A woman whose husband died with Covid-19 said she feels “empty” following the publication of a report that found Boris Johnson deliberately misled Parliament with his partygate denials.
The Privileges Committee said Mr Johnson is the first former prime minister to have lied to the Commons, adding that the offences merited a 90-day suspension, which would have paved the way for a by-election if he had not quit in anticipation.
The Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice (CBFFJ) UK campaign group said Mr Johnson “should never be allowed to stand for any form of public office again”.
One member of the group, Fran Hall from Buckinghamshire, said there was “no happiness” at the report’s findings, adding that Mr Johnson is a “disgraced former prime minister”, which she said was now “plain and evident to see”.
The 62-year-old’s husband, Steve Mead, died three weeks after the couple were married in 2020.
She told the PA news agency: “There are so many people who are just traumatised by what’s happened to them and the people they love.
“They will never recover and there will be no justice.
“They’ve just got to live with the knowledge that they have been absolutely let down by the people that were in charge of ensuring that we were kept safe, and we weren’t.
“It will always sting but we had the worst possible prime minister at the worst possible time and he was surrounded by people that enabled him to continue to lie to everyone.
“I feel empty, really.”
Ms Hall said she was one of five members from CBFFJ who were invited to Downing Street to meet the then-prime minister in September 2021.
Ms Hall said: “We knew at that point that he was not telling us the truth when he looked at us and said that he was doing everything he could to prevent other people having to go through what we’d been through.
“We knew that he was lying and it’s now apparent that he’s lied to Parliament and to the whole country.”
On what the response should be to the findings, Ms Hall said: “I don’t think he should be seen in public in the role of a former prime minister.
“He’s a disgraced former prime minister and that is now plain and evident.”
David Garfinkel, spokesperson for CBFFJ, said Mr Johnson had shown “no remorse” and instead “lied to our faces”.
Mr Garfinkel said: “This is another grim reminder that whilst families like mine were saying goodbye to our loved ones over Zoom, the same prime minister that failed us so badly in the first place was breaking his own rules so he could have a party and a laugh.
“Johnson has shown no remorse. Instead he lied to our faces when he told us that he’d done ‘all he could’ to protect our loved ones.
“He lied again when he said the rules hadn’t been broken in Number 10, and he’s lied ever since when he’s denied it again and again.
“It’s an utter tragedy that Johnson was in charge when the pandemic struck and he should never be allowed to stand for any form of public office again.
“His fall from grace must serve as a lesson to other politicians to act with honesty and to serve the public as a whole – that is the only positive that can come from this.”
