Boris Johnson arrives at Covid inquiry to kick off bombshell evidence session TODAY as he prepares to warn lockdowns did more harm than good and insist the government was 'between a rock and a hard place'

Boris Johnson arrived at the Covid inquiry today as he prepares for an epic two-day grilling on his pandemic decisions.

The former PM was driven up to the venue in central London nearly three hours before his appearance is scheduled to begin at 10am.

Mr Johnson is set to mount a robust defence of his leadership during the crisis, after coming under heavy fire for delaying tough restrictions in the initial phase. 

He will acknowledge that some mistakes were made and the initial lockdown was inevitable given the lack of treatments for a new virus - but point out that the government was 'between a rock and a hard place' and had no 'good choices'.

Mr Johnson is expected to suggest the inquiry has given too little consideration to the downsides of restrictions for education, health and the economy.

In written evidence, Mr Johnson said he had a duty to consider whether lockdowns 'would do (and did do) more harm than good'.

He added: 'We were between a rock and a hard place. We simply had no good choices, and it was necessary at all times to weigh up the harms that any choice would cause.'

He is also expected to repeat his denials that he ever said to 'let the bodies pile high' rather than order a third lockdown. 

Downing Street at the time strongly denied he made the comment, insisting it was 'just another lie'.

Mr Johnson's former chief of staff Lord Lister told the inquiry last month he heard the former PM say the words during a meeting in September 2020. 

The former premier is also set to be quizzed about Sir Patrick Vallance's diary entries in which he  wrote about his frustrations in dealing with the then-prime minister.

'(Mr Johnson is) obsessed with older people accepting their fate and letting the young get on with life and the economy going,' he said.

'Quite bonkers set of exchanges,' he wrote, referring to a WhatsApp group including Mr Johnson.

Tory MP Sir Michael Fabricant said the inquiry appeared at times to be more interested in 'salacious' WhatsApp messages between ministers and officials than in learning the lessons of the crisis. 

And he appealed for Mr Johnson to be given a fair hearing: 'I have been a little worried that the inquiry has drifted into who swore what at whom rather than focusing on the lessons learned in case, God forbid, we have another pandemic.

'I just hope that Boris will be heard by people with an open mind rather than the prejudice which he has met in the past at other hearings.'

Another supporter of the former PM said the inquiry appeared to have started from a presumption that lockdowns were the right response to the pandemic and that the Government had been too slow.

'They only seem to be interested in asking whether we should have locked down sooner or for longer,' the source said. 

'There has been very little discussion so far of the incredibly difficult trade-offs involved or of the constantly changing scientific advice, which was against locking down early on.

'If you really want to learn the lessons of the pandemic you – which is what Boris is interested in – you have to look at everything, not start with a pre-determined narrative.'

Mr Johnson is expected to acknowledge that the first lockdown of March 2020 was inevitable, given the lack of a vaccine or effective treatments against a deadly new virus.

But in his written testimony he said he had been 'very worried about the economic harm caused... and whether it would do more damage to the country than the virus itself'.

He is also expected to suggest that the inquiry should take more interest in the origins of the virus. Michael Gove was shut down at the hearings when he suggested that a 'significant body of judgment' now believed Covid-19 was man-made.

Mr Johnson will apologise for mistakes made by the Government during the pandemic.

But he will insist that ministers 'got the big calls right': achieving one of the fastest vaccine rollouts in the world, preventing the collapse of the NHS, developing innovative treatments like dexamethasone and emerging from the final lockdown quickly.

He will also reject claims that he 'switched off' during a half-term break in February 2020.