New Tory leader channels Boris Johnson

It's not been a great start for Kemi Badenoch as Tory leader. Charged with forging a fresh start for her party in an effort to win back lost support, Badenoch instead ploughed straight into a new controversy by apparently seeking to absolve Boris Johnson of his breach of lockdown rules during covid as number ten partied while we stayed at home.

The Guardian reports that families bereaved by the Covid pandemic say they feel insulted by Kemi Badenoch’s claim that the Partygate scandal was “overblown”.

The paper adds that the new Conservative party leader also told the BBC that Boris Johnson had fallen into a “trap” of breaking lockdown rules that should never have been introduced, ignoring the fact that these rules actually saved lives:

Nazir Afzal, a former chief crown prosecutor for north-west England whose older brother Umar died of Covid while self-isolating, said Badenoch’s words could not gloss over the horrors of the pandemic.

He said: “Ms Badenoch needs to remember that people were dying and being stored in industrial fridges while those in government partied in breach of the rules that they created for the rest of us. It was a question of trust a
Naomi Fulop, whose mother, Christina, died in January 2021, six days before one of the Downing Street parties that was found to have broken the rules, said Badenoch’s comments were “insulting and extremely painful”.

She said: “It is not possible to overblow the impact of those in government partying while my mother died alone. We then had to have a very restricted funeral, as did thousands and thousands of other people.”

Fulop, who is a member of the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK group (CBFJUK), added: “I think she’s trying to appeal to people who don’t agree with lockdowns. She’s deeply misguided, because nobody is pro lockdown. Lockdowns are something that you have to have when everything else has failed.”

Fulop also claimed Badenoch’s comments risked undermining public trust in any future government’s public health messages. “All the scientists say there will be another pandemic, it’s a question of when not if, so this absolutely undermines public trust in government and public health messaging, which is very concerning,” she said.

Fulop added: “Badenoch said the Tory party needs to have an honest conversation about what’s gone wrong and one of the big things that went wrong was Partygate so I’m quite mystified that she doesn’t realise the impact that’s had on families like mine and the wider public.”

Matt Fowler, whose 56-year-old father, Ian, died of Covid in April 2020, said: “It sounds as if she’s is trying to cover over the failures of her party which is horrifying and insulting. It shows a complete lack of empathy or self-awareness that does an incredible amount of damage to public trust.”

Fowler, who is also a member of CBFJUK, said: “The fact that ministers were breaking safeguarding rules that were put in place specifically to protect people, while other people were obeying those rules and not being able to say goodbye to loved ones, was horrible. It was thumbing the nose at the general public.”

Dr Simon Williams, a behavioural scientist and public health researcher at Swansea University, said Badenoch’s remarks were “disgraceful”.

He said: “Research has shown that Partygate and others scandals really did have an effect on public trust in government and particularly public trust in the rules. So as well as being offensive, it’s very unhelpful to try to retrospectively minimise the impact of Partygate.”

He added: “There was a real sense that those who set the rules were flouting them or bending them and that really undermined the public message, so there are trickle on effects for saying this was all overblown.”

So far it doesnt look as if Badenoch is going to be the saviour the Tories are looking for.