Sadiq Khan: UK could’ve avoided second lockdown if Boris Johnson had listened to me

Sadiq Khan has slammed Boris Johnson’s government for “dither and delay” which he said led to the second Covid lockdown.

The mayor of London told the Covid inquiry he lobbied the former prime minister for a so-called “circuit-breaker” in the October 2020 half-term, to curtail rapidly rising Covid rates.

But Mr Khan said Mr Johnson ignored his calls for the circuit-breaker, as well as advice in favour of one from Sage, “necessitating a second lockdown”.

In a damning piece of testimony, Mr Khan said: “In advance of the second lockdown in November, I lobbied the prime minister for a circuit-breaker.

“I had seen the Sage advice. But also half-term, at the end of October, was an opportunity for that circuit-breaker.”

He said the government ignored his lobbying and England’s second national lockdown came into force on 5 November.

Mr Khan said: “Before lockdown one, we knew what was happening around the world. We delayed and we dithered. Lockdown two may not have even been needed had the government taken the advice from Sage for example, for a circuit-breaker and lobbying from people like me.

“So another example of delay, necessitating a second lockdown.”

Mr Khan also accused Mr Johnson’s government of withholding information about Covid in the early days of the pandemic and claimed he was “kept in the dark” about the extent of the virus.

The London mayor told the inquiry of his “disappointment” that Downing Street was not sharing information with his team in February and that he felt “almost winded” when he realised the seriousness of the situation.

“I am disappointed the government was not giving us information in February about what they knew then,” Mr Khan told inquiry chair Baroness Heather Hallett.

Mr Khan also hit out at the government over its refusal to invite him to emergency Cobra meetings in the early days of the pandemic, saying lives could have been saved if they had.

He confirmed evidence seen previously by the inquiry that he was repeatedly refused permission to attend the meetings as late as 12 March 2020, adding: “To say I was frustrated is an understatement.”

Telling the inquiry about when he was finally allowed to go to a meeting, he said: “The prime minister is using words like this is the biggest challenge we’re going to face since the Second World War. Draconian measures are going to be needed.

“I had been kept in the dark as the elected mayor of London and I felt almost winded in relation to what was happening in London and also realising there were things we could have done in relation to some of these issues.”

The government refused his requests to attend Cobra meetings on the grounds it would have been seen as giving London special treatment compared with other regional authorities.

But Mr Khan argued that London should have been given special treatment because the pandemic was spreading faster in the capital than the rest of the country.

He also said London’s unique demographics and workforce should have been represented at the Cobra table.

Mr Khan said: “Did those at Cobra know most people in London travel by bus or Tube… more than 5 million journeys by bus, more than 4 million by Tube. So transmission was going to happen very, very quickly with this virus.

“How many of those around Cobra knew issues around diversity, comorbidity, intergenerational households, overcrowded accommodation?

“How many people around Cobra knew for example in London, there are more people who work on zero-hours contracts, work in the gig economy, work in frontline jobs where they can catch this virus?

“I think lives could have been saved if we were there earlier.”

Mr Khan went on to claim Mr Johnson was “not aware” that other countries had imposed lockdowns in March 2020.

The London mayor met the then-prime minister in Downing Street on 19 March, and said it was “clear” to him that some proposals for lockdown measures “had been surfaced, but the prime minister wasn’t persuaded”.

He told the Covid inquiry: “The prime minister wasn’t aware that in other parts of the world they had lockdowns in place and fines could be issued if you breached the lockdown.

“I was surprised he wasn’t aware of that in relation to what was happening elsewhere.”

Mr Khan said he felt that the UK’s “advantage” in being able to see what was happening in the rest of the world “wasn’t being used”.

Andy Burnham later told the inquiry that London-centric decision-making left Greater Manchester “stuck” with a higher Covid case rate for the whole of 2020.

The Greater Manchester mayor said the first national lockdown was lifted “too early” for Manchester, which was closer to its peak than London was at the time, and said he would have argued against the decision if he had been consulted.

He said: “I think they were looking more at the picture in London and they were more concerned with that than where we were.

“There was pressure to lift it from voices here and I think the decision was more influenced by that than what we were seeing.”

Blaming “London-centricity”, he added: “I think because of that, Greater Manchester was left stuck with a high case rate for the rest of 2020.”