Covid inquiry live: Dominic Cummings sorry for foul-mouthed WhatsApps but denies misogyny over sexist rant

Dominic Cummings has apologised for the language used in a series of foul-mouthed messages criticising members of the government but denied misogyny over a sexist rant against a civil servant.

Boris Johnson’s former chief of staff was shown a host of sweary WhatsApps at the Covid inquiry on Tuesday, in which he called his former colleagues “useless f***pigs, morons and c***s” during the pandemic.

He apologised for his disparaging language but defended the criticism more generally, saying he was reflecting “a widespread view” that senior politicians were “dealing with this crisis extremely badly.”

To audible gasps in the press annex, one message was read out in which Mr Cummings called former top civil servant Helen MacNamara a “c***” and said he would “handcuff her and escort her” from Downing Street. However, he denied misogyny.

It was also revealed that Boris Johnson hit out at suggestions his wife Carrie was leading lockdown policy as “cr**” in a message to Mr Cummings.

Giving evidence earlier on Tuesday morning, Lee Cain, Mr Johnson’s former communications chief, said the pandemic was the “wrong crisis for this prime minister’s skill set”.

Key Points

• Boris said it was ‘cr**’ that wife Carrie was leading lockdown policy

• Cummings calls MacNamara a ‘c***’ in series of disparaging messages

• Government’s Covid plan was ‘pretty much a joke’, Cummings says

• Cummings apologises for sweary WhatsApps about Johnson’s cabinet ‘morons’

• Former adviser's secret foul-mouthed rants about Boris Johnson

• Lee Cain: Covid was ‘wrong crisis’ for Johnson

Civil servants making decisions were ‘pretty privileged’

12:46 , Matt Mathers

Civil servants making decisions during the pandemic were always “miles away from most people in the UK”, Helen MacNamara has told the Covid inquiry, Archie Mitchell reports.

“For example, in policy discussions when the restrictions were loosening, I found myself explaining that even people who were lucky enough to have a back garden might not have separate back gate or outside loo,” she said.

The former top civil servant said the full cabinet were “a bit more grounded” and better at bringing a “wider perspective”, but were “not asked their opinion very often”.

MacNamara also said that cabinet government was essentially abandoned during the pandemic and that secretaries of state were not properly briefed on the science.

"I was concerned about what they saw as circumnavigating a cabinet governance and you were increasingly worried that the cabinet themselves were not being given a full scientific picture or able to properly be part of accountable decision making,” she said.

Culture of leaking ‘corrosive’ and caused ‘rushed’ decisions, MacNamara

12:36 , Matt Mathers

Helen MacNamara said the culture of leaking in Downing Street and Whitehall was “corrosive” and forced “rushed” decision-making, Archie Mitchell reports.

“I think it’s very important that there is good reporting,” she told the Covid inquiry.

But she said when “somebody decides to leak something ill-formed” it leads to everyone having to “rush around trying to come up with what the real answer ought to be in hours rather than days”.

Helen MacNamara was warned about Partygate chaos

12:31 , Matt Mathers

Helen MacNamara, who brought a karaoke machine to a lockdown-busting party in Downing Street, was warned that socialising during the pandemic showed “utter contempt to the electorate”, Archie Mitchell reports.

After suggesting greater socialising among staff to boost morale, the former top civil servant was sent a note by John Owen, then private secretary to Mark Sedwill, saying: “Fundamentally disagree with this. When we are telling the country to socially distance it shows utter contempt to the electorate to openly flout those rules.

“Plus when we are going on about how tech and data will save the day for absolutely everything to admit that we can’t use it is not acceptable.”

MacNamara: ‘Hundreds of civil servants were on the wrong side of the line’ on Covid rules

12:28 , Matt Mathers

Helen MacNamara said “hundreds” of civil servants and ministers would have found themselves on the “wrong side” once the police drew a line at Boris Johnson’s Partygate birthday bash, Archie Mitchell reports.

The former top civil servant told the Covid inquiry: “When the police drew the line of what was acceptable or not acceptable as the birthday gathering in the Cabinet Room, when they said that was the wrong side of the line, I’m certain that there are hundreds of civil servants and potentially ministers who in retrospect think they were the wrong side of that line.”

