Nadine Dorries rejects claims Boris Johnson’s No 10 was sexist as she says he was 'at his best' during the pandemic

The comments come after a public inquiry concluded chaos at the heart of government and a failure to take Covid-19 seriously cost 23,000 lives in the first wave of the pandemic.

Mr Johnson presided over a “toxic” culture in Number 10 and regularly changed his mind, while cabinet members including health secretary Matt Hancock plus key scientists all failed to act with the urgency needed to tackle the virus.

Baroness Heather Hallett’s report on the government response to Covid accused Mr Johnson of being too “optimistic” in his outlook in the early months of 2020.

Ms Dorries, who served in Mr Johnson's cabinet, has told LBC’s Andrew Marr that it is “absolute total nonsense” that Mr Johnson’s No.10 was sexist.

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She said: "Did David Cameron have an issue with women? I think possibly he had an uncomfortable relationship with older women. I don't know why that was but did that stop him listening to women? No."

Speaking on Tonight with Andrew Marr on LBC, Ms Dorries - who has since defected to Reform - told Andrew that during the Covid pandemic she saw Boris Johnson "at his best at that time” stating criticisms of the former PM in the Covid Report are "probably coming from his enemies”.

She credited Mr Johnson for personally calling up the Vice Chancellors of Oxford University and of AstraZeneca, and pleading with those research and drug companies not to take the vaccine to the US, but to fund it here in the UK instead.

She said: "I saw the 18 hours a day that he was putting in to make that happen. And I find these criticisms, probably coming from his enemies, of which he has many."

"I do wish people rather than putting their political interests first and constantly attacking Boris Johnson because he delivered Brexit, that's the reason why he was taken down as a Prime Minister, I do wish people would actually put the country first when they're thinking about making these attacks," she added.

Ms Dorries also criticised Dominic Cummings saying he "was a bad actor throughout” the pandemic.

Baroness Heather Hallett’s report said special adviser Mr Cummings used “offensive, sexualised and misogynistic” language as he “poisoned” the atmosphere in Downing Street.

The inquiry also found that the first and second lockdowns of the pandemic were not inevitable, but the government was left with no choice after failing to implement measures such as social distancing and household quarantine earlier.

Not imposing any lockdown at all when it became apparent there was no choice would have “led to an unacceptable loss of life”.

However, bringing in lockdown a week earlier, on March 16, would have cut deaths in the first wave to July “by 48% – equating to approximately 23,000 fewer deaths” in England, the report said.

In the report, Lady Hallett said the Covid threat was initially treated as a “health issue”, adding it was “surprising” that a government Cobra meeting was not chaired by Mr Johnson until March 2.

The report added that Mr Johnson “should have appreciated sooner that this was an emergency that required prime ministerial leadership to inject urgency into the response”.

Instead, he failed to appreciate the urgency of the situation “due to his optimism it would amount to nothing”, his “scepticism arising from UK experiences of infectious disease” along with “misleading reassurances” from the Department of Health, headed by Mr Hancock.