Downing Street says Boris Johnson is perfectly fit and won't quit after claim PM is 'struggling badly with virus effects and may step down'

Downing Street today described as “utter nonsense” a report that the Prime Minister is still suffering from the effects of coronavirus and may have to step down early.

The source of the claim was said to be the father-in-law of Boris Johnson’s controversial aide Dominic Cummings, who is alleged to have said it to a visitor on his estate.

The Times’s diary column related how a reader, Anna Silverman, fell into conversation with Sir Humphry Wakefield while visiting Chillingham Castle, Northumberland.

It claimed the baronet “merrily informed her that Boris Johnson is still struggling badly with having had Covid-19 … and will stand down in six months”.

Sir Humphry is said to have compared having the PM’s condition with a lame horse. “If you put a horse back to work when it’s injured, it will never recover,” he purportedly said.

The tale was given short shrift by a No 10 official source who said it was “utter nonsense”. Mr Cummings was invited to comment.

Sir Humphry, an antiques expert and collector, is the father of Mary Wakefield, the Spectator journalist married to Mr Cummings.

Doctors say there is increasing concern about “long Covid”, a condition where people who had the virus suffer fatigue and other symptoms for weeks.

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