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Watch live: UK Covid inquiry day two as Boris Johnson accused of ‘bipolar’ decision making

Lucy Leeson
Wednesday 04 October 2023 05:22 EDT
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Watch live as day two of the UK Covid inquiry gets underway on Wednesday 4 October, after former prime minister Boris Johnson was accused of ‘bipolar’ decision-making

The inquiry will today examine core UK decision-making and political governance during the Covid-19 pandemic.

On Tuesday, the inquiry heard Mr Johnson was accused of “bipolar decision-making” during the Covid lockdown and was “dismissive of disaster”.

Mr Johnson was also accused of failing to lead the country in the early days of the crisis.

Diary entries by Sir Patrick Vallance were read out on Tuesday, in which the government’s former chief scientific adviser criticised Mr Johnson’s “impossible flip-flopping” and “bipolar decision-making” – writing of “chaos as usual” in Downing Street after a meeting on social-distancing.

As the second part of the inquiry began, the Bereaved Families for Justice group said there was a “leadership void” in the early days of the crisis and accused Mr Johnson of “cavalier” public messaging just weeks before the first lockdown.

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