Helen MacNamara: ‘Parties should never have happened’

12:25 , Matt Mathers

Helen MacNamara said lockdown-busting Downing Street parties should “never have happened”, including one to which she took a karaoke machine, Archie Mitchell reports.

The former top civil servant said she thought that by getting people to talk to each other more, “they might in fact be able to work better together”.

She told the Covid inquiry she was “not partying in No10, I was either at work or at home”.

And she said she would find it hard to pick “one day” on which the Covid rules were followed in Downing Street.

McNamara recalls that the one time was a cabinet meeting and that everybody present “moaned” afterward that the rules were followed.

MacNamara: ‘Definitely a toxic culture, Cummings texts were horrible’

12:14 , Matt Mathers

The former top civil servant described as a “c***” by Dominic Cummings said it was “horrible” to read his messages, Archie Mitchell reports.

But she said it was “both surprising and not surprising”.

She said Mr Cummings, then chief of staff to Boris Johnson, was “frustrated” with her.

But she said she was just “doing my job as a civil servant”.

“All I was doing was working in the service of the then prime minister,” Ms MacNamara told the Covid inquiry.

She added: “It is disappointing to me that the prime minister did not pick him up on the use of some of that violent and misogynistic language.”

‘Female perspective was getting missed’ through Covid, MacNamara says

12:05 , Matt Mathers

Helen MacNamara said the “female perspective” was being missed during the pandemic because of a “macho” culture and sexism in Downing Street, Archie Mitchell reports.

She said women were “ignored and excluded” and some who had worked with the Cabinet Office for years felt they had “become invisible overnight”.

This led to failures in policy areas such as domestic abuse and abortion.

Superhero bunfight’ culture would not have developed under Theresa May

12:00 , Matt Mathers

A “macho” culture which led to Downing Street resembling a “superhero bunfight” would not have developed under Theresa May’s leadership, Helen MacNamara has said, Archie Mitchell reports.

The former top civil servant produced a report in May 2020 which found bad behaviour by senior leaders being tolerated, junior women being talked over and ignored and “too many people behaving as if they had been parachuted in to save the day”.

Asked at the official Covid inquiry about the report, Ms MacNamara said there was not “any world” in which the culture could have developed under Mrs May.

‘Maddening bureaucracy’ meant Downing Street did not have hand sanitiser for seven months

11:48 , Matt Mathers

“Maddening bureaucracy” meant it took seven months for the Cabinet Office to install a hand sanitiser station by the door that links it to No10, Archie Mitchell reports.

Helen MacNamara described it as a “\door with a pin pad that anyone who worked for the Prime Minister was constantly having to touch on their way through”.

And she said there was “no proactive attempt to recognise and create the kind of HR support that a team like this needs”.

The former top civil servant said even she was “surprised” by how long it took and she “hopes” people are now being better looked after.

“As an organisation the Cabinet Office excels in creating the kind of faceless bureaucracy that is maddening even to those who are theoretically in positions of power,” she said.

The hand sanitiser was a “small but demonstrative example” of the “neglect” shown to staff.

‘No magic cupboard’ for dealing with crises, MacNamara

11:43 , Matt Mathers

Helen MacNamara said there was “no magic cupboard” for dealing with crises such as Boris Johnson’s almost-fatal battle with Covid during the pandemic, Archie Mitchell reports.

“It is fair to say that there is no magic cupboard you can open in the Cabinet Office that has this is what to do in the circumstances,” she said.

She added: "It felt like working or living in a sort of dystopian nightmare, that just when one terrible thing happened then the next terrible thing was about to happen.

"And the prime minister being so gravely ill was obviously awful."

Downing Street officials were ‘laughing at the Italians’, MacNamara

11:28 , Matt Mathers

Officials and ministers in Downing Street were “laughing at the Italians” in the early stages of the pandemic, Helen MacNamara has said, Archie Mitchell reports.

The former top civil servant said she wanted to help Britons “do the right thing” to minimise the spread of Covid at the beginning of 2020.

But she blamed a “supreme confidence” in Downing Street which left her feeling “patronised” for raising the point that people wanted to “know the right thing to do”.

She told the Covid inquiry: “If we could just tell people what the right and kind and proper thing to do is, people will do that.

“And sitting there and saying it was great and sort of laughing at the Italians just felt… well it felt how it sounds.”

