Boris Johnson Justifies Covid School Closure Decisions
Boris Johnson Defends Pandemic School Closure Decisions
Boris Johnson, the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, has defended his handling of school closures during the pandemic, acknowledging that children paid a significant price to protect society from the spread of the virus. During an appearance before the UK Covid-19 Inquiry, he described the repeated closure of schools as “awful” and a “nightmare,” expressing regret over the decisions made at the time.
Johnson emphasized that while it was clear early on that schools might need to be closed, there were ongoing discussions about the best approach. He stated that the Department for Education (DfE) appeared to be preparing for such a scenario, even if specific plans were not fully developed in advance.
However, this claim was challenged by former education secretary Sir Gavin Williamson, who told the inquiry that he had not asked DfE officials to prepare an assessment on the impact of school closures in early 2020. According to Williamson, the advice at the time did not recommend closures, and Number 10 had not commissioned such an assessment.
In response, Johnson rejected the criticism, stating that he was being criticized both for wanting to close schools and for wanting to get them open. He reiterated that children, who were not particularly vulnerable to the virus, were paying a heavy price to protect others. “It was an awful, awful thing. As I said, I wish it had been otherwise. I wish we could have found another solution,” he said.
In his written evidence, Sir Gavin described a “discombobulating 24-hour sea-change” from keeping schools open on March 16 to discussing closures on March 17, with an announcement made the following day. Johnson insisted that work had been done to plan for school closures, pointing to discussions within Sage (the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies) and the Cabinet starting in February. He recalled that the subject came up repeatedly, and that he had received a note from the DfE on March 15 requesting a meeting on the topic.
He added that he would not have expected the DfE to wait for instructions from Number 10 before planning for closures. Johnson expressed surprise that the permanent secretary at the DfE did not feel it necessary to look at contingency arrangements. “I just think that it was obvious that there had to be consideration of closing schools,” he said.
When asked if he accepts that until March 2020 there had not been a cross-government focus on schools, Johnson responded, “No, I don’t really accept that.” He maintained that there had already been conversations about the possibility of closing schools and that the DfE appeared to be preparing for it.
At the inquiry last week, Sir Gavin criticized Johnson’s decision in May 2020 to announce a phased return to schools as “damaging” to schools, children, and families. He also suggested that the then-prime minister prioritized the NHS over children when making school closure decisions in January 2021.
Johnson denied any “dereliction of duty” in failing to plan for school closures during the pandemic, but acknowledged that officials had been “overwhelmed by the speed of events.”
Sir Jon Coles, the former director-general for schools at the DfE, previously told the UK Covid-19 Inquiry that it was an “extraordinary dereliction of duty” for the DfE not to plan for school closures earlier in March 2020.
When asked about the impact of the exams in the summer of 2020, Johnson admitted that they did not get the model right initially. “Was Covid a disaster? Yes. Was the loss of education a disaster? Yes. Was the loss of exams a disaster? Yes,” he said. “Was the disappointment, anger, the additional frustration of a large number of kids a disaster? Yes, it was, but it has to be seen in the context of us trying to deal with a much, much bigger disaster and that was the loss of learning and the loss of the exams themselves.”
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