Boris Johnson is shown all the times he said “let it rip” (the virus) during his second-day grilling at Britain’s Covid inquiry on Thursday (7 December). Hugo Keith KC showed the former prime minister extracts from former Government chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance’s diaries which described Mr Johnson saying the Government should “let it rip” through the population. Mr Johnson said “This was a phrase that was common parlance at the time and remains so”, adding: “I don’t wish to be repetitive but this is exactly what you’d expect me to be talking about at this stage.”