Daughter's 'rage' over former PM Johnson's Covid comments

A bereaved family said some of Mr Johnson's testimony was hurtful

The daughter of a woman who died during the coronavirus pandemic has said she is "incandescent with rage" following former prime minister Boris Johnson’s testimony at the Covid inquiry.

Covid patient Susan Handley from Tamworth, Staffordshire, died in November 2020.

During Mr Johnson's appearance at the proceedings on Wednesday, he apologised to bereaved families for "the pain and the loss and the suffering", and admitted there were some mistakes in how the government approached the crisis.

In a second day of testimony on Thursday, it was put to Mr Johnson by the inquiry he had approached events with a "let it rip" strategy, which he denied.

Mrs Handley's daughter Victoria said she wanted accountability from decision-makers, and an admission that families were let down.

She said: “We’re incandescent with rage at the moment, and there’s nothing taking that away until Boris Johnson owns up to what he’s done.”

Mrs Handley’s husband Alan said his assessment of the testimony was that the country seemed chaotic under Mr Johnson’s leadership.

He added that some of Mr Johnson's comments were hurtful to many bereaved families who were attending the inquiry.

'Horrendous'

Mr Handley said his wife had gone to hospital for routine treatment, having had a compromised immune system for more than 20 years.

She caught Covid-19 while in hospital, he said, and she died there.

Only eight people were allowed to attend her funeral in December 2020 due to the lockdown restrictions in place at the time.

Victoria Handley said: “It was horrendous. You don’t realise until you go through it that a funeral really is part of a grieving process and we had that taken away from us.”

She said the family was not allowed to place keepsakes in the coffin or even choose an outfit for Mrs Handley to wear.

“As far as we’re aware she was just zipped into a body bag and put into a coffin."

A spokesperson for Good Hope Hospital in Sutton Coldfield, where Mrs Handley was treated, said: “We would like to express our sincere condolences and appreciate that this must continue to be a very difficult time for Mrs Handley’s loved ones.”