Covid inquiry should be looking at whether Covid was created in a Chinese lab, Boris tells his friends

• Former PM Boris Johnson has been preparing for his appearance for over a year 

The theory that Covid was man-made in a Chinese lab should be investigated by the Covid Inquiry, Boris Johnson believes.

The former Prime Minister, who will make his long-awaited appearance before the inquiry this week, has told friends he is puzzled about why the hearings are not examining whether the virus’ origins were natural or as a result of an accidental leak from a Wuhan institute.

When Michael Gove told the inquiry last week that there was a ‘significant body of judgment’ that Covid was man-made, he was cut short by the inquiry lawyer Hugo Keith KC, who said that was a ‘somewhat divisive issue’.

But Mr Johnson shares Mr Gove’s view that its emergence is relevant to the issue of pandemic preparedness for the future.

Mr Johnson is understood to believe the inquiry should be devoting more of its time to assessing the merits and demerits of locking-down the economy rather than the infighting between Government figures during the crisis

The former Prime Minister has told friends he is puzzled about why the hearings are not examining whether the virus’ origins were natural or as a result of an accidental leak from a Wuhan institute

A source close to Mr Johnson said: ‘Boris thinks it is legitimate to ask how the virus spread and whether it was made or manipulated by humans.

‘Many of the senior Conservatives who have appeared have been surprised that the core issue of the origins of the pandemic has not come up. Surely an examination of this question is crucial in preventing future pandemics?’

Mr Johnson is also understood to believe the inquiry should be devoting more of its time to assessing the merits and demerits of locking-down the economy rather than the infighting between Government figures during the crisis.

The former PM has been preparing for his appearance for more than a year, wading through some 6,000 pages of documentation.

An insider claims Mr Johnson has spent much of the past week holed up with his lawyer, Brian Altman KC, ‘devouring endless Pret A Manger sandwiches and cups of Costa coffee’. He is expected to mount a robust defence of his record during the crisis, pointing to the success of the vaccine programme, the fact that the NHS did not collapse, and the UK’s relatively early emergence from lockdowns.

When Michael Gove told the inquiry last week that there was a ‘significant body of judgment’ that Covid was man-made, he was cut short by the inquiry lawyer Hugo Keith KC

The former PM has been preparing for his appearance for more than a year, wading through some 6,000 pages of documentation

His allies also point out that Britain was ‘mid-table’ in the global assessment of excess deaths in developed countries.

Mr Johnson is, however, expected to apologise to the inquiry when he appears on Wednesday morning, as well as acknowledge that the Government did not get every decision right.

His evidence follows weeks of heavy criticism, with his former director of communications Lee Cain saying the pandemic was the ‘wrong crisis’ for Mr Johnson’s ‘skillset’. Former chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance later claimed that Mr Johnson was ‘bamboozled’ by scientific data.

Mr Gove told the inquiry that the UK was ‘not as well prepared as we should have been ideally’, pointing to the ‘nature of the fact that the virus was novel’.

He added: ‘Indeed, though I think this probably goes beyond the remit of the inquiry, there is a significant body of judgment that believes the virus itself was man-made – and that presents its own set of challenges as well.’

The origins of Covid-19 are still being investigated. Earlier this year, the World Health Organisation (WHO) announced that research into the source of the virus had been stalled due to difficulties in conducting crucial studies in China.

In April 2020, The Mail on Sunday became the first mainstream media outlet in the world to reveal fears the virus had leaked from a Chinese laboratory, reporting that Cobra – the Government’s secret emergency committee – was looking into intelligence on an alleged accident at Wuhan’s Institute of Virology.

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