‘Of course I’ll go to the pub!’: Boris Johnson’s coronavirus plan is thrown into chaos as his own FATHER Stanley vows to ignore official advice to avoid social contact despite Britain now on coronavirus lockdown
- Stanley Johnson defied son Boris’s advice today on This Morning programme
- Yesterday government stepped up its instructions on social distancing
- Comes after report suggested that up to 250,000 people could catch virus
- Coronavirus symptoms: what are they and should you see a doctor?
Boris Johnson’s own father has today ignored the government’s advice on how to avoid coronavirus buy saying he may go to the pub tonight.
Stanley Johnson, who is 79 and therefore among some of the country’s most vulnerable to Covid-19, defied official advice on This Morning.
Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield were discussing the Prime Minister’s advice for the public to avoid pubs, restaurants and theatres to avoid spreading the virus.
But when he was asked whether he’d go to the pub, Stanley said: ‘Yes of course I’ll go to the pub if I need to go to a pub.’
When Phillip asked what his son would think of that because he’d told people not to go, Stanley said: ‘No, he told people should avoid going to pubs but if I had to go to a pub I’d go to a pub.’
It comes after Boris Johnson yesterday announced that people should stop socialising, work from home, avoid travelling and that whole households should stay in isolation if one person becomes ill.
UK authorities had confirmed 1,543 cases of the coronavirus and 55 deaths by yesterday. The true number of infected people is believed to be higher than 25,000
And a report by leading scientists who are advising the Government said people may need to keep up the drastic lifestyle change for 18 months or more.
The Imperial College COVID-19 Response Team predicted that 260,000 people could have died if the Government hadn’t changed tack yesterday and tightened its rules.
Now it could limit the fatalities to fewer than 20,000 by keeping people away from each other and slowing down the spread of the virus.
British officials had only realised the danger ‘in the last few days’, the report said, after watching the situation in Italy spiral out of control and overwhelm hospitals – around 2,200 people have now died there and there have been 28,000 confirmed infections, although the true toll is likely considerably higher.