Cummings attacks ‘catastrophe’ minister

DOMINIC Cummings launched a fresh onslaught yesterday as he claimed that Boris Johnson believed Matt Hancock’s failures during the pandemic were a ‘catastrophe’.

In his latest online tirade, the former Downing Street aide said the Prime Minister was privately damning of his Health Secretary’s ability.

He described repeated attempts to raise concerns about Mr Hancock’s failure to put a plan in place for testing in care homes. In a blog titled ‘More evidence on how the PM’s & Hancock’s negligence killed people’, Mr Cummings accused the minister of ‘spinning nonsense to the Cabinet table’ about testing plans. He added: ‘On 7 May [last year], I told the PM that Hancock was unfit for this job and him staying in place was killing god knows how many.

‘The PM agreed that Hancock’s failures were a catastrophe but refused to fire him.’ The aide also published an email allegedly sent by the PM last year in which he described the Track and Trace system as ‘whistling in the dark’. He also claimed former Cabinet Secretary Sir Mark Sedwill had lost ‘confidence in Hancock’s honesty and operational grip’.

Mr Cummings has singled out Mr Hancock for fierce criticism since his acrimonious departure from Downing Street last November. He told MPs last month that the Cabinet minister deserved to have been fired multiple times.

He also released a text message allegedly sent by the PM referring to Mr Hancock as ‘totally f ****** hopeless’.