Boris Johnson: Tories feared PM would die with Covid, says Simon Hart

Senior politicians feared Prime Minister Boris Johnson might die when he was admitted to intensive care with Covid, the Welsh Secretary has said.

Simon Hart said there was "a real feeling that we could wake up the next morning and find he was dead" when Mr Johnson was ill last April.

He said he thought "this wasn't in the script," when he heard Mr Johnson was unwell.

He added it had showed him that "nobody was out of reach" from Covid.

In the days prior to being admitted, the prime minister tried to "soldier on" despite being obviously ill, Mr Hart told the BBC's Walescast podcast.

He said although Mr Johnson was looking "quite cheerful", he could remember telling a colleague they needed to finish the meeting soon because he was "looking rough".

The Welsh secretary also defended his boss from accusations he responded too slowly or missed key government meetings early in the pandemic.

Instead, he credited the "unbreakable optimism" and "extraordinary stamina" of a leader who was determined "to try to save as many lives as we can".

"It was a very sobering moment [when Mr Johnson was in intensive care] for all concerned - because it just reinforced that this thing knew no boundaries and nobody was outside its reach."

The drama of last spring seems a long way from the interview at Pendine Sands holiday park, in Mr Hart's Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire constituency.

He won the seat, where he and his wife Abigail raised their two children, at the 2010 General Election.

However, he had operated in political circles before that, and as chief executive of the Countryside Alliance he lobbied against Labour's ban on fox hunting.

He said that battle's "days are gone" and that "nobody wants to re-engage in that".

As a backbencher during Brexit, he voted to remain, but under Theresa May campaigned and cajoled Remainers and Eurosceptics to try to get a deal through Parliament.

Boris Johnson then appointed him to the cabinet after his predecessor Alun Cairns resigned shortly before the 2019 General Election.

From Pendine's famous beach, which has been busy with visitors since lockdown restrictions in Wales have eased, Mr Hart said the furlough and vaccination programmes show how the union of the UK has underpinned Wales's response to the pandemic.

But his views on preserving that union clash with those of first minister Mark Drakeford, who has accused the UK government of putting the union at risk and of undermining the powers of the Senedd.

Mr Hart counters by accusing Mr Drakeford of "talking up devolution endlessly".

"I think talk of constitutional conventions and all sort of academic claptrap frankly to me doesn't seem to be in tune with the guys trying to run this camp."

Nevertheless, the Welsh secretary said he thinks he has a "reasonable" relationship with the first minister, who he sometimes spots on the seaside in his constituency.

"He's on holiday so I don't feel it's my place to pester him," he adds.

Not intruding on people with political chit-chat is a theme.

"I wouldn't even know how half my friends vote," said Mr Hart.

"It wouldn't have ever crossed my mind to ask them."

He brings it up after telling us about how his home near Narberth was inundated with bird-watchers in 2018.

Enthusiasts from all over the UK came to see a green heron - a native of Costa Rica and an exceptionally rare visitor to the UK - that had landed in his garden.

He said him and his family put trays of food out everyday but he was "baffled" by some people who said: "'I'm never going to set foot in a Tory MP's garden'.

"They felt that strongly. I thought 'Oh, come on'."

The bird "put on a show" for a week, then flew off and the MP said his only regret was he wished "it had done it in an election year".

But then the migratory habits of birds, just like politics, don't always follow a plan.

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