Covid Inquiry: Boris on trial
The Story
The Times
3.9 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 8 December 2023
⏱️ 33 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Over the past two days, Boris Johnson faced a grilling at the Covid Inquiry. His appearance came after weeks of testimony from senior officials, politicians and scientific advisers who hadn't held back in their assessment of his handling of the pandemic. So what did we learn about the crucial decisions made by the then Prime Minister?
This podcast was brought to you thanks to the support of readers of The Times and The Sunday Times. Subscribe today: thetimes.co.uk/storiesofourtimes.
Guest: George Arbuthnott, Deputy Insight Editor, The Sunday Times.
Host: Manveen Rana.
Clips: UK Covid-19 Inquiry.
Insight's original investigation:
- Insight investigation: why was the UK so slow to lockdown?
- Failures of State: How Britain made the same mistake twice (Pt 2)
- Failures of State: The inside story of Britain’s battle with coronavirus (Pt 1)
Read more: Failures of State: The Inside Story of Britain’s Battle with Coronavirus
Find out more about our Apple bonus series
This podcast was brought to you thanks to subscribers of The Times and The Sunday Times. To enjoy unlimited digital access to all our journalism subscribe here.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Just imagine what your best Christmas ever would sound like. |
| 0:03.4 | Thank you for calling National Lottery. I can see you calling about a winner today, is that correct? |
| 0:07.4 | Yeah, I think I have. I'd just take to double check before I do a cartwheel. |
| 0:11.1 | Yeah, I can confirm that you have won the top prize 1.2 million oh my |
| 0:15.5 | what happy Christmas why do now you have the best Christmas ever this Christmas it could be you. The National Lottery. Rules and procedures apply. Players must be 18 or over. |
| 0:30.0 | This is a passenger announcement. You can now book your train on Uber and get 10% back in credits to spend on Uber. |
| 0:41.0 | So you can order your own fries instead of eating everyone else's. |
| 0:46.5 | Trains now on Uber. Tees and sees apply. Check the Uber app. For the past two days Boris Johnson has faced a grilling at the COVID |
| 1:00.9 | inquiry. His appearance came after weeks of testimony from senior |
| 1:06.0 | officials, politicians and scientific advisors who hadn't held back in their |
| 1:12.0 | assessment of his abilities. |
| 1:14.0 | It was the wrong crisis for this prime minister skill set. |
| 1:19.0 | He did struggle with some of the concepts and we did need to repeat them often. |
| 1:25.0 | Many of the key decisions were being made by Mr Cummings and not the Prime Minister. |
| 1:30.0 | Pretty much everyone called in the trolley, yeah. |
| 1:32.0 | Change direction. |
| 1:36.0 | As he prepared to face 12 hours of interrogation, |
| 1:40.0 | the former Prime Minister began with an apology. |
| 1:44.0 | Can I just say how glad I am to be at this inquiry |
| 1:49.0 | and how sorry I am for the pain and the loss and the suffering of the COVID victims. |
| 1:58.8 | Please sit down. |
| 2:00.8 | But it was dramatically interrupted by the protests of bereaved families. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Times, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of The Times and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.