Boris Johnson is facing a tough end-of-term interrogation on COVID-19 by senior MPs after claiming the UK is making progress a year after his first lockdown.
As well as his last Prime Minister’s Questions clash with Sir Keir Starmer for three weeks, he is facing questions from MPs who chair all-party select committees.
His double grilling comes on the eve of a potentially large Tory rebellion in a Commons vote on lockdown restrictions on the final day before parliament’s Easter recess.
After PMQs, the Prime Minister faces a long session in front of the Liaison Committee on his COVID response, as well as questions on the UK’s place in the world and the economy.
Mr Johnson’s latest questioning comes after an emotional day marking the first anniversary of his first lockdown, on which the nation fell silent to remember those who have died during the pandemic.
From the steps of 10 Downing Street, to Blackpool Tower and Bradford City Hall – and from market towns to small villages, the day was rounded off with light shows and candles for the victims.
And at a news conference in Downing Street to mark the anniversary, a tired-looking Mr Johnson – who almost died from COVID last year – spoke of his own emotions.
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‘It was unlike any other struggle in my lifetime’
“I certainly think this is something we will all remember and be dealing with in different ways – for – certainly in my case – for as long as I live,” he told Beth Rigby of Sky News.
“It has been an extraordinary moment in our history and deeply difficult and distressing period.”
Asked about lessons learned, he said: “In retrospect there are probably many things that we wish that we’d known and many things that we wish we’d done differently at the time, in retrospect, because we were fighting a novel disease under very different circumstances than any previous government had imagined.”
The prime minister promised a memorial to those who have died in the pandemic and said the nation was “step by step, jab by jab” on the path to “reclaiming our freedoms”.
But after the sombre tone of his Downing Street news conference, it was reported that addressing Tory MPs later Mr Johnson risked inflaming the EU vaccines war by joking that the reason for UK success was “capitalism” and “greed”.
According to the Sun, he told MPs at a meeting of the 1922 Committee on a Zoom call: “The reason we have the vaccine success is because of capitalism, because of greed my friends.”
He was reported to have added: “Actually I regret saying it.” And it was also reported that he urged MPs repeatedly: “Forget I said that.”
A Downing Street spokesman later declined to comment on what had happened during the meeting, but there was no denial of the Prime Minister’s reported comments.
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Which COVID wave was more deadly?
At the Liaison Committee meeting, leading the MPs’ onslaught on COVID will be:
• Yvette Cooper, Labour chair of the Home Affairs Committee, who has been a fierce critic of government policy on border controls and coronavirus quarantine measures;
• Meg Hiller, Labour chair of the Public Accounts Committee, a critic of test and trace failings and poor value for money on COVID contracts;
• Jeremy Hunt, former health secretary who chairs the Health and Social Care Committee, who at times has criticised the PM’s lockdown strategy;
• William Wragg, who chairs the Constitutional Affairs Committee and has been at the forefront of demands for a COVID public inquiry;
• Stephen Crabb, who chairs the Welsh Affairs Committee, who has called for more help for people from low-income households during the pandemic.
This is Mr Johnson’s third appearance before the Liaison Committee – chaired by a Brexiteer ally, Tory MP Sir Bernard Jenkin – since he became prime minister.
At his last appearance, on 13 January this year, Mr Johnson clashed with Ms Cooper over border controls and also spoke of his concern about a new Brazilian variant of COVID-19.
MPs on the committee also questioned why new rules requiring all travellers to test negative before they enter the UK were being brought in 10 months after the pandemic began.
Asking why UK borders were not immediately shut to Brazil travellers after warnings of the new strain, Ms Cooper said: “Why aren’t you taking immediate action on a precautionary basis?”
And she added: “You give the impression each time that you just delay all of the difficult and uncomfortable decisions until the last possible minute and when so many lives are at stake, prime minister, is this the leadership we really need?”
In reply, Mr Johnson rejected Ms Cooper’s claims and said huge quantities of checks were being carried out to see if people were self-isolating.