Dominic Raab has revealed he suggested that Boris Johnson copy the Estonian president by receiving the COVID vaccine live on TV before taking part in a ski marathon to combat “misinformation”.

In his witness statement to the official COVID inquiry that is currently under way, the former deputy prime minister revealed he had visited Estonia in March 2021 and that the president had been vaccinated live on air before taking part in a “cross-country ski marathon”.

Mr Raab said this had been part of an effort to “refute the anti-AstraZeneca misinformation being spread by the Russian government”.

The former deputy prime minister, who resigned as justice secretary in May over bullying allegations he denied, also addressed some controversial claims that were made public during the pandemic, including that Mr Johnson wanted to be injected with COVID on television and that he had also said he would rather “let the bodies pile high” than impose another lockdown.

Mr Raab said he did not “witness” this, adding: “In respect of the alleged injection comment, I can only say that, when I returned from Estonia in March 2021, I told the prime minister that the Estonian president had been vaccinated live on television and then had done a cross-country ski marathon, in order to refute the anti-AstraZeneca misinformation being spread by the Russian government.

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“I may have suggested that the prime minister consider doing the same.”

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Mr Raab is one of a number of high-profile government figures to give evidence to the COVID inquiry, which is hearing from former health secretary Matt Hancock today.

During the pandemic Mr Raab stood in for the former prime minister when he contracted coronavirus in the spring of 2020 during the first UK lockdown.

Appearing before the inquiry yesterday, Mr Raab said he was effectively given “five minutes’ notice” that he would be leading the country when Mr Johnson was hospitalised.

His written evidence confirmed that had Mr Johnson died, Mr Raab would have taken over as caretaker prime minister while a successor was chosen from a leadership election.

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In April 2021, an EU report concluded that Russian and Chinese media were trying to sow mistrust in western COVID-19 vaccines and that the two countries’ state media outlets published fake news online in a number of languages in an attempt to sensationalise safety concerns.

They also publicised unfounded links between vaccines and deaths in Europe, and promoted their own vaccines as superior, the report said – allegations both countries denied.

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Elsewhere in his statement, Mr Raab revealed that his “biggest reticence” had been around the closure of schools.

“I did not think we should do it at the time,” he said.

“I did not think that the younger children would get back the time that they had lost, particularly for poorer children and the most deprived cohorts. If you were a child from a poorer family and you struggled with online learning, the impact would be much greater.”

He added: “I would like to see if more could have been done to mitigate the impact of COVID on young people, from primary school through to university, including whether the exam system could have been handled better.”

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