Officials reportedly discussed raising concerns about former Prime Minister to Queen, says Boris Johnson

Senior government officials have reportedly reached out to Buckingham Palace during the height of the pandemic to express concerns about Prime Minister Boris Johnson's conduct in office. The officials even discussed suggesting that Queen Elizabeth II raise these concerns with Johnson during their private audiences. This revelation comes from the second episode of the BBC documentary series titled "Laura Kuenssberg: State of Chaos," which delves into the turmoil in Westminster and Whitehall over a span of four years. The series, based on interviews with key government figures, covers the period from 2016 to Prime Minister Liz Truss's departure in 2022. In May 2020, as the government was grappling with the pandemic, tensions arose between Johnson's political team and the Civil Service. The sources reveal that senior officials expressed worries about the former Prime Minister's conduct to Buckingham Palace. This was done with the hope that the Queen would discuss these concerns in her private conversations. The clashes between Dominic Cummings, Johnson's controversial chief of staff, and Sir Mark Sedwill, the head of the Civil Service who later resigned, were one of the focuses of these concerns. It is understood that officials reached out to the Palace to address these worries. The communication between Number 10 and the Palace during this period went beyond routine interactions, including phone calls and other forms of communication. According to one source, there were occasions when the prime minister needed to be reminded about the constitution. The atmosphere in Downing Street during this period was described as "utterly grim and totally crazy" by another source, who characterized the relationships as toxic and the ties between Johnson's team and the Civil Service as broken. Concerns about Johnson's government's behavior had already been raised at Buckingham Palace following the closure of the House of Commons in the previous summer, known as the "prorogation" in 2019, which the Supreme Court later ruled as unlawful. Helen MacNamara, the former deputy cabinet secretary, declined to discuss the calls made to Buckingham Palace in the documentary. However, she mentioned that there were intense criticisms from the political team at Number 10 after the prime minister recovered from his Covid illness. These criticisms highlighted perceived failures in the system, Civil Service, and other institutions, with a desire to dismantle and restart them. MacNamara stated that they were in real trouble during that time. Buckingham Palace has declined to comment on the matter. The documentary, "State of Chaos," can be viewed on BBC Two and BBC iPlayer.