Boris Johnson admits not attending key meetings and going on holiday as Covid hit

Families who lost loved ones told Boris Johnson "the dead can't hear your apologies" as he said sorry for his mistakes today.

The former PM admitted he should have "twigged much sooner" about the danger the country faced as he was grilled over his botched response. On an explosive day at the Covid Inquiry, he admitted not attending key meetings and going on holiday days after being warned the virus would “sweep world”.

He also did not dispute claims he questioned why the Government needed to save “people who will die anyway soon” as he resisted the first lockdown. Mr Johnson was disrupted by protesters as he began his two-day interrogation, which will continue on Thursay.

He said ministers "inevitably got some things wrong", but he insisted: "We did our level best." At the start of his evidence, he said: “Can I just say… how sorry I am for the pain and the loss and the suffering of Covid victims.”

The hearing was briefly interrupted as four women held up signs that read: "The dead can't hear your apologies". Speaking outside the inquiry in west London after being removed, Kathryn Butcher, 59, who lost her sister-in-law in the pandemic, said they did not want his apology. “Personally, I won't ever accept his apology for the way he handled the pandemic. I was never going to accept it,” she said.

She was holding a photo of her sister-in-law Myrna Saunders, 56, and a photo of Jake Corser, 15, a friend’s son, who were both lost to Covid. “Jake was a perfectly healthy 15-year-old who was just about to finish school and looking forward to going to college, planning out what he was going to do for his future. And he cruelly had that cut short in July 2020,” she said.

Mr Johnson avoided coming face-to-face with bereaved families by arriving shortly after 7am, three hours before the hearing began. Tonight as he left he was greeted by a wave of boos and heckles, as one person shouted: “Liar.”

At one point as he gave evidence, the ex-PM appeared on the verge of tears as he described 2020 as a "tragic, tragic" year. He admitted his government "underestimated" the threat posed, saying: "I look at all this stuff, in which we seem so oblivious, with horror now, we should have twigged, we should collectively have twigged much sooner... I should have twigged.”

But Mr Johnson claimed he was "not sure" whether government decision-making had led to "materially" a larger number of deaths. Pressed repeatedly on why the UK had such a high rate of excess deaths - the second-worst in Europe after Italy - he cited "headwinds" including an "extremely elderly population" with many health issues and being a "very densely populated country", which "did not help".

Mr Johnson did not deny questioning in the days before the first lockdown why his government was "destroying everything for people who will die anyway soon" but suggested the comment was not "designed to be publicly broadcast." In the weeks leading up to the introduction of restrictions, he said he was “bewildered” by the graphs showing the impact of Covid and that the Government's response was "incoherent".

The former Prime Minister is giving evidence under oath over two days. Rishi Sunak will be called as a witness on Monday.