The former Prime Minister Boris Johnson appeared at the Covid inquiry on Wednesday and people told him that they “didn’t want his apology” and held a sign saying, the “dead can’t hear your apologies.”
Whilst giving evidence at the inquiry on Wednesday Johnson was interrupted by four people as he started to issue an apology.
Ushers were ordered to remove the four women from the room by Baroness Heather Hallet, chairwoman of the inquiry.
Speaking outside Dorland House in west London, Kathryn Butcher, 59, told reporters, “We didn’t want his apology.
“When he tried to apologise we stood up. We didn’t block anybody. We were told to sit down.”
She added, “Lady Hallett warned us to sit down and we didn’t, we stood.
“She warned us that if we didn’t sit down she would have to ask the ushers to ask us to leave.”
Butcher said that she had lost her 56-year old sister-in-law in late March 2022, she added that Johnson had seen their signs.
She said, “He looked around once when Lady Hallett told us to sit down.
“He looked at us quickly.
“He would have seen what the signs said.”
Johnson told the inquiry that mistakes were made and that the government should have “unquestionably” dealt with Covid differently, he said “we did our level best.”
“Can I just say how glad I am to be at this inquiry and how sorry I am for the pain and the loss and the suffering of the Covid victims,” Johnson said.
He said that his government made errors, he added, “So many people suffered, so many people lost their lives.
“Inevitably, in the course of trying to handle a very, very difficult pandemic in which we had to balance appalling harms on either side of the decision, we may have made mistakes.”
Johnson then told the inquiry, “I take personal responsibility for all the decisions that we made.”
