LONDON -- With two days until Britain's election, Prime Minister Boris Johnson's final push to drive home his key message about Brexit was overshadowed Tuesday by criticism of his response to the image of a sick child sleeping on a hospital floor and allegations that he exploited a terrorist knife attack for political gain.
Dave Merritt, whose son was killed in last month's London Bridge attack, said the way the tragedy had been exploited for political ends was "crass and insensitive."
Merritt's 25-year-old son Jack was one of two people killed when a former convict attacked people at a prisoner rehabilitation event that Merritt was helping to run on Nov. 29. Attacker Usman Khan had served eight years in prison for terrorism offenses, and the attack sparked a political spat about security, the early release of prisoners and funding for the justice system.
Dave Merritt told Sky News that "instead of seeing a tragedy, Boris Johnson saw an opportunity."
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"And it was just such an ill-considered intervention and almost like a knee-jerk reaction," he said. "I think he saw an opportunity to score some points in the election. They immediately said, 'Oh, this is Labor's fault -- they allowed this to happen. They had this early release policy,' and so on."
He said the way the tragedy had been exploited for political ends was "crass and insensitive."
He said the family had not been contacted by Johnson or his office since the attack, although Johnson's office said "the PM has expressed his deepest condolences to Mr. Merritt for his tragic loss -- an experience no family should have to go through."
Johnson, meanwhile, tried to focus voters on the prospect of an uncertain result and a divided Parliament, which would endanger his plan to lead Britain out of the European Union on Jan. 31.
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All 650 seats in the House of Commons seats are up for grabs in the election, which is being held more than two years early in a bid to break the impasse over Brexit.
Johnson accuses Labor of offering more "dither and delay" on Brexit. The opposition party says it will negotiate a new divorce deal with the EU and then give voters a choice between leaving on those terms or remaining in the bloc.
"Forty-eight hours from now, our country can choose between going forward, punching through the current deadlock ... or we can remain stuck in neutral," Johnson said during a visit to a construction equipment factory, where he drove a bulldozer through a plastic foam wall with "Gridlock" written on it.
Merritt's interview was another late hurdle in a campaign that had gone smoothly for Johnson until a newspaper ran a photo of 4-year-old Jack Williment-Barr sleeping on the floor of the Leeds General Infirmary as he awaited treatment because no bed was free. The opposition Labor Party led by Jeremy Corbyn painted the boy's plight as a symptom of Britain's ailing health system, which has suffered under years of Conservative government austerity measures.
A video of the prime minister briefly declining to look at a cellphone photo of Jack on a journalist's phone -- and then placing the phone in his pocket -- has been viewed more than 1 million times.
The incident quickly became caught up in a storm of social media claims, counterclaims and conspiracies.
Several prominent journalists, including the political editors of the BBC and ITV, tweeted a claim by anonymous Conservative officials that a party worker had been punched by a protester while Britain's health secretary visited the hospital.
When footage emerged showing that no assault had taken place, they apologized -- but a media storm was already raging.
Some social media users circulated claims that the photo of Jack, first published by the Yorkshire Evening Post, was staged. Editor James Mitchinson tweeted a reply to a reader, explaining how the newspaper had verified the story.
"I would be happy to meet you over a coffee to offer you an explanation as to how sophisticated and corrosive the proliferation of fake news is, and what to do to guard against being conned by it," he wrote.
Young Jack later was diagnosed with tonsillitis and flu, and eventually sent home.
Information for this article was contributed by Mike Corder of The Associated Press.
A Section on 12/11/2019