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<\/p>\nBORIS Johnson today apologised the public for the "pain and the loss of life" experienced during the pandemic.<\/p>\n
In his opening remarks at a showdown hearing of the Covid Inquiry, the ex-PM said: "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."<\/p>\n
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As he apologised the ex-PM was heckled by members of the public sitting in the Inquiry viewing gallery.<\/p>\n
A sign was unfurled reading:\u00a0"The Dead can't hear your apologies."<\/p>\n
They were ordered to leave the room by Chair Lady Hallet. <\/p>\n
Early in his testimony Boris admitted that "we got things wrong".<\/p>\n
He confessed to the \u00a3100m Inquiry, which critics have slammed as a waste of time, that "unquestionably" things should've been done differently.<\/p>\n The ex-PM said: "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."<\/p>\n "I think we were doing our best at the time, given what we knew."<\/p>\n He added: "With hindsight, it may be easy to see things that we could have done differently or it may be possible to see things that we could have done differently.<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n "At the time, I felt and I know that everybody else felt that we were doing our best in very difficult circumstances to protect life and protect the NHS."<\/p>\n Asked by Hugo Keith KC if his decisions led to anyone dying from Covid who otherwise wouldn't have, Boris responded: "I'm not sure."<\/p>\n He said: "Irrespective of government action, we have an elderly population, extremely elderly population.<\/p>\n "We do suffer, sadly, from lots of Covid-related comorbidities and we are a very, very densely populated country.<\/p>\n "That did not help."<\/p>\n The ex-PM added that the only easy decision he made during the pandemic was to speedily roll out vaccines.<\/p>\n "When it came to the balance of the need to protect the public and protect the NHS and the damage done by lockdowns, it was incredibly difficult," he said. <\/p>\n Asked about whether there was a toxic atmosphere in No10, Boris admitted his administration had a lot of "challenging and competing characters" but they got "an awful lot done".<\/p>\n The ex-PM added that the "gender balance of my team should've been better".<\/p>\n He said "too many meetings were too male dominated".<\/p>\n Last month deputy cabinet secretary Helen McNamara, the second most senior official in government and the most senior woman, argued that throughout the pandemic she was operating in a system where women were not listened to or respected.<\/p>\n This morning Covid-bereaved families accused Boris of preparing to deliver a \u201cgrotesque distortion of the truth\u201d to the Inquiry.<\/p>\n At a press conference a solicitor for the families insisted there was a \u201cdeadly culture of impunity, arrogance, incompetence\u201d in No10.<\/p>\n The solicitor said: \u201cHe did let bodies pile high and the elderly were treated as toxic waste.\u201d<\/p>\n The UK administered the first\u00a0Covid-19 jab\u00a0in the world in December 2020 after emergency authorisation was granted by British regulators.<\/p>\n As regards the timing of the first lockdown, BoJo was also warned of the impact on schoolchildren, the knock-on effects on the economy and mental health implications.<\/p>\n Chief medical adviser Sir Chris Whitty told him: \u201cYou can\u2019t go too late, but there are also risks with going too early.\u201d<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.thesun.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/2023-cop28-running-november-29-863632380-1.jpg\")
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