Covid bereaved call for Johnson to lose ex-PM privileges over inquiry report

Covid-bereaved families have called for Boris Johnson to lose access to public funds and said they would pursue all legal options for personal accountability after a damning report into his handling of the pandemic.

- Jessica Murray

The families said they wanted all privileges Johnson received as a former prime minister, including his ministerial pension, his place on the privy council and access to the public duty costs allowance, to be withdrawn.

"His actions during the pandemic amount to one of the gravest betrayals of the British public in modern history. His decisions, delays and refusal to listen to warnings cost tens of thousands of lives that could and should have been saved," Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK said in a statement.

"He must be held accountable. We are not asking for an apology. We are asking for consequences. Boris Johnson should have no role in public life and no further entitlement to public funds."

The second report from the public inquiry into the pandemic, published on Thursday, found Johnson's government had acted "too little, too late", and that locking the country down a week earlier in March 2020 could have saved about 23,000 lives.