UK families who lost loved ones during the Covid-19 pandemic on Friday called for all privileges given to Boris Johnson as a former prime minister to be removed.
The call came a day after an inquiry criticised his government’s “lack of urgency” in the early days of the pandemic.
The second report from the inquiry which is examining the UK’s response to the global health emergency in 2020 on Thursday also highlighted a “toxic and chaotic” culture at the top of Johnson’s Conservative administration.
The UK, which went into lockdown later than most other European countries, suffered one of the worst Covid-19 death tolls in Europe, recording more than 128,500 fatalities by mid-July 2021.
Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK accused Johnson, 61, of “one of the gravest betrayals of the British public in modern history”.
It said “his decisions, delays and refusal to listen to warnings cost tens of thousands of lives that could and should have been saved”.
The group called for Johnson to have no further role in public life — he was previously also Mayor of London — and no further entitlement to public funds.
“We are now calling for every privilege of high office to be removed,” the group said.
As a former prime minister between 2019 and 2022, Johnson is entitled to an allowance of up to £115,000 ($150,000) a year for life as well as a ministerial pension.
“It is intolerable that bereaved families are expected to subsidise the lifestyle of the man whose decisions led to the deaths of our loved ones,” the group said in a statement.
It also called for him to be removed from the Privy Council, an advisory body to the monarch that dates back 800 years and whose members are appointed by King Charles III.
The group added that now the inquiry had reported back it would be “pursuing all legal options to hold Boris Johnson personally responsible for his actions”.
Johnson has yet to make any public comment on the inquiry findings.
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