Boris Johnson described scenes of women being pinned to the ground during a peaceful vigil for Sarah Everard, who was raped and murdered by a serving police officer, as “argy bargy”.

Speaking in a WhatsApp group on 13 March 2021, then prime minister Johnson said it would be wrong to publicly speak out against the police behaviour before he knew more about the situation at a vigil for Everard, despite videos and photos circulating of the events.

“Feels off to weigh in and bash the cops when all I have seen is some footage of argy bargy without knowing what happened,” he wrote to a group that included his political secretary Ben Gascoigne, deputy head of press Jack Doyle and press secretary Allegra Stratton.

In the WhatsApp discussion over how politicians should publicly respond to the footage emerging, David Frost, then a Cabinet Office minister, said: “It is certainly true that the police are in an impossible position in many ways because of the impossibility of enforcing current rules. We certainly should not throw them under the bus.”

After the kidnapping, rape and murder of Sarah Everard on 3 March 2021 by serving Met Police officer Wayne Couzens, a candlelight vigil was held in London. Some attendees were arrested by the police and physically pushed to the ground.

In September 2023, the Met was required to apologise and pay damages to the two women who had been pinned to the ground by police officers.

Johnson later said he was “deeply concerned” by the policing.

The evidence was shown to the inquiry today during former home secretary Priti Patel’s evidence-giving. Johnson is expected to give evidence later on in the module, which scrutinises political decision-making and governance.

Patel told the inquiry that when she “saw the news” of the vigil she thought it was “totally inappropriate policing”.

But she agreed that the general policing of protests – such as in the case of Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests – during the pandemic had been “appropriate”, albeit “uncomfortable”.

Asked whether a balance was struck, Patel said: “Reflecting back, I do. At the time it probably felt uncomfortable, quite frankly.”

She continued: “Of course, those are difficult challenges and though it feels uncomfortable. The role of the police is clearly to facilitate [and] enable those expressions of free speech and expressions that the public felt strongly about – Black Lives Matter in particular – in a peaceful and respectful way.”

Earlier today, inquiry chair Heather Hallett criticised the government for some of its Coronavirus Act, calling it “bad” legislation.

Patel also accepted that the laws, which originated from Matt Hancock’s Department of Health and Social Care, had been “complex and were difficult to understand”.

Police monitoring group NetPol said in a statement: “Months after the shocking killing of Sarah Everard, Johnson was still insisting the public should trust in the police, so his casual disregard for police violence against women who demanded more than platitudes is entirely in character. His arrogance and lack of empathy for others is, by now, far from surprising.”

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