British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was not prepared to impose lockdown restrictions to stop the spread of Covid-19 to save the elderly and denied the National Health Service would be overwhelmed, Reuters quotes his former top adviser as saying in an interview.

In his first TV interview since leaving his job last year, excerpts of which were released on Monday, Dominic Cummings said Johnson did not want to impose a second lockdown in the autumn last year because "the people who are dying are essentially all over 80".

Cummings also claimed that Johnson wanted to meet Queen Elizabeth, 95, despite signs that the virus was spreading in his office at the start of the pandemic and when the public had been told to avoid all unnecessary contact, particularly with the elderly.

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