Boris Johnson wanted old people to “accept their fate” and catch Covid so that the young could get on with their lives, it has been revealed.
The former prime minister also suggested that he agreed with Tory MPs who believed the virus was “nature’s way of dealing with old people”.
The shocking revelations were contained in former chief scientific adviser Patrick Vallance’s diaries, which have been made public by the Covid Inquiry.
It also emerged yesterday that a former aide to Johnson believed the former PM had asked “why are we destroying the economy for people who will die anyway soon” in the early days of the pandemic.
Writing in his diary on August 28 2020, Vallance said: ”[Johnson] is obsessed with old people accepting their fate and letting the young get on with life and the economy going. Quite a bonkers set of exchanges.”
In a further entry on December 12 that year, said: ”[Johnson] says his party ’thinks the whole thing is pathetic and Covid is just nature’s way of dealing with old people - and I am not entirely sure I disagree with them.”
Lib Dem leader Ed Davey said: “This inquiry is painting a clear picture of a Conservative Party totally unfit to govern our country.
“Every shocking revelation is another devastating blow to the families who lost loved ones to Covid. It is hard to hear how badly Conservative ministers failed them, our NHS and our country.”
Natalie Grayson, national officer for care at the GMB union, said Johnson’s remarks “reveal the utter contempt his government showed to people living and working in care homes”.
“Care workers long suspected ministers were treating the lives of the elderly and vulnerable as less valuable than others,” she said.
“Emergency workers, care workers, residents and their families are the ones who have had to live with the trauma of the government’s failure. Boris Johnson is a disgrace.”