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MI5 AND RIDDLE OF DOWNING ST MOLE
AN MI5 probe into which government figure leaked details of England’s second coronavirus lockdown concluded that senior aide Dominic Cummings was responsible, it has been claimed.
Investigators reportedly established that someone sent a message on WhatsApp from Downing Street’s cabinet room the day after Boris Johnson and a handful of senior officials discussed the measures last autumn.
A security agency source told The Mail On Sunday they knew Mr Cummings was responsible but could not publish evidence because it would reveal MI5 trade secrets ‘including their penetration of WhatsApp messages’.
The lockdown was announced on TV by the prime minister on October 31 but did not come into force until five days later. However, full details had been leaked to the media in advance.
Mr Cummings is said to have passed on the information to ‘bounce’ Mr Johnson into making the decision to tackle a second wave of infections.
The claims are the latest twist in a row over leaks, lobbying, alleged sleaze and a ‘civil war’ in No.10 between allies of Mr Cummings and friends of Mr Johnson’s fiancée Carrie Symonds.
Mr Johnson is said to have personally phoned some newspaper editors last week to allege Mr Cummings was responsible for recent leaks, although one Tory strategist told The Observer the tactic was ‘beyond moronic’ and warned it could backfire.
On Friday, Mr Cummings, who left No.10 in November, questioned Mr Johnson’s ‘competence and integrity’. As well as strongly denying being responsible for leaking the lockdown details, he claimed the PM previously had a ‘possibly illegal’ plan for Tory donors to pay for renovations to his Downing Street flat. There are also concerns in No.10 that Mr Cummings will suggest it is to blame for thousands of extra virus deaths.
It is said when the second shutdown started, Mr Johnson told officials he did not want any more ‘f****** lockdowns’ regardless of the ‘bodies’. A No.10 source reportedly described the claim as ‘another lie’. International trade secretary Liz Truss described the reports as ‘tittletattle’ and dismissed claims of wrongdoing over the Downing Street flat. She told Sky News’s Sophy Ridge On Sunday: ‘I know that he [the PM] has met the costs of the flat refurbishment.’ Meanwhile, Labour has called on the government to publish all communications between ministers and their business contacts who were awarded coronavirus-related contracts amid claims of ‘cronyism’. A government official told The Sunday Times the leaks inquiry ‘is still live’ and has not ‘landed on any one individual’.