Deputy Prime Minister Dominique Raab will take any “important decisions” to be made before the prime minister returns to work on Tuesday. A spokesman for the prime minister said Johnson had been taken to hospital in London around 6am on Monday for a routine NHS procedure involving his sinuses. Politics Hub: Raab in charge as PM under general anesthesia for ‘minor’ surgery He returned to Downing Street shortly after 10 a.m., the spokesman added. Mr Raab “knew it in advance” and Cabinet Secretary Simon Case was also aware of it, said number 10. The operation had been “planned for a while”. Mr. Johnson’s sinus problem was not understood to be related to his COVID disease in 2020. Mr. Raab had replaced the prime minister at the time when he was admitted to the intensive care unit at the height of the pandemic. The deputy prime minister later told the Conservatives’ virtual conference that he feared Mr Johnson might have died. Regarding the last hospitalization, Downing Street did not say if Mr. Johnson was on a waiting list. He is also expected to travel to a meeting of Commonwealth heads of government in Rwanda this week. Labor MP Chris Bryant wrote on Twitter, apparently referring to surgery – and the long waiting lists facing other NHS patients: “Are routine surgeries covered by the unfulfilled?”