‘Absence of humanity in No10,’ MacNamara says

11:24 , Matt Mathers

Helen MacNamara said there was an “absence of humanity” in Downing Street which led to the lack of a decision being made about prisoners during the pandemic, Archie Mitchell reports.

The former top civil servant said there were “systemic problems” which caused “substantial issues” in managing the government’s response to Covid, including:

• “The sucking into No 10 of too much of the decision making by the political machine and this compounding a narrowed perspective.

• “A general lack of knowledge or understanding of how large parts of the state operate

• “An over-ideological (in my view) approach to individual decisions.

• “An absence of the accountable people in departments being involved or sufficiently involving themselves in decision making, ) cabinet government not serving its usual purpose.

• “The unreasonable pressure on the No 10 private office.

• “An absence of humanity.”

Department of Health wanted to lockdown at ‘latest possible moment’

11:09 , Matt Mathers

The Department of Health wanted to wait until the “latest possible moment” to tell people they had to stay at home, Helen MacNamara has said, Archie Mitchell reports.

She said officials in the Cabinet Office had got "much further" than those in the health department.

She said officials "knew that the planning wasn’t there" to support a stay at home order and "there needed to be more time to get some of this planning actually done".

Helen MacNamara said Britain was ‘absolutely f*****’

11:00 , Matt Mathers

Helen MacNamara told Dominic Cummings Britain was “absolutely f*****” in the early stages of the pandemic, the Covid inquiry has heard, Archie Mitchell reports.

The former top civil servant confirmed Mr Cummings’s account that, after a meeting with a fellow official, Ms MacNamara realised there was “no plan” to deal with Covid.

She walked into the prime minister’s office and said: “I have come through here to the prime minister’s office to tell you all that I think we are absolutely f*****.

“I think this country is heading for a disaster. I think we are going to kill thousands of people.”

Boris Johnson did not understand ‘basic’ science on Covid, MacNamara

10:59 , Matt Mathers

Boris Johnson did not "understand the science" and would "get it wrong" during the pandemic, Helen MacNamara has said, Archie Mitchell reports.

Scientists would have to "repeatedly explain what they regarded as being quite basic points" to him about the pandemic, she added.

Following the science was a ‘cop out’, former top civil servant

10:50 , Matt Mathers

Helen MacNamara has said the government’s “following the science” mantra during Covid was a “cop out”, Archie Mitchell reports.

The former deputy cabinet secretary said ministers were “just not making any decisions”, and would instead say “we’re just following the science”.

Ms MacNamara said the phrase was “useful as a comms line”, but “there is so much and so many different scientific questions involved”.

“I thought that was an odd thing to say religiously,” she told the Covid inquiry.

She added that it amounted to “abdicating responsibility to effectively an unelected group of people and putting everything on their shoulders, both because it wasn’t fair and right for them, but probably more importantly, it’s not fair and right in terms of who these choices belong to”.

Hancock said ‘time and time again’ Covid plans were in place - but officials ‘never got them'

10:44 , Matt Mathers

Matt Hancock told ministers and civil servants “time and time again” that plans to deal with Covid were in place as the pandemic struck, Helen MacNamara has said, Archie Mitchell reports.

But the former top civil servant told the Covid inquiry that “we never got them” and she does not “understand a scenario where these plans did exist”.

‘There was a gap between how people live lives and the officials making decisions,’ MacNamara says

10:39 , Matt Mathers

The “gap between how people live their lives” and the “theoretical idea” of responding to people’s behaviour during the pandemic was a “big problem”, Helen MacNamara has said, Archie Mitchell reports.

The former top civil servant said there was a discussion about whether attending football games en masse was okay in the early days of Covid, with officials believing it was sage because fans are in large stadiums shouting into the ground.

But “when you are in the pub or on the train beforehand or on the concourse you are incredibly close to other people”, she said.

She added that nobody involved in that discussion had been to a football game in the way that “most people” do.

It looks like Dominic Cummings is tuned in

10:34 , Matt Mathers

A day after the Covid inquiry revealed Dominic Cummings called Helen MacNamara a "c***", it seems he is tuned in to hear her evidence, Archie Mitchell reports.

The former chief of staff in Downing Street said she was "right that the Cabinet Office failed to follow the orders given in 2020 to keep records of everything".

Mr Cummings said: "Helen right that CABOFF has failed to follow the orders given in 2020 to keep records of everything - I asked for this to happen - so did Helen - yet the Cabinet Office has destroyed a lot of documents - e.g some that I have accidental copies of do not show up in official records."

MacNamara: ‘Macho’ atmosphere at meetings as Johnson said UK would ‘sail through’ pandemic

10:31 , Matt Mathers

Helen MacNamara said Boris Johnson was “confident” that Britain would “sail through” the pandemic in January and February 2020, urging officials to be “careful not to overcorrect”, Archie Mitchell reports.

“The atmosphere in the meetings I attended was confident and macho,” the former deputy cabinet secretary said.

Ms MacNamara said it was “striking” that there was a “de facto assumption that we’re going to be great” without any of the behind the scenes work.

“This in itself was not a new thing, but it seemed even more so than usual, that we were going to be world beating at conquering Covid-19 as well as everything else,” she said.

MacNamara: ‘Monomaniacal focus’ on election and Brexit put us on back foot

10:24 , Matt Mathers

Helen MacNamara has said civil servants were made to feel as though “everything else could wait” for the Brexit question to be settled by 2019’s general election, Archie Mitchell reports.

“And then there was going to come a very large amount of change,” she said.

As a result, the civil service was on the “backfoot” at the beginning of 2020, in the months before the first Covid lockdown.

‘No business as usual under Johnson,’ MacNamara

10:19 , Matt Mathers

There was “no clear business as usual under Boris Johnson”, Helen MacNamara has told the official Covid inquiry, Archie Mitchell reports.

Her witness statement to the probe into the pandemic said: “Whitehall had developed some unhealthy habits in terms of ways of working and it was a low trust environment in terms of relationships between the civil service and the prime minister and his political team.”

MacNamara: ‘Extraordinarily difficult to access documents’

10:17 , Matt Mathers

Helen MacNamara has compiled a 100-page witness statement for the official Covid inquiry, which was made “extraordinarily difficult” by the government, Archie Mitchell reports.

The former deputy cabinet secretary said she was prevented from accessing “even the most basic pieces of information” from her ex-employer.

“It’s been hard enough for me to work out what was happening, and I was there,” she told the inquiry.

One of the issues was that her phone had been wiped once she gave it back.

She also said January 2020 felt like the beginning of a decade of Boris Johnson’s government, which in the end lasted around three years.

And we are off... live from the press annex at the Covid inquiry

10:05 , Matt Mathers

After yesterday’s hearing revealed a tirade by Dominic Cummings against Helen MacNamara in which he called Britain’s former top female civil servant a "c***", she will today have the chance to respond, Archie Mitchell reports.

Ms MacNamara will no doubt be questioned about her role in the Partygate scandal, after she brought a karaoke machine to a leaving bash for Downing Street aide Hannah Young during the pandemic.

Cummings is a ‘dysfunctional psychopath’, says former No 10 comms chief

09:55 , Matt Mathers

A former No 10 communications chief has described Dominic Cummings as a “dysfunctional psychopath” who actively sought to undermine Boris Johnson.

Guto Harri, who briefly served as Johnson’s director of communications during the dying days of his premiership, said he was shocked to see the extent to which his old boss had been criticised by some his top advisers.

Referring to WhatsApp messages between Lee Cain and Dominic Cummings shown to the Covid inquiry on Tuesday, Harri accused the pair of being engaged in an “ongoing, almost adolescent...WhatsApp rant” against the former PM.

More comments below:

Evidence to inquiry ‘clear evidence of scandalously bad government’ - former health sec

09:45 , Matt Mathers

Testimony given to the Covid inquiry this week is “clear evidence of scandalously bad government”, a former health secretary has said.

Stephen Dorrell, the Tory health secretary from 1995 to 1997, said the sessions showed there was a need to reestablish distance between politicians and civil servants.

“I can think of no circumstance in which it’s appropriate for senior civil servants to engage in political gossip on WhatsApp with whom people they are supposed to be accountable,” he said.

Watch a clip of Dorrell’s interview with Sky below:

Boris Johnson will give ‘full acount’ in his evidence, says deputy PM

09:30 , Matt Mathers

The Covid inquiry has already heard from a host of big-name politicos, including former prime minister David Cameron and his chancellor, George Osborne.

But perhaps the biggest draw is yet to come, with Boris Johnson himself set to testify before the end of the current module, which is set to conclude on 14 December.

Speaking to Sky News earlier, Oliver Dowden, the current deputy PM who served as Tory Party chairman under Johnson, said his old boss would give a “full account” when he is eventually called to give evidence.

“I am quite sure that when the former prime minister gives evidence he will give a full account of himself, the cabinet office has given a very full account of how we conducted ourselves,” he told the broadcaster.

“I am not going to give commentary on one individual piece of information because it needs to fit in with a much wider picture of how we conducted ourselves both at the time and through the vaccine programme, and through all the different, very difficult decisions that were taken around the cost and benefits of lockdowns.”

When asked about the testimony given by Cummings, Dowden cautioned against “taking one person’s evidence” as it needed to be taken “in the context of all the other evidence”.

Recap: What happened during Tuesday’s session

09:10 , Matt Mathers

Boris Johnson and his former chief adviser, Dominic Cummings, dominate the headlines today following the latter’s marathon evidence session on Tuesday.

Cummings, described as the most empowered adviser No 10 has ever seen, took several swipes at his old boss and criticised Whitehall’s ability to deal with a crisis.

In an extraordinary day of evidence, it was revealed that Cummings himself had described the constant change of strategy as “exhausting” and branded his cabinet “useless f***pigs” in explosive WhatsApp messages.

Johnson, meanwhile, was accused of saying old people needed to accept their “fate”. Below is a full recap of Tuesday’s proceedings, which also saw Lee Cain, Johnson’s former communications chief, testify:

Boris Johnson’s handling of Covid crisis slammed by former top advisers

09:01 , Matt Mathers

Good morning and welcome to The Independent’s coverage of the Covid inquiry.

Helen MacNamara, the former deputy cabinet secretary, will give evidence from 10am.

McNamara is the civil servant who was heavily criticised in expletive-laden texts written by Cummings.

The former ethics chief also became the first person to confirm she had been fined over lockdown-busting parties in Downing Street.

David Halpern, president and former chief executive officer of the Behavioural Insights Team, will give evidence after McNamara at 2pm.

Stay tuned for live updates.

Watch - Lee Cain and Dominic Cummings provide worrying insight into No 10

07:00 , Lydia Patrick

Covid was ‘wrong crisis’ for Boris Johnson to handle, ex-Comms chief tells inquiry

06:30 , Maroosha Muzaffar

Covid was the “wrong crisis” for Boris Johnson to handle as he frustrated advisers by oscillating between decisions, the official inquiry has heard.

Mr Johnson dithered between supporting a lockdown and wanting to keep the country open in what was described as his Mayor of Jaws “routine”, the UK Covid-19 Inquiry was told on Tuesday.

Lee Cain, his long-term adviser who served as No 10’s communications director in the pandemic, said Mr Johnson’s erratic decision-making was “rather exhausting”.

Messages between Mr Cain and Dominic Cummings, who served as the then-prime minister’s chief adviser, showed them venting their frustrations on WhatsApp.

“Get in here he’s melting down,” Mr Cummings wrote on March 19 2020, days before the first lockdown, adding that Mr Johnson was “back to Jaws mode wank”.

Covid was ‘wrong crisis’ for Boris Johnson to handle, ex-Comms chief tells inquiry

ICYMI - Boris Johnson’s chaotic ‘flip-flopping’ made it ‘impossible’ to tackle Covid, advisers’ messages reveal

06:00 , Lydia Patrick

Scathing WhatsApp messages sent between Boris Johnson’s top team accused the former PM of creating chaos during the Covid crisis – complaining that he “flip-flopped” every day on direction and made it “impossible” to tackle the pandemic.

A series of startling new revelations emerged at the Covid inquiry, as messages shared between cabinet secretary Simon Case, chief scientific officer Sir Patrick Vallance and top adviser Dominic Cummings exposed the disdain they held for Mr Johnson.

It also emerged that Mr Johnson’s key aide Martin Reynolds set messages to “disappear” in a key Covid WhatsApp group only weeks after the ex-PM promised the Covid inquiry.

The ex-principal private secretary – dubbed “Party Marty” for his “bring your own booze” email during Partygate – said he was “deeply sorry” for his role in organising the infamous event and Mr Johnson’s birthday gathering at No 10.

Boris flip-flopping’ made it ‘impossible’ to tackle Covid, advisers’ messages reveal

Top civil servant referenced in ‘misogynistic’ messages to give inquiry evidence

05:30 , Maroosha Muzaffar

The former top civil servant criticised by Dominic Cummings in expletive-laden WhatsApp messages is set to appear before the Covid-19 inquiry.

Helen MacNamara, the former deputy cabinet secretary, will become the latest pandemic-era senior official to face questions about the response on Wednesday after two days of hearings revealed the dysfunction, indecision and dithering inside Boris Johnson’s government.

The ex-civil servant, who departed the civil service in 2021, was namechecked in proceedings on Tuesday as Mr Cummings denied he had behaved in a misogynistic way during his time in Downing Street.

WhatsApp messages shared with the inquiry revealed that Mr Cummings had labelled Ms MacNamara “that c***” and said he would “handcuff her and escort her” from Downing Street.

“I don’t care how it’s done but that woman must be out of our hair – we cannot keep dealing with this horrific meltdown of the British state while dodging stilettos from that c***,” he wrote.

Top civil servant referenced in ‘misogynistic’ messages to give inquiry evidence

ICYMI - ‘Eat Out to Help Out made absolutely no sense whatsoever’

05:00 , Lydia Patrick

The Eat Out to Help Out scheme and the policy of sending people back to work during the pandemic “made absolutely no sense whatsoever”, Boris Johnson’s former director of communications told the UK Covid-19 Inquiry.

Lee Cain said he was critical of the Eat Out to Help Out policy when it was implemented by the then chancellor Rishi Sunak in August 2020.

Mr Cain told the UK Covid-19 Inquiry: “I, and particularly the other communicators as well, were just finding it very, very difficult because a huge part of what our role and responsibility is at that point is ‘what are we signalling to the public?’

“At this point of developing policy, we are indicating to people that Covid is over – go back out, get back to work, crowd yourself on to trains, go into restaurants and enjoy pizzas with friends and family – really build up that social mixing.

“Now that is fine if you are intent on never having to do suppression measures again – but from all the evidence we are receiving, from all the advice we are receiving, it was incredibly clear that we were going to have to do suppression measures again.

“We knew that all the way through, that was the strategy from the start.”

What we have learned from the Covid inquiry so far this week

04:30 , Maroosha Muzaffar

A busy two days at the Covid-19 inquiry saw appearances from some of the key figures in Downing Street during the early stages of the pandemic.

Here’s what we learned from the appearance of Dominic Cummings, Lee Cain and others over the course of Monday and Tuesday.

– Downing Street and governmental dysfunction

The inquiry heard multiple references to Mr Johnson as “the trolley” who tended to “wild oscillations”, while former No 10’s communications director Mr Cain admitted that his former boss’s erratic decision-making was “rather exhausting”.

And in WhatsApp messages shared with the inquiry, the UK’s top civil servant Simon Case said that Mr Johnson “cannot lead” and was making government “impossible”.

Read the full piece here:

What we have learned from the Covid inquiry so far this week

Watch - Cummings shown own texts to Helen MacNamara after denying misogynistic behavior

04:00 , Lydia Patrick

Helen McNamara to appear at Covid inquiry

03:53 , Maroosha Muzaffar

Helen McNamara is to appear at the Covid inquiry today.

Boris Johnson’s former chief of staff, Dominic Cummings, called Ms MacNamara a ‘c***’ in one message during the pandemic.

Mr Cummings made clear his views about how the “dysfunctional system” during a “meltdown of the British state” failed to deal with the crisis.

“The perception among the political team in No10 about the failings in the system, the failings of the civil service and the failings of different institutions was so extreme,” Ms McNamara has told the BBC. Their instinct, she claimed, was to “smash everything up”.

“We were systematically in real trouble.”

ICYMI - Ex-No10 chief admits he ‘disappeared’ messages in PM’s WhatsApps group chat

03:00 , Lydia Patrick

One of Boris Johnson’s key aides turned messages to “disappear” in a key Covid WhatsApp