Boris Johnson’s evidence at the Covid Inquiry detailed a legacy of failure and neglect

Yesterday, 21 October, ex-PM Boris Johnson gave evidence before the coronavirus (covid-19) inquiry for the final time. The hearing was part of the eighth module of the mammoth public fact-finding mission. Module 8 dealt specifically with the pandemic’s extraordinary impact on children and young people.

Children sustained lasting damage to their social skills, mental health and behaviour due to their lack of early socialisation during school lockdowns. Meanwhile, thousands who were repeatedly exposed to the virus when schools reopened are now living with chronic disability in the form of Long Covid.

The public gallery was full for Johnson’s part in the trial. The attendees were reminded that heckling was prohibited – a necessary move after the ex-PM was jeered during his previous appearance. Activists from groups like Long Covid Advocacy, Clinically Vulnerable Families, and Long Covid Kids were present in force, both inside and out of the inquiry room.

Repeated failures

For his part, Johnson stated that planning for school closures should have begun much sooner. The 25 March Coronavirus Act gave authorities the power to shut down schools alongside the countrywide lockdown. It was over two months since the first detected case of covid in the UK.

The ex-PM insisted that plans for school closures began in February. However, the document detailing the actual plan was cobbled together just three days before parents heard the news. In his evidence, Jon Coles of the United Learning Trust called this an “extraordinary dereliction of duty”.

The BBC’s education correspondent reported that:

Officials warned it would take weeks to get food vouchers to children at risk of going hungry. There was no mention of the most vulnerable children, who would be left at home and at risk in potentially violent homes.

Nine million children would be left with no immediate access to education.

Because of the closures, children around the UK missed the exam season of summer 2020. Instead, they received algorithmically generated results based on their past performance. This meant that many missed out on opportunities to study at university.

Johnson insisted that there was “no way round” abandoning the exams. However, he also stated that his government’s stopgap “plainly let down a lot of kids”.

In a further massive fuckup, schools reopened for just one day in January 2021. Johnson had endorsed mass testing in the institutions themselves as a preventative measure. Teachers at the time stated that they were unqualified and unprepared to administer the massive number of tests required.

Johnson claimed that this effort was “worth it” to reopen schools. However, the government made the decision to close again on the very same day in the face of the new Alpha variant. This exposed millions of children and teachers to the virus for absolutely no gain.

No recovery

The inquiry also heard Johnson’s justification for his failure to back a pandemic recovery plan for schools and young people. Back in 2021, education recovery commissioner, Kevan Collins, resigned in protest over the extreme lack of funding that Johnson’s government put forward for the cause.

The Education Policy Institute suggested that a catch-up program would cost some £13.5bn. Collins went one further, putting forward a £15bn scheme to help repair the damage to the education system.

Johnson’s response? His government put forward just £1.4bn to cover three years of school catch-up funding. That represents a mere £50 a year for each child in the UK. The ex-PM told the inquiry that the country was “in a very constrained financial position”.

For comparison, anti-corruption charity Transparency International UK found warning signs of corrupt dealings in £15.3bn worth of contracts awarded by the Conservatives during the pandemic.

Instead of Collins’ detailed plan, Johnson chose to back one-to-one tuition for the worst-affected children. He claimed that:

I had to look at what was genuinely going to provide value for money.

A legacy of neglect

After he had finished giving evidence, Johnson reportedly stood up to leave the room before Heather Hallet – the Inquiry chair – had even thanked him for his contributions.

The ex-PM’s part in the Inquiry should now be over. However, the hearings themselves are set to continue up until the end of the year. The final two modules will cover the UK’s economic response to the pandemic, and its lasting impact on society as a whole.

Meanwhile, schools are still feeling the lasting effects of the Tories’ dire mishandling of pandemic, and Labour’s stubborn refusal to improve matters.

Pupils and teachers are no longer required to stay home when they have the virus, unnecessarily exposing their classmates to infection. Government advice holds that schools should ensure that “ occupied spaces are well-ventilated and let fresh air in“. Anjum Peerbacos, Sky News education reporter, pointed out that:

the government had two big school holidays, summer 2020 and Christmas, in which they could have installed air purifiers and implemented the sanitising of school buildings ahead of new terms beginning.

Instead, we had “Eat Out to Help Out”.

In October of this year, London mayor Sadiq Khan invested £2.7m in HEPA (High Efficiency Particulate) filters for schools in the capital. These filters been demonstrated to be highly effective against Covid. What’s more, they also remove other forms of particulate pollution which can damage children’s lungs from the air.

Khan’s actions show that an alternative to the endless cycle of re-infection and rising levels of post-viral disability is possible. Only, the government has to be willing to fund this kind of safety-conscious initiative. However, as Johnson’s testimony and Labour’s inaction have repeatedly shown, UK politicians care far more about their budgets than they ever will about the safety of children and teachers.

Featured image via the Canary