Why doesn’t Boris Johnson want to meet the public?

The prime minister’s broken promise to meet the families of those who lost loved ones to Covid-19 is the latest in a string of encounters with the public that he has dodged, writes Sean O'Grady

Boris Johnson was reportedly forced to cut his holiday short after images of his cottage and tent were leaked (Getty)

For a “populist” politician supposedly gifted with a unique ability to commune with the British people, Boris Johnson seems strangely reluctant to meet that many of them – even when he publicly promises to do so. There are always risks as well as benefits to a prime minister listening and talking to those who’ve been affected by government policy, and sometimes it can serve little purpose in any case. The worst of all worlds, though, is to accept the obligation and then attempt to wriggle out of it on second thoughts with some unconvincing excuses.

So it is with Boris Johnson and the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK group. Having, in the group’s term, “dodged” five letters from them asking for a meeting, the prime minister was confronted about it on Sky News last week. “I am not aware of those letters ... but of course we will write back to every letter we get, and of course I will meet the bereaved who have suffered from Covid. Of course I will do that.”

Except that now the prime minister has said he can’t meet the group or any representatives of the 1,600 families concerned, even though “I am acutely conscious that a letter will be of little comfort against the grief and heartache that families have suffered”.