Boris Johnson has denied he said he would rather see bodies piled “high in their thousands” than order a third lockdown, an alleged comment that bereaved relatives described as “a punch in the stomach to all those grieving”.
Johnson said it was “total, total rubbish” that he had said those words. He said: “What I certainly think is that this country has done an amazing job with the lockdowns. And they’ve been very difficult. And they’ve been very tough for people. And there’s no question about that.
“Nobody wants to go into a lockdown but they’ve helped us. The discipline the public has shown has helped us to get the numbers of cases down very considerably.”
His denial came after the Daily Mail reported an unnamed source as claiming the prime minister said at a Downing Street meeting in October: “No more fucking lockdowns – let the bodies pile high in their thousands.”
Asked on Monday if he made the comments, Johnson said: “No, but I think the important thing I think people want us to get on and do as a government is to make sure that the lockdowns work.”
Johnson’s official spokesman also denied the claims to reporters. “This is untrue and he has denied [saying] that.”
The incendiary claim follows a briefing war this weekend between Johnson and his former key adviser Dominic Cummings, who resigned from his No 10 job after what was believed to be a power struggle with Johnson’s partner, Carrie Symonds.
However, Johnson did not firmly deny another key allegation by Cummings, that he discussed using donations to fund a Downing Street flat refurbishment. Asked if he had ever discussed using donors to fund the work, he said: “If there’s anything to be said about that, any declaration to be made, that will, of course, be made in due course.”
The defence secretary, Ben Wallace, also dismissed claims that the government was “sleazy” amid mounting allegations that the prime minister accepted undeclared donations from Conservative donors.
“Look, it is not true. It has been categorically denied by practically everyone,” Wallace told Sky when asked about the reported remark.
Wallace said the claims were “gossip”. “We are getting into the sort of comedy chapter now of these gossip stories – unnamed sources, by unnamed advisers talking about unnamed events.”
For members of the Covid-19 Bereaved Families For Justice group, the alleged comments compounded their anger at the government’s claim that it would be too busy for months to launch a public inquiry into the UK’s handling of the pandemic and refusal to meet them.
Matt Fowler, who co-founded the group, said he could not comprehend “how someone could be so heartless, disrespectful and unsympathetic”.
“If [the comments] can be proven to be true, he should resign,” said Tony Fitzgerald who lost his wife, Ann, 65. “I for one, will never forgive him … shame on you Boris.”
Shelly Weeks, whose husband Roy, 73, died last April, said she was “disgusted”, while Sioux Hill, whose father John Leigh, died with Covid last April, shed “tears of pain” at the comments.
“I would like to challenge Boris to personally walk the memorial wall and be faced with all the names and hearts of beautiful people who should still be here,” said Weeks. “Does he want to see bodies piled high in morgues?”
“Johnson’s refusal to meet with bereaved families is hurtful and insulting, and demonstrates even more than his words quoted in the Daily Mail today how morally contemptible he is,” added Rivka Gottleib, who lost her father.
Johnson is facing a stream of allegations about his muddled initial handling of the Covid-19 crisis, questions over who financed the redecoration of his Downing Street flat, and claims that multibillion pound contracts have been handed to party donors.
Downing Street named Cummings on Thursday as a source of a number of damaging leaks about the prime minister. Cummings hit back on Friday, denying he was the source and casting Johnson as incompetent and lacking in integrity.
Cummings said Johnson’s plans to have donors secretly pay for the renovation of his Downing Street plan were “unethical, foolish, possibly illegal and almost certainly broke the rules on proper disclosure of political donations”.
On the BBC’s Radio 4 Today programme, the defence secretary said Johnson paid for the refurbishment of the Downing Street flat “out of his own pocket” and that all the rules were followed.
“As the prime minister has been clear, the prime minister paid personally for the flat. The prime minister has complied at all stages with the rules and we’ve been very clear on that.
“We have engaged with the Electoral Commission and we will continue to engage with that,” he said.
Wallace said he did not “recognise” suggestions that Johnson had asked Tory donors for financial help to pay for the upgrades, saying they were “based on a large amount of speculation”.
He added: “The prime minister, as I’ve said, paid for it out of his money. The action he did was he paid the money for the flat out of his own pocket.”
Simon Case, the cabinet secretary, is expected to be questioned on Monday about Cummings’ claim that the prime minister tried to quash a formal leak inquiry – the so-called search for a “chatty rat” – because it implicated a friend of Symonds.
Case will appear on Monday afternoon before the public administration and constitutional affairs committee.