A GROWING number of witnesses have come forward to say Boris Johnson did say he would "rather see bodies pile up in their thousands" than order a third lockdown.

Two sources who claim the Prime Minister did make the remark have told ITN that they are prepared to speak publicly and under oath if he continues to deny doing so.

While insiders familiar with the conversation have also confirmed to the BBC that he did so.

The Guardian and Politico have also spoken to witnesses and officials who have confirmed the comments.

The National:

Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove pictured today. He told MPs yesterday he did not hear the Prime Minister make the remark about bodies piling up. Commentators say his words did not amount to a denial.

Johnson yesterday strongly denied using the phrase, describing the reports that he did so as "total rubbish".

He is said to have made the comments in a rage last autumn, just as England went into a second lockdown.

The alleged remark was first reported by the Daily Mail yesterday and comes amid a bitter war of words with his former chief of staff Dominic Cummings who questioned the PM's competency in his handling of the pandemic, and told how he tried to shut down an inquiry into a leak last autumn about the second lockdown in England.

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According to the paper the comment was allegedly made after Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove warned Johnson that soldiers would be needed to guard hospitals overrun with Covid victims.

Johnson agreed to fresh restrictions but his frustration is said to have boiled over after the crucial meeting at No 10 in October. “No more ****ing lockdowns – let the bodies pile high in their thousands!” he is alleged to have said.

Meanwhile, further claims emerged today with The Times reporting that Johnson repeatedly told aides in September when discussing the Covid pandemic that he would rather "let it rip" than go into a second lockdown, describing it as "mad".

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As Johnson and his Cabinet met this morning to try and move on from the crisis the SNP said Johnson's denials are "becoming threadbare" and repeated its demand for him to resign it the claims are true.

The party's Westminster leader Ian Blackford said: "The evidence against Boris Johnson is now becoming overwhelming. And in the face of that evidence, including the accounts of people who are prepared to swear on oath that he did make these comments, his repeated and shifty denials are becoming threadbare.  

"To make comments about letting covid 'rip' and allowing bodies to 'pile up' is utterly abhorrent, and if confirmed would show that Johnson is unfit to be Prime Minister.

"This Tory government is completely out of touch with millions of people across the UK, who have made huge sacrifices and lost friends, colleagues and family members to this awful disease. They deserve better than Boris Johnson's glib attitude and disgusting comments.

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"Now that witnesses are willing to swear on oath that the Prime Minister made these comments, is he willing to do the same? Johnson must come to parliament to make a statement, answer questions, and - if he did make these comments - accept responsibility and announce his resignation."

In the Commons yesterday Gove said he “never heard language of that kind” - in what commentators later pointed out was a careful form of words short of a denial -  in the meeting where Johnson ordered the second shutdown in England when pressed by the SNP MP Stephen Flynn.

Flynn, MP for Aberdeen South, said: "Attached to the ministerial code are the seven principles of public life, the first of which is 'selflessness', where it states: 'Holders of public office should act solely in terms of the public interest.'

The National:

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab pictured arriving in Downing Street this morning for a UK Cabinet meeting

"Today, we have had a number of sources state that the Prime Minister shouted in a rage that he would rather see the bodies piled high in their thousands than order a third lockdown.

"Does the Minister not accept that a Prime Minister who does not put public health first is no Prime Minister at all?"

Gove responded: "Let me deal with this. I was in the meeting that afternoon, with the Prime Minister and other ministers, as we looked at what was happening with the virus and with the pandemic.

"We were dealing with one of the most serious decisions that this Prime Minister and any Government have had to face. People have been pointing out, quite rightly, that tens of thousands of people were dying. 

"The Prime Minister made a decision in that meeting to trigger a second lockdown. He made a subsequent decision to trigger a third lockdown.

"This is a Prime Minister who was in hospital himself, in intensive care. The idea that he would say any such thing, I find incredible. I was in that room.

"These decisions are never easy, but the Government made the decision, and the Prime Minister made the decision, to have a second and third lockdown, and I think we can see the evidence of the leadership that he showed then, not just in the courage that he showed, but also in the success of the vaccination programme, from which people across this whole United Kingdom have benefited."