Noel Gallagher calls Boris Johnson a “fucking idiot” for catching COVID-19
“Boris Johnson has proved himself not to be the fucking man in the crisis.”
Image: Mariano Regidor / Getty
Noel Gallagher has criticised the UK prime minister and government in general for its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. He also specifically called Boris Johnson a “fucking idiot” for catching the disease in March 2021.
Speaking to The New Cue, Gallagher was asked about how he found lockdown. He accused the UK government of not preparing for a second wave, despite one being discussed as the first was happening. “What annoyed me most about it was in the first wave they were saying there’s gonna be a second wave and then when it came they did absolutely fucking nothing to prepare for it.”
He also specifically criticised the UK prime minister, saying: “Boris Johnson has proved himself not to be the fucking man in the crisis. Number one, getting it for a start – you fucking idiot.
“Right at the start of it he’s out of the game for three months. Hang on a minute, where is the fucking idiot who’s paid to make the rules? Oh, he’s in bed because he’s ill. Fat cunt.”
Johnson tested positive for COVID-19 on 27 March 2020, leading to him spending two weeks in hospital. Notably, he had a few weeks before this boasted about shaking hands with coronavirus patients. “I was at a hospital the other night where I think there were a few coronavirus patients and I shook hands with everybody, you will be pleased to know, and I continue to shake hands,” he told a press conference. “People obviously can make up their own minds but I think the scientific evidence is … our judgment is that washing your hands is the crucial thing.”
The same day he made these comments, the UK’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies published official advice on social distancing and reducing physical contact.
Elsewhere in the interview, Gallagher spoke about how he struggled throughout lockdown, despite being in a good financial situation. “Lord knows what it must be like for the majority of people,” he said. “I live a nice life with a fucking house in the country and all that and it’s driven me up the wall. Fucking celebrities coming on the telly and on the radio every day, ‘Oh this is great, I fucking love it…’
“I’d be spitting at the radio going: ‘Fuck off, you cunt!’ Not enough people are saying this is a dreadful thing that’s happened.”
Gallagher also revealed that his experience touring had prepared him a little for the repetitiveness of lockdown, but not entirely. “You do live a bit of a Groundhog Day when you’re on tour. It’s kind of the same but it’s different because you’re travelling,” he explained. “You live in the same day but in a different country. This is living the same day in the same fucking house.”
However, the grind of the situation didn’t completely stifle Gallagher’s creativity, as he explained that: “in the first three months, I think I wrote more songs in that period than I would ever have done which is where the idea of the //Best Of came from. I don’t think it’d be coming out if it wasn’t for lockdown. It was a chance to get in the studio and do some songs that I’d nearly completed that I thought were alright for a Best Of.”
The best of in question, Back The Way We Came: Vol 1 (2011-2021), will be released on 11 June this year. It also features two entirely new songs, presumably written across lockdown.