Prime Minister Boris Johnson has called for an independent investigation into the origins of coronavirus, after reports that communist China misled the international community over the infectious nature of the Wuhan-origin virus.

Mr Johnson made the demand while speaking to Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Tuesday, with the World Health Organization (WHO) director-general saying that he was in agreement, according to a Number 10 spokesman.

“The prime minister and Dr Tedros agreed on the importance of an independent investigation into the origins of the coronavirus outbreak, so we can learn lessons to prevent future pandemics,” the spokesman said in comments reported by the Evening Standard.

The WHO’s agreement to back the formal investigation perhaps came as a result of the President of the United States of America, Donald Trump, warning that the U.S. would pull financial support from the organisation unless it committed to “major substantive improvements within the next 30 days”. President Trump had called the WHO a “puppet of China” which had failed to handle the coronavirus pandemic.

President Trump is entirely clear, however, of who is responsible for the deadly coronavirus that first appeared in the Chinese city of Wuhan last year. He said last week that the communist nation was guilty of “mass worldwide killing” through its “incompetence”.

In April, the British think tank the Henry Jackson Society said that Western nations should sue China if the communist country were found liable for allowing the deadly respiratory virus to spread around the world and for intentionally withholding information from the international community.

The think tank’s report had found that China had provided the WHO with “erroneous information” in early January and allowed millions of people to leave Wuhan before locking it down, despite knowing of human-to-human transmission.

This month, a leaked intelligence report by the Five Eyes — Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK, and the USA — found that the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) had destroyed evidence on the outbreak of its virus, a result of which caused the “endangerment of other countries”.

The dossier also revealed that the CCP “disappeared” whistle-blowing doctors and aggressively censored phrases such as “Wuhan Unknown Pneumonia”, “SARS variation”, and “Wuhan Seafood Market”, the latter related to the ‘wet’ live animal food market where the virus is suspected of having originated.

“Despite evidence of human-human transmission from early December, PRC [People’s Republic of China] authorities deny it until January 20th,” the report stated.

“The World Health Organization does the same. Yet officials in Taiwan raised concerns as early as December 31st, as did experts in Hong Kong on January 4th,” it added.