease this is.

"I had absolutely no personal doubt about that from March onwards. To say I didn't care about the suffering that was being inflicted on the country is simply not right."

Maligned

Mr Johnson also said Downing Street staff were unfairly maligned and branded some representations of the Partygate scandal "absurd".

Protesters gathered outside the inquiry in London's Paddington. One held a banner claiming: "Boris partied while people died."

But Mr Johnson told lead counsel Hugo Keith KC: "The version of events that has entered the popular consciousness about what is supposed to have happened in Downing Street is a million miles from the reality of what actually happened.