So, first, I used [1] this which show 2304 in uk vs 2002 in France. I don't have an account so I can't check sources, but find the difference between your dataset and mine for France quite significant and not sure which one to trust. (this difference has nothing to do with your reply, just find it strange)

So, based on your data: Country | total deaths | population (mm) | % death France: | 125,269 | 67.06 | 0.186% UK: | 157,194 | 66.83 | 0.235%

I don't care so much about the % higher when we are dealing with these kinds of numbers. Is the same as 'eating red meat increases your changes of colon cancer by 10%!!!!` and then you see it increased it from 0.01% to 0.011% (or something like that).

For me, you can find a million explanations for that small difference in the numbers, and I doubt it can be attributed to UK's government handling of the situation.

[1] https://www.statista.com/statistics/1111779/coronavirus-deat...