FoI Request Filed To Find Out About Johnson’s Stay In Intensive Care

By TruePublica: The Torygraph bleated out on April 8th that –  “Boris Johnson ‘is a fighter’ and will be back at the helm to lead us through coronavirus crisis, Dominic Raab says.” Two weeks later, Johnson is still out of sight and speculation about the veracity of claims made about his illness and stay in hospital continue to linger.

On the afternoon of 12th April, Boris Johnson left intensive care at St Thomas’ hospital to continue his recovery at the newly refurbished country house at Chequers. A No 10 spokesman said: “The PM has been discharged from hospital to continue his recovery at Chequers. On the advice of his medical team, the PM will not be immediately returning to work. He wishes to thank everybody at St Thomas’ for the brilliant care he has received. All of his thoughts are with those affected by this illness.”

The No10 press office, it’s spokesman and the printed media was careful not to say if Boris Johnson had gone straight to Chequers as advised or had gone to Downing Street. The media in the UK and USA used the same language, no doubt publishing from an official statement prepared by Downing Street itself.

The Daily Mail reported in an exclusive “that Boris Johnson came close to death as he fought coronavirus in an intensive care unit“, his friends revealed. The Great Mail scoop quoted unnamed friends, so no-one can check the authenticity of this statement.

We are told that in the ten days leading up to Boris Johnson being admitted to hospital he had been self-isolating in the No11 Downing Street apartment. We are also told that Johnson spent four nights under strict supervision whilst in hospital as a precaution and that for two of those days he was being given oxygen, a clear sign that Johnson was struggling to combat the Covid-19 infection. We are told that 48 hours later Boris Johnson was deemed healthy enough to leave hospital. There is no reason to doubt that story. However, within a couple of hours, Boris Johnson was able to make a very clear, unaided five-minute auto-cue speech and deliver it to the nation without any appearance of respiratory distress whatsoever. From other reports, it appears that this is perfectly possible and there is no reason to speculate otherwise. It is a fact though, that this speech was recorded at Downing Street and not Chequers.

That same evening, Chris Lockwood, the Europe Editor of the Economist publicly stated – “This is not someone who was at death’s door a few days ago. Something incredibly fishy about the whole business.” Lockwood was forced to retract that statement and it has since disappeared from social media after quite a negative response.

Speculation has not stopped since about what really happened with Boris Johnson and his intensive care stay in hospital. On the whole, commentators have been careful and supported the story that Johnson was indeed unwell, that he did get infected with Covid-19, that he was admitted to hospital and was unwell enough to need oxygen and was in intensive care for a while. It may be that a person who has made a career out of lying has exaggerated his condition – or used a degree of ‘licence’ and been cynically opportunistic. Would we really expect anything else from someone like Boris Johnson?

You only have to follow this Twitter thread and this one to see how much speculation there is.

Then, Marcus Ball, the founder of Stop Lying In Politics, an organisation dedicated to protecting the public from lying in politics has something to say about it all. Stop Lying In Politics has some incredible achievements so far in its short history. Just one of them is that Westminster Magistrates’ Court ruled in their favour that Boris Johnson must face a full crown court criminal trial for abusing his power of influence (for lying to the public about the £350 million NHS claim). This was the first summons precedent against dishonest public spending claims made by an elected representative in global common law history. In another case, they were successful in criminally prosecuting the PM for lying and so doing raised over £700,000 from crowdfunding to continue its work.

The very same man, Marcus Ball then announced on the 14th April that – “I have sent a Freedom of Information request to St Thomas’s NHS Trust requesting confirmation/proof that Boris Johnson wasn’t lying about being admitted there or the severity of his condition. The PR timing is just too perfect. I fear that he may be dodging responsibility by becoming a victim.”

Ball also wrote – “Just to be 100% clear, I am not calling any NHS personnel dishonest. It seems that fans of Johnson want to twist my words in order to defend him. Instead, I am calling Johnson a liar. He is a known liar. And I want to know if he lied to public or the NHS about his condition.”

If Boris Johnson was found to be lying over his stay in hospital or his condition whilst there – that would be the end of his political career.

 

---