BORIS JOHNSON FAILS TO DENY CLAIMS HE SAID “ONLY OVER 80s WERE DYING”

Boris Johnson has insisted his Government at “every stage tried to minimise loss of life” as he failed to deny claiming Covid was “only killing 80-year-olds”.

Sir Keir Starmer used Prime Minister’s Questions to grill Mr Johnson over allegations levelled against the Government, predominantly by his former senior adviser Dominic Cummings.

At one stage the Labour leader asked Mr Johnson to refute an allegation that he delayed introducing a second lockdown last autumn because “Covid was only killing 80-year-olds”, with Mr Johnson replying that the independent public inquiry will examine the matter, before defending his decisions.

SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford also asked about claims that the Government considered “chickenpox parties” and “injecting the Prime Minister with Covid live on TV”.

Johnson replied: “I don’t recognise the events he describes.”

CUMMINGS SAYS BORIS JOHNSON LIKES THE CHAOS

Dominic Cummings said he had decided to leave Downing Street by the end of 2020 because the system was too chaotic.

Speaking to the Science and Health select committees, Cummings said he told Boris Johnson he was leaving just before he was due to have an operation in the summer.

When asked why he was leaving he said he the system in No 10 was too chaotic and he could not put together the team to fix it.

He said he told the PM: “You are more frightened of me having the power to stop the chaos than the chaos itself”.

The former adviser said Johnson then laughed and agreed, saying: “Chaos is not that bad, chaos means everyone has to look to me to sort it out”.

CUMMINGS SAYS PM CAME CLOSE TO SACKING HANCOCK IN APRIL

BELGIUM SUSPENDS USE OF JOHNSON & JOHNSON VACCINE AFTER WOMAN’S DEATH

The Belgian government says it has suspended the use of the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine for people under age 41 following the death of a person who had received the shot.

The government said in a statement it was asking for urgent advice from the European Medicines Agency, the European Union’s drug regulator, before it would consider lifting the suspension. It added that the impact on the national vaccination drive would be very limited.

Belgium was using the American-made Johnson & Johnson vaccine for elderly with reduced mobility and the homeless since it only takes one shot to be protected. Those shots will be continued.

It said it took the action after a single case “where there was serious side effects after administering the Janssen vaccine,” using the local name for the Johnson & Johnson shot.

It said a woman was vaccinated through her foreign employer outside the Belgian system and had died in Belgium last week after developing “serious thrombosis and reduced blood platelets.”

CUMMINGS SAYS HE TOLD PM TO FIRE MATT HANCOCK

Dominic Cummings has been severely critical of the conduct of the Health Secretary during the pandemic.

• He said Hancock should have been fired for “at least 15,20 things” including “lying to everybody on multiple occasions”.
• Cummings said Hancock blamed the failure to produce enough PPE on NHS Chief Executive Simon Stevens and the Treasury
• Cummings claims then Cabinet Secretary Lord Sedwill began to question Hancock’s honesty
• Cummings accused Hancock of “criminal, disgraceful behaviour that caused serious harm” by pushing his 100k a day testing target while the PM was “on his deathbed”
• Cummings said Hancock told people to push 100k a day target even though Whitehall told him to drop it
• Cummings said Lord Sedwill sent up the ‘Test and Trace system’ as a separate entity to take it away from Hancock

CUMMINGS SAID PANDEMIC RESPONSE WOULD HAVE BEEN “EVEN WORSE” IF THERE HAD BEEN NO 2019 ELECTION

The PM’s former top aide Dominic Cummings said the coronavirus pandemic would have been handled “even worse” if the 2019 election had not taken place.

Cummings said: “I do think that one way in which this could have been even worse than it was, if you imagine that Parliament of 2019, that hung parliament.

“If you imagine that Parliament colliding with this disaster in January 2020, God only knows what would have happened.”

He added: “If that broken Parliament had limped on into 2020 and confronted this crisis, I think that we’d be now be looking at … I think, frankly, the whole system would have would have melted down and fallen apart.”

CARE HOME COVID DEATHS 6X HIGHER IN LARGER FACILITIES

Coronavirus death rates in Scotland’s care homes were more than six times higher in larger facilities over the course of the pandemic, according to a report.

New figures from the Care Inspectorate watchdog show fatalities increased from 2.1 deaths per 100 places in facilities with up to 20 places to 12.6 deaths per 100 places in those with more than 80 places.

The watchdog has recorded more coronavirus-related deaths in care homes than the National Records of Scotland – 3,774 between March 16 2020 and March 31 2021 – although it said its data could not be of the same quality.

‘BILL GATES COULD NOT HAVE RUN UK’S GOVERNMENT RESPONSE’

Dominic Cummings has said no one could have run the UK’s early pandemic response well as the system was not in place.

