Boris praise for Hancock rollout role

BORIS Johnson has heaped praise on Matt Hancock for leading “huge progress” in the rollout.

The Prime Minister was quizzed about his faith in the Health Secretary after leaked messages appeared to show he called him “hopeless”.

Mr Johnson said: “I have complete confidence in Matt and all of the Government who have been dealing with Covid throughout the pandemic.

“And I think that when you look at the vaccine rollout that has been delivered by the NHS, it is absolutely outstanding.

“And I would just remind you that today, under the leadership of Matt and the NHS, 80 per cent of adults in this country have had a first jab.

“So we’re making huge, huge progress and that’s down to the work of the NHS with Matt at the top of it.”

Grilled

Dominic Cummings leaked private messages from the PM last week. The ousted aide yesterday accused Mr Johnson of being a “gaffe machine”.

Mr Cummings claimed that Tory officials did not put Mr Johnson up for an interview with Andrew Neil in the 2019 general election because he was “clueless”.

Opponents accused the PM of “running scared”, even though rival leaders had been quizzed by the veteran broadcaster.

Mr Cummings said it was “not a hard decision” because why would they “put a gaffe machine clueless about policy & government up to be grilled for ages”?

Asked about the latest remarks, a No10 spokesman said: “Of course, that is not a characterisation that we would accept.”