Met Police Urged to Launch Investigation Into Boris Johnson For Covid Misconduct

Eminent lawyer Michael Mansfield KC tells the Byline Podcast that police should "look again" at the former Prime Minister's handling of the pandemic

Michael Mansfield KC Photo: Neil Spence/Alamy

Police should re-open their investigation into Boris Johnson and other former ministers over their handling of Covid-19 according to prominent human rights lawyer Michael Mansfield KC.

Mansfield – who has previously represented the families of Bloody Sunday victims and Stephen Lawrence – was responding to the publication of Baroness Hallett’s second official inquiry report into the pandemic last week, which summarised the Government’s response as “too little, too late”.

Although Hallett criticised all four UK administrations, she was damning of Johnson, who oversaw what she described as a “toxic and chaotic culture” in his role as Prime Minister. She also condemned his special adviser Dominic Cummings and the then Health Secretary Matt Hancock.

Mansfield said Hallett’s findings echoed those of his own ‘People’s Inquiry’, conducted whilst the pandemic was in progress in 2021, which called for the Metropolitan Police to explore possible charges of misconduct in public office and corporate manslaughter.

His report pointed to the UK’s lack of preparedness for a major health crisis, despite the findings of Operation Cygnus, an exercise in 2016 which revealed a critical shortage of both intensive care beds and personal protective equipment

Mansfield told the Byline Podcast, “I think the lasting image that people have [from the pandemic] is of frontline workers ill prepared…having to wear bin bags.”

The Government was also slow to respond to months of warning signs about the global spread of Covid-19 and failed to act with urgency even when cases started to arrive in Britain.

“The first information they had [about Covid] was on 31 December 2019,” Mansfield said.

“On 10 January, 2020, the World Health Organisation started issuing warnings and technical guidance. On the 12 January 2020, China shared genetic sequences [for the virus]. Wuhan and other cities were in lockdown on 23 January, 2020.”

In the UK, by contrast, a nationwide lockdown wasn’t ordered until 23 March 2020 – after sporting events earlier that month which had brought thousands of people together from across Europe, including the four-day Cheltenham Gold Cup race meeting and a Champions League tie between Liverpool and Atletico Madrid.

Mansfield observes that, “The whole of February was lost…you can’t afford to lose even 24 hours in a situation like this.”

Baroness Hallett estimates that the slow response cost 23,000 lives – part of an overall Covid death toll of 227,000 – with Johnson failing to attend a meeting of the Cabinet’s emergency Cobra committee until 2 March.

“He wasn’t taking it seriously,” Mansfield said. “At Number 10, they were out the back having a fairly jolly time, while the rest of the population were being locked up. This is why the public lost faith.”

Johnson, his wife Carrie and the then Chancellor Rishi Sunak were all fined in 2022 for breaking lockdown rules in what became known as the ‘Partygate’ affair. But Mansfield argues there is now a case for a fresh investigation into more serious charges.

Ministers who refused to engage with his inquiry – launched by the pressure group Keep Our NHS Public – could not ignore the official inquiry, and their answers brought fresh evidence to light.

Mansfield said, “It seems to me they’ve got to look again, because that’s what the victims’ [families] are saying in very clear terms. We don’t want apologies, least of all, from Boris. What we want is accountability.”

The Met Police, told us their Special Enquiry team, “has carried out several previous assessments of information relating to allegations about the handling of the Covid pandemic by the UK Government and there has been no police investigation.

“That position has not changed and we have had no referrals from the Inquiry team.”

Boris Johnson has accused Baroness Hallett of “muddled thinking” and suggested that her report be “filed vertically” ie: shredded.

He wrote in the Daily Mail: “I remain full of regret for the things the government I led got wrong and full of sympathy for those who suffered – whether from the disease or from the steps we took to protect the population.

“All I can say is that everyone involved was doing our level best, under pretty difficult circumstances, to get it right and save lives.”

Listen to the full interview here