Speaking to the Science and Health select committees, Cummings said that although Boris Johnson was not up to the job he was also let down by the disorganisation and incompetence of Whitehall.

He said if you dropped the “most competent person in the world” – such as Microsoft founder Bill Gates – they still would have had “an absolute nightmare” trying to run the UK’s Covid response as the system would have let them down.

“MATT HANCOCK SHOULD HAVE BEEN FIRED”, CUMMINGS SAYS

Whitehall’s top official recommended to Boris Johnson that Health Secretary Matt Hancock should be fired over coronavirus failings, Dominic Cummings has claimed.

The Prime Minister’s former adviser said there were around 20 reasons why Mr Hancock should have been given the sack – including, he claimed, lying both in Cabinet room meetings and publicly.

He said Mr Hancock performed “disastrously” below the standards expected and the cabinet secretary – the country’s top civil servant – had recommended the Health Secretary should be sacked.

Cummings claimed that while Donald Trump was ordering the CIA to “gazump” rival countries on orders for personal protective equipment (PPE), the Department of Health was still trying to get orders from China by ship.

“I think the Secretary of State for Health should’ve been fired for at least 15, 20 things, including lying to everybody on multiple occasions in meeting after meeting in the Cabinet room and publicly,” Cummings said.

“COMPLETELY CRACKERS” THAT PM WAS IN CHARGE

Dominic Cummings said it was “completely crackers” Boris Johnson was in charge and that thousands of people in the country could provide better leadership than the Prime Minister.

Cummings said the fact that the public had to choose between Mr Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn in the 2019 election meant it was clear that the electoral system had “gone extremely, extremely badly wrong”.

“There’s so many thousands and thousands of wonderful people in this country who could provide better leadership than either of those two,” he said.

“And there’s obviously something terribly wrong with the political parties if that’s the best that they can do.”

PM THOUGHT ECONOMIC EFFECTS WERE WORSE THAN COVID

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.”

FORMER MINISTER ON CUMMINGS’ EVIDENCE

Former minister Johnny Mercer has tweeted that he was asked to publicly defend Dominic Cummings – despite never having met him – and suggested ministers were being told to critcise him.

Mercer quit the Government earlier this year accusing Boris Johnson of dishonesty over a failure to stop Northern Ireland veterans from prosecution.

“LIONS LED BY DONKEYS”

Dominic Cummings said there is something wrong with the UK political system that the choice at the last election was between Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn.

He said the Government’s Covid response was “lions led by donkeys” as there were brilliant people on the ground but top leadership let them down.

Cummings said there is something wrong with the system that some like him – who is “not smart” and “has not contributed anything” – should be in such a powerful position in the Government.

He also said the problem with the civil service is that there are so many great people working there but they “tend to get weeded out from top positions”.

He said: “What is it about Whitehall that promotes so many people who are out of their depth.”

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH A ‘SMOKING RUIN’

Dominic Cummings has described the Department of Health as a “smoking ruin” at the start of the pandemic.

He said the entire shielding plan was put together by a few civil servants in several all-nighters despite previously being told they could not do it because they did not the resources.

He accused Health Secretary Matt Hancock of lying about people getting the treatment they needed at the early stages of the pandemic.

Cummings said offers of ventilators were rejected early on in the pandemic because the price had been inflated.

“THERE WAS NO PLAN”

Dominic Cummings said Chancellor Rishi Sunak and Treasury did a great job creating the furlough scheme but it was cobbled together in a matter of days.

Speaking to the Science and Health select committees, the former No 10 adviser said there had been no plan for furlough for people who could not work and no plans to offer financial incentives for people who cannot afford to self-isolate.

CUMMINGS SAYS CABINET SECRETARY COMPARED COVID-19 TO CHICKEN POX

Dominic Cummings said former Cabinet Secretary Lord Sedwill suggested Boris Johnson go on television to explain Covid-19 herd immunity was similar to chicken pox parties.

The former adviser claimed he told Sedwill to stop comparing to the typically non-fatal illness as Covid was spreading exponentially and killing thousands of people.

He said it was only then that the people in room really seemed to realise how serious the epidemic was.

Chicken pox parties are when parents encourage small children to play with a child who has contracted chicken pox as the illness can only be contracted once and is much safer to have in childhood than adulthood.

CUMMINGS ADMITS MASS EVENTS ADVICE WAS “BIZARRE IN RETROSPECT”

Dominic Cummings said advice surrounding mass events early last year was “bizarre in retrospect”.

The former chief aide to the Prime Minister told the Commons committee: “I was really torn about the whole thing because in the first 10 days of March. I was increasingly being told by people I think this is going wrong but I was also really, really worried about kind of like smashing my hand down on a massive button marked ‘ditch the official plan, stop listening to the official plan, I think there’s something going wrong’.

“I did do that as we’ll come on to but on the fifth I was reluctant to do that.”

He said that he did not advise that the mass events of the Cheltenham festival and the Champions League match in Liverpool should not go ahead.

He said official advice at the time was that those measures would not greatly affect transmission, “which obviously seems bizarre in retrospect”, and that they could make matters worse by pushing people into pubs.

“No one in the official system, in the Department of Health, drew the obvious logical conclusion, which was ‘shouldn’t we be shutting all the pubs as well?”‘ Cummings added.

CUMMINGS DESCRIBES CHAOS AT No10 AS IT WAS DECIDING ON LOCKDOWN

Dominic Cummings said the Government realised it needed a “Plan B” on 12th March when they saw data about the spread of the virus.

He said they realised they had to abandon their plan for herd immunity and move towards household quarantine.

The former adviser said he was texted by a senior government official that “There is no plan, we’re in huge trouble. I think we are absolutely f*****. I think this country was heading for a disaster, I think we’re going to kill thousands of people.”

DOWNING STREET IN DISARRAY IN RUN UP TO LOCKDOWN

Dominic Cummings said No 10’s attention was divided while it was deciding whether to impose a lockdown.

He said the Government was dealing with the fallout of the U.S.’s bombing campaign in southern Iraq and a story about the No 10 dog which Carrie Symonds was “going crackers about” and wanted the press office to deal as well as Covid.

PM “WANTED TO BE INJECTED WITH COVID” LIVE ON TV

Dominic Cummings said Boris Johnson dismissed the severity of Covid-19 and suggested England’s Chief Medical Officer Professor Chris Whitty inject him with Covid-19 live on TV to prove it is not dangerous.

The former No 10 adviser told MPs “The view of various officials inside Number 10 was, if we have Prime Minister chairing COBR meetings and he just tells everyone this is swine flu, don’t worry about it and I’m going to get Chris Whitty to inject me live on TV with coronavirus … that would not help,”

After contracting Covid-19 in March, Johnson was rushed to intensive care after becoming critically ill and spent weeks recuperating as Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab stood in for him.

WHITEHALL THOUGHT HIGH DEATH TOLL WAS ‘INEVITABLE’

Dominic Cummings explained the logic of the Government’s initially herd immunity plan.

He said it was regarded as “an unavoidable fact” that we would get to herd immunity but it was “simply a question of when”.

The former No 10 adviser said the assumption in Whitehall was that the lockdown that had been imposed in Wuhan would not work and they would get a second peak later on.

They also believed people in the UK would not accept a strict Wuhan-style lockdown.

Cummings said the Government felt it was a choice between one peak in the summer and herd immunity by September and trying to flatten in the summer and facing a second, larger peak in the winter time which would be worse.

He added: “the point is no one wanted to this to happen it is just that people saw it as inevitable”.

‘LOTS OF PEOPLE WERE LITERALLY SKIING IN FEBRUARY’

Dominic Cummings said there was no sense of urgency in Downing Street until Boris Johnson returned from holiday in late February.

Giving evidence to Science and Health select committees, the former No 10 adviser said”in no way shape or form did the Government act like it was the most important thing in January.

“Number 10 was not operating on a war footing in February on it in any way shape or form. Lots of key people were literally skiing in the middle of February.

“It wasn’t until the last week of February that there was really any sort of sense of urgency I would say … in terms of Number 10 and cabinet.”

He said the focus initially was on HS2, then on a Cabinet reshuffle and the Government only began to plan for the pandemic in the last week of the month.

DOMSDAY

Dominic Cummings has shared a photo of a “2020 lockdown plan” that says “who do we not save?”.

It comes hours before the former Prime Minister’s adviser is due to face an explosive grilling.

The picture, which appears to be taken in Boris Johnson’s study, is from March 13 last year, Mr Cummings has claimed.

He wrote: “Plan A ‘our plan’ breaks NHS,>4k p/day dead min.Plan B: lockdown, suppress, crash programs (tests/treatments/vaccines etc), escape 1st AND 2nd wave (squiggly line instead of 1 or 2 peaks)… details later.”

Cummings said the Government’s original plan was for limited intervention, with the hope of achieving herd immunity.

But that was abandoned when it became clear the scale of the death toll that would result.

PANDEMIC ‘NOT A PRIORITY’

Dominic Cummings said the rising number of Covid cases was not a priority in Downing Street until the end of February.

Speaking to the Science and Health select committees, he said the Government “was not operating on a war footing in any way shape or form”.

He added that it “wasn’t until the last week of February that there was any sense of urgency” to deal with the pandemic.