Rishi bashes Boris..he bites back

Tory civil war as Covid victims' loved ones still await answers

- JOHN STEVENS, BEN GLAZE and LIZZY BUCHAN

BORIS Johnson and Rishi Sunak are scrapping over gongs for cronies like kids in a playground as grieving families await answers over lives lost in the pandemic.

The Prime Minister indulged in a public slanging match over Johnson's bid to give peerages to cheerleaders including Nadine Dorries.

It came as loved ones of the 227,000 people who died with Covid get ready to hear how Tory austerity left the country lethally unprepared for the outbreak.

The Covid Inquiry into the Government's response to the pandemic has its first evidence session today, having only been announced by Johnson in May 2021 after immense pressure for answers from those hardest hit.

It was not officially launched until June last year days after Covid Bereaved Families for Justice threatened legal action as the then-PM dragged his feet. The first preliminary hearings began last October. But instead of quietly reflecting on the Tories' chaotic record, Sunak engaged in a childish squabble with his disgraced former Downing Street neighbour.