UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is considering using a three-pronged strategy ahead of a public investigation into London's handling of the coronavirus pandemic, The Times has quoted unnamed sources as saying.
The inquiry was announced by Johnson on Wednesday amid the government's fears over an appearance by the prime minister's former senior adviser Dominic Cummings before MPs in late May.
During the 26 May Commons committee gathering, Cummings reportedly plans to point the finger at Johnson personally for the catastrophic death toll from the second wave of COVID-19 in the UK. Previous media reports claimed that "Dominic has copies of everything and knows where all the bodies are buried".
As for the UK prime minister's alleged defence strategy, it will focus on three critical areas and the first one will deal with the delay in implementing the initial coronavirus lockdown until 23 March 2020, according to the sources.
The second front of defence will reportedly focus on Cummings' criticism of Johnson's decision not to implement a lockdown last September.
One of the sources claimed the PM is expected to say that a two-week "circuit breaker" in Wales did little to stop the virus and "there was no evidence it would have made a difference".
Lastly, Johnson's defence will ostensibly handle the emergence of the Kent variant of COVID-19 that was only discovered in December. The source argued that both the government and the prime minister will say that they could not have predicted the strain's emergence.
Johnson Announces Public Inquiry Into Gov’t Handling of COVID Pandemic
The sources' claims come a day after Johnson told parliament that an independent public inquiry into the government's handling of the coronavirus pandemic will begin in the spring of 2022, a process that he said "will place the state's actions under the microscope".
"This inquiry must be able to look at the events of the last year in the cold light of day and identify the key issues that will make a difference for the future", the prime minister pointed out.
He declined to clarify when the probe might produce its final report, saying, "I think we owe it to the country to have as much transparency as we possibly can and we owe it to the country to produce answers in a reasonable timescale".
Starmer wondered why the investigation won't be starting earlier and advised the government to not only consult the devolved leadership, but also the bereaved families as well as National Health Service (NHS) workers.
Johnson responded by calling it "the right timing" and argued against dedicating "huge amounts of public health workers' time to an inquiry when they very well may still be in the middle of the pandemic".
The UK, where the COVID-19 death toll stands at more than 127,000, has been under one of the world's strictest national lockdowns since the beginning of the pandemic. The British government has been widely criticised since the onset of the crisis in 2020 for failing to take appropriate measures in time, leading to a greater loss of life.