Dominic Cummings’ select committee LIVE: Boris Johnson’s former adviser appears before MPs | Cummings says people died unnecessarily because of Government failings | Grant Shapps accuses Cummings appearance as 'sideshow' | One year on from Barnard Castle press conference
The Prime Minister’s former chief advisor has been vocal in his condemnation of Boris Johnson Health Secretary Matt Hancock, and others since leaving Government after a behind-the-scenes power struggle in November.
You can follow all the updates here as Cummings gives evidence to a joint inquiry of the Commons Health and Social Care and Science and Technology Committees.
Dominic Cummings’ select committee RECAP: Boris Johnson’s former adviser appears before MPs
Key Events
- Dominic Cummings claims Boris Johnson suggested getting injected with coronavirus ‘live on TV’
- Cummings says Health Secretary, Matt Hancock, should have been fired for “lying”.
- Cummings claims PM described Covid as “new swine flu”
- “We fell disastrously short of standards,” says Cummings
Dominic Cummings said that Boris Johnson and other senior Whitehall figures believed in early March last year that the economic effects of coronavirus were worse than the disease.
The former chief aide to the Prime Minister told the Commons committee: “At this time, not just the Prime Minister but many other people thought that the real danger is not the health danger but the overaction to it and the economy.
“The Prime Minister said all the way through February and through the first half of March the real danger here isn’t this new swine flu thing, it’s that the reaction to it is going to cripple the economy.
“To be fair to the Prime Minister, although I think he was completely wrong, lots of other senior people in Whitehall had the same view, that the real danger was the economic one.”
Dominic Cummings said a “lack of urgency” in Whitehall early in the pandemic was fuelled by the “absolutely critical disaster” of a lack of testing data.
Discussing early March, the former chief aide to the Prime Minister told the Commons committee: “There was a fundamental misunderstanding about how far this already was in the country, how fast it was spreading in the country.
“The lack of testing data was an absolutely critical disaster because we didn’t realise early enough how far it had already spread.
“The testing data was wrong, the graphs we were shown and the models were all wrong because they were all pushed out to the right, and that massively contributed to the whole lack of urgency.”
Dominic Cummings said Boris Johnson was more worried about the economy at the beginning of the pandemic than coronavirus itself, and said it was wrong to suggest that Rishi Sunak had been against locking down.
“The Prime Minister’s view, throughout January, February, March, was – as he said in many meetings – the real danger here is not the disease, the real danger here is the measures that we take to deal with a disease and the economic destruction that that will cause,” Mr Cummings told MPs.
“He had that view all the way through.
“In fact, one of the reasons why it was so rocky getting from the 14th, when we suggested plan B to him, to actual lockdown was because he kept basically bouncing back to ‘we don’t really know how dangerous it is, we’re going to completely destroy the economy by having lockdown, maybe we shouldn’t do it’.”
He added that “fundamentally the Prime Minister just never … didn’t really think that this was the big danger”.
He said: “Now, there have been lots of reports and accusations that the Chancellor was the person who was kind of trying to delay in March. That is completely, completely wrong.
“The Chancellor was totally supportive of me and of other people as we tried to make this transition from plan A to plan B.”
Dominic Cummings criticised Whitehall for having no plan for shielding, economic support or testing ahead of the pandemic.
The former chief aide to the Prime Minister told the Commons committee: “On shielding, on March 19, I pulled all the officials in on shielding to say where is the plan on shielding?
“Not only was there not a plan, lots of people in the Cabinet Office said we shouldn’t have a plan, we shouldn’t put out a helpline for people to call because it will all just be swamped and we don’t have a system.
“The shielding plan was literally hacked together in two all-nighters after the 19th, I think, Thursday the 19th.
“There wasn’t any plan for shielding, there wasn’t even a helpline for shielding, there wasn’t any plan for financial incentives, there wasn’t any plan for almost anything in any kind of detail at all.”
He also added: “There wasn’t any plan for furlough at all, nothing, zero, nada.
“The problem you are describing about the financial incentives on Covid and isolation, you are obviously completely correct, there should’ve been a whole plan but like on testing, like on shielding, there was no plan.”
BBC and Sky apologise after broadcasting Dominic Cummings swear
The BBC and Sky had to apologise after Dominic Cummings swore during a Government committee that was being broadcast live.
Giving evidence to the Commons Health and Social Care, and Science and Technology Committees, Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s former aide used the phrase “absolutely f*****”.
Mr Cummings was recalling a conversation he had about the Government’s initial response to the pandemic with Helen MacNamara, the then deputy cabinet secretary.
He said: “Helen MacNamara said ‘I’ve come through here to the Prime Minister’s office to tell you all I think we are absolutely f*****.
“I think this country is headed for a disaster, I think we’re going to kill thousands of people.”
Mr Cummings’ words were broadcast on the BBC News channel, prompting a newsreader to say: “I just want to apologise there if any of the language Dominic Cummings has used has offended you.
“It is live, of course, this committee hearing that we are watching.”
Sky News also broadcast the language, with broadcaster Adam Boulton telling viewers: “We are listening to evidence from the former adviser to Boris Johnson and we apologise for the language used in quoting an official visiting Downing Street.”
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