Cummings recruit ‘sacked over BLM live rounds tweet’

A DATA specialist who joined the Government after answering Dominic Cummings’s job advert seeking “misfits and weirdos” was sacked after saying police should use live rounds against Black Lives Matter activists.

Will O’shea, 57, posted the comment on July 5, when BLM marches were being organised across Britain following the killing of George Floyd by police officers in the US, The Guardian reported.

Responding to a social media post suggesting that Metropolitan Police officers had been chased out of a housing estate by demonstrators, and another that called the police cowards, Mr O’shea reportedly replied on Twitter: “Time to get out the live rounds.”

Mr O’shea – who has since deleted his Twitter account – initially told the newspaper that “I was let go because of my tweet” in July but then said he was never given a reason for the termination of his Cabinet Office job.

Mr O’shea was hired after responding to a call-out for “weirdos and misfits” to work in the civil service by the Prime Minister’s chief adviser. Mr O’shea claimed he was interviewed by

Ben Warner, an aide who works closely with Mr Cummings, according to The Guardian. Government sources confirmed that Mr O’shea was hired by the Cabinet Office on a temporary contract, which was terminated on July 10. The source added that he “has never met or spoken to Dominic Cummings”.

A Government spokesman said: “Will O’shea was not hired to work in No10. He was employed by the Cabinet Office as an external contractor for the Government Digital Service on coronavirus. All standard vetting processes were carried out for a contractor role through a commercial framework.”

Mr O’shea could not be reached for comment. However, he told The Guardian that he regretted sending the tweet, which he said was “wrong” and he did not mean it seriously. He added: “I didn’t say ‘shoot blacks’ and that was not what I meant or wished.”

In February a controversial Downing Street aide was forced out just days after being appointed.

Andrew Sabisky, a so-called “superforecaster”, had claimed in 2014 that black people were statistically more likely to be closer to the “boundary for mild mental retardation”.