Johnson rejects claim his government did not plan for Covid school closures

Boris Johnson yesterday rejected claims that his government failed to prepare for school closures at the outbreak of the pandemic, telling the Covid-19 inquiry that it would be “amazing” if the Department for Education (DfE) had not realised that plans were needed.

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Gavin Williamson, the then education secretary, had told the inquiry last week that he had not acted sooner because “there was no suggestion that the Department for Education should prepare a plan or a policy for mass school closures”.

Johnson disputed Williamson’s claim, and said that DfE memos presented in mid-March 2020 “certainly indicates to me now that work was going on in the DfE about school closures. And it’d be amazing if it wasn’t.”

The former prime minister added: “It was my impression that the work was being done. Let me put it this way: I certainly assumed that the work was being done.”

Johnson also rebutted statements by Jonathan Slater, the DfE’s permanent secretary at the time, that the department's first request for a detailed closure plan did not arrive until 17 March, the day before the official announcement that schools would close.