UK PM denies making ‘let bodies pile high’ remark
LONDON British Prime Minister Boris Johnson faced a call to resign yesterday after claims he dismissed the prospect of thousands dying from Covid-19, as a row over government "sleaze" escalated.
The Daily Mail newspaper cited unidentified sources as saying that, in October, shortly after agreeing to a second lockdown, Mr Johnson told a meeting in Downing Street: "No more f***** lockdowns - let the bodies pile high in their thousands."
Mr Johnson yesterday dismissed the claims as "total, total rubbish" .
Asked whether he had made the remark, he told broadcasters: "No, but again, I think the important thing, I think, that people want us to get on and do as a government is to make sure that the lockdowns work, and they have."
Britain has the world's fifth worst Covid-19 death toll, with 127,681 deaths, after the US, Brazil, Mexico and India, according to Johns Hopkins University of Medicine.
Mr Johnson is facing a stream of allegations in newspapers about everything from his muddled initial handling of the Covid-19 crisis to questions over who financed the redecoration of his official apartment.
The Scottish National Party (SNP) went further.
Referring to the comments Mr Johnson allegedly made, SNP leader in the British Parliament Ian Blackford tweeted: "These comments are utterly abhorrent. If they are true, @BorisJohnson has a duty to resign.
"The Prime Minister must now come to Parliament to give a statement, and face questioning, on these shocking claims." - REUTERS, AFP
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