The chief executive of Ryanair has said he would not take any ‘advice or guidance’ about the coronavirus from Boris Johnson, calling the prime minister’s track-record ‘lamentable’ and ‘consistently wrong’.
Michael O’Leary said the UK government had been ‘consistently late to the party and wrong on Covid’.
Appearing on Sky News, O’Leary said: ‘Boris Johnson’s record on Covid has been lamentable. You know, he ruled out wearing face masks originally. He was running around shaking hands with everybody. He has consistently called the entire Covid pandemic wrong.
‘You know, we [Ryanair] were the people criticised when we announced we were going back flying first with mandatory face masks at a time when Boris Johnson was allowing people into the London underground without mandatory face masks.
‘Boris Johnson and his government have been consistently late to the party and wrong on Covid, so frankly, I wouldn’t take any advice or guidance from him.’
O’Leary also criticised the quarantine rules, pointing out: ‘You’re in greater danger of catching COVID in Bolton than you are in Barcelona.’
Peter Whelan tweeted: ‘F*ck me I’m agreeing with Michael O’Leary, 2020 is just getting surreal.’
Barb Robson responded: ‘I hate Ryanair and I would never dream of flying with them , but he’s spot on here’.
Another wrote: ‘I am not a great fan of O’Leary, but he has got to have this one – if only the sane people in the financial sector would start removing their funding from a PM and government who are happy to sink UK & UK Plc through the burning of its international integrity…’