Cummings criticises Johnson’s Covid plan
LABOUR DEMANDS PUBLIC ENQUIRY AFTER EX-ADVISER’S REVELATIONS
PRIME MINISTER Boris Johnson was not prepared to impose lockdown restrictions in the UK to stop the spread of Covid-19 to save the elderly, his former top adviser said in an interview on Monday (19).
In his first TV interview since leaving his job last year – excerpts of which were released on Monday – Dominic Cummings said Johnson did not want to impose a second lockdown in the autumn last year because “the people who are dying are essentially all over 80”.
Cummings also claimed that Johnson wanted to meet the Queen, who is 95, despite signs that the virus was spreading in his office at the start of the pandemic, and when the public had been told to avoid all unnecessary contact, particularly with the elderly.
The political adviser, who has accused the government of being responsible for thousands of avoidable Covid-19 deaths, shared a series of messages from October that are allegedly from Johnson to his aides.
In one message, Cummings said Johnson joked that the elderly could “get Covid and live longer” because most people dying were past the average age of life expectancy.
Cummings also alleged that Johnson messaged him to say: “And I no longer buy all this NHS overwhelmed stuff. Folks I think we may need to recalibrate.”
It could not be verified whether the messages were genuine.
Cummings also alleged that the prime minister’s then girlfriend, Carrie Symonds, had tried to influence government appointments. The couple got married in May this year.
“The situation (ministers and staff) found ourselves in is that, within days... the prime minister’s girlfriend is trying to get rid of us and appoint complete clowns to certain key jobs,” he said.
A spokesperson for Johnson said the prime minister had taken “the necessary action to protect lives and livelihoods, guided by the best scientific advice”.
They also added that “political appointments are entirely made by the prime minister”.
Labour said the revelations by Cummings strengthened the case for a public enquiry, and were “further evidence that the prime minister has made the wrong calls time and again at the expense of public health”.
Cummings told the BBC that Johnson told officials he should never have agreed to the first lockdown, and that the advisor had to convince the prime minister not to take the risk of meeting the monarch.
“I said, ‘what are you doing?’, and he said, ‘I’m going to see the Queen.’ I said, ‘what on earth are you talking about, of course you can’t go and see the Queen,’” Cummings said.
“And he said, he basically just hadn’t thought it through.”
Despite questioning Johnson’s fitness for his role as prime minister and castigating the government’s fight against Covid-19, Cummings’ criticism has yet to seriously puncture the British leader’s ratings in opinion polls.
The full interview was due to be broadcast on Tuesday (20) evening, after Eastern Eye went to print.