Boris Johnson should appear under oath at a public inquiry to answer the charge that he would have rather let over-80s die of covid than go into a second lockdown.
Ian Blackford, the SNP Westminster leader, demanded that pandemic inquiry should start before any general election as he confronted Johnson with the explosive claims made by the Prime Minister's vengeful former aide Dominic Cummings.
Blackford blasted the Prime Minister over the allegations that he was highly opposed to new restrictions in mid-October, when Labour was calling for a circuit breaker to fight rising infection rates.
Blackford recounted Cummings’ claims the PM sent him a WhatsApp message on 15 October, arguing that most people who were dying were in their 80s.
The SNP leader said: “How can anyone have faith and trust in a Prime Minister who actually typed the words ‘get covid and live longer’ ?”
He added: “The reality is that the Prime Minister wrote these words himself. Such a glib attitude towards human life is indefensible. The Prime Minister is simply not fit for office.”
As he called for an immediate public inquiry Blackford said the only way to get to the truth of the “UK government’s disastrous handling of the pandemic is to make this cabal answer under oath”.
Johnson was spared blushes because he was self-isolating in Chequers and answered the questions remotely.
He said Blackford “grossly mischaracterises the substance of what I am alleged to have said".
Without an outright denial or a commitment to swear an oath the PM added: "But I think what everybody in this country understands is that the decisions that we had to take at that time were incredibly difficult. But that does not detract from the grief and suffering of those who lost loved ones to covid.”
The Prime Minister said an inquiry could not start in the middle of the pandemic but that by next Spring he was “pretty confident that we will be in a much better position to go ahead.”
