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A man whose father died during the Covid pandemic is calling for families of victims of the virus to be given compensation from the Government over failings that led to their deaths.
On Thursday, an inquiry into Boris Johnson’s handling of the pandemic found that a “chaotic” culture and a failure to take Covid-19 seriously during the outbreak led to the loss of 23,000 lives.
It found Johnson’s lack of leadership over the seriousness of Covid led to the first lockdown being introduced too late, which contributed to the deaths.
The inquiry found the spread of the virus around the world after it first gathered pace throughout January 2020 in Wuhan, China, represented “clear warning signs” – but the four governments across the UK did not take the virus seriously enough until it was “too late”.
It was also claimed that by the end of January 2020, it “should have been clear that the virus posed a serious and immediate threat” and bringing in the first lockdown one week earlier, on 16 March, would have cut deaths in the first wave to July “by 48 per cent” – equating to approximately 23,000 fewer deaths in England.
Inquiry chair Baroness Hallett says it is “remarkable” that all four of the UK’s governments failed to plan for the possibility of a mandatory lockdown if a pandemic hit Britain.
Retired vicar David Green, 64, was only able to visit his father Allen, who suffered from emphysema, in hospital for an hour due to Covid restrictions in the days running up to his death.
Mr Green was taken into hospital on 24 April 2020 after falling at his son’s home, where he lived, and passed away four days later, aged 86, because of health complications caused by his fall.
Because of restrictions, only 10 people were allowed to attend the former furnace bricklayer’s cremation and his only sibling, Harold, who has since died, could not go to the cremation because of restrictions, which meant he had to self-isolate.
Allen Green died in hospital following a fall at his son’s home where he lived The ceremony was on 22 May- just two days after one of several parties held during the pandemic in No 10 Downing Street – despite social gatherings being banned due to restrictions at the time.
In June 2023, an inquiry found Johnson deliberately misled MPs over lockdown parties at Downing Street by claiming they did not break Covid restrictions.
Mr Green, who lives in Denaby Main, near Doncaster, is outraged by the Government’s actions and believes that families of people who died in the pandemic should be compensated over its “incompetence” and Johnson’s lies.
He also believes that the Government and Johnson should be sued by the families of those who died.
Mr Green told The i Paper: “Politicians should be made to answer for their actions. I have every sympathy for families of those who lost someone through Covid and think they should receive compensation of some amount. There should be an acknowledgement of what they suffered due to bad government.”
He complained that the Government were recklessly bringing in lockdowns and then ending them without relying on scientific advice – and their actions led to many “preventable” deaths.
Mr Green said: “They brought them in and then took them out constantly – they were just playing games with people.
“I am not surprised the inquiry came out with these conclusions – we all saw it happen. We all suffered through it. Every word that came out of Johnson’s mouth is a lie; all he cared about was becoming Prime Minister – he didn’t care about people.”
Jo Goodman with her dad Stuart Baroness Hallett set out a series of recommendations, including that structures are established to improve communication between the four nations during an emergency.
Others include that there are reforms of the structures for emergency decision-making within each nation and there is greater parliamentary scrutiny of emergency powers and how they are used.
Following the report, bereaved relatives accused Johnson of putting his “political reputation ahead of public safety”.
“He ignored scientific advice that didn’t fit his agenda, and he ignored the impact of his decisions on the frontline, repeating the mistakes of the first wave and prolonging the second,” a statement from Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK said.
“To make mistakes is human. To refuse to listen to frontline workers, vulnerable people, the insights of devolved leaders or scientific experts is unforgivable.”
Jo Goodman, a co-founder of Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK group, believes the government’s decision not to introduce the first lockdown earlier was the reason her father contracted Covid which killed him.
She told The i Paper she hopes that the government takes action on some of the recommendations of the inquiry to prevent hundreds of thousands of people being killed in future epidemics.
Ms Goodman’s father, Stuart, died aged 72 in April 2020 after contracting Covid. On 18 March, before the first Covid lockdown was introduced in the UK, he attended an appointment at Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital, where he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma – a cancer of the lymphatic system.
She said before the appointment, she and the rest of her father’s family were anxious about their father, over him sitting in a crowded waiting room with other vulnerable patients, as he was mildly asthmatic, had undergone heart bypass surgery, and was believed to have cancer.
Hitting out at Johnson, she said: “He was the worst possible leader at the worst possible time.
“He didn’t make decisions that protected the most vulnerable in society, which is something I have felt since April 2020.”
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Discussing her hope that the Government is better prepared for epidemics in future, she said: “I would be much better to have a proper plan rather than have a prime minister like Johnson who is flip-flopping and who doesn’t care about anyone.
She said: “What we don’t want to happen is for the inquiries’ recommendations to sit there gathering dust on a shelf. The value of it is what happens in future.
“I am really about making sure that people don’t go through similar things. What the inquiry showed is this was willful neglect by the Government.”Ms Goodman added she and the group are not calling for the Government or Johnson to be sued or compensation for victims, as their key aim is making sure the UK “makes better decisions in future”, adding “our movement and campaign is to try and prevent other people going through similar types of loss”.
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