Raspy Boris Johnson ‘sounds dreadful’ as he delivers Christmas Covid warning

The prime minister has sparked suspicion that he may be suffering from a cold after he delivered Monday’s press briefing on coronavirus with a ‘raspy’ voice.

As Mr Johnson also spoke to the nation on the situation following the Liverpool bomb blast, people watching also picked up on the prime minister’s voice, noting he sounded ‘congested’.

During the course of the briefing, he could be heard trying to clear his throat and the ‘hoarse’ and ‘gruff’ nature of his voice led many to question whether the prime minister has a cold.

One Twitter user said: ‘Just catching up on @10DowningStreet Boris Johnson press conference. Is he ill? Sounds dreadfully hoarse and a bit snotty.’

Others commented saying ‘he sounds bunged up and ill’ and ‘Boris sounds ill, sounds very congested, Oops hope it’s not [Covid] again’.

Mr Johnson further issued a stark warning that more restrictions could not be ruled out.

Speaking in typically colourful language Mr Johnson urged people to remain vigilant about rising rates of infection both here and in Europe.

He said ‘storm clouds’ were gathering over Europe which is seeing rising rates of coronavirus infection, and urged those eligible to come forward for booster jabs.

He said: ‘It would be an utter tragedy if, after everything we have been through, people who had done the right thing by getting double vaccinated ended up becoming seriously ill or even losing their lives because they allowed their immunity to wane.’

Asked whether he could guarantee there would not be another lockdown over Christmas, Mr Johnson said: ‘Clearly we cannot rule anything out and the most important thing people can do to prevent further NPIs from being taken is to – non-pharmaceutical interventions that is, further restrictions – get the boosters.’

Mr Johnson was also asked about his decision not to wear a mask while visiting places, such as a hospital where ‘he might have been expected to wear one’.

In response, he said: ‘I wear a mask wherever the rules say that I should, and I urge everybody else to do the same and people will have actually seen me wearing face coverings quite a bit more regularly recently as we’ve seen the numbers ticking up in the UK, and I think that’s the responsible thing to do and I’m going to continue to do it.’