Johnson spoke of 'whisky and a revolver' at Covid meeting

BORIS JOHNSON referred to “whisky and a revolver” during a meeting with officials in October 2020 and spoke about “medieval measures” to tackle the pandemic, the UK Covid-19 Inquiry has heard.

The remarks, detailed in the notebook of the then-chief scientist Sir Patrick Vallance and shared with the inquiry, came as Mr Johnson’s government sought to avoid a second national lockdown heading into the winter.

Sir Patrick also complained that Mr Johnson and his then-chancellor Rishi Sunak were “clutching at straws”.

The disclosure came as Simon Ridley became the latest top official to appear before Lady Hallett’s inquiry this week.

The former head of the Cabinet Office Covid-19 taskforce faced detailed questions about the role and influence of the official body over the course of 2020.

Much of the hearing focused on the options presented to Mr Johnson and Cabinet ministers about how to suppress the virus heading into the winter, with Mr Johnson at one stage seeking out “alternative views” from Professor Carl Heneghan, director of the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine at Oxford and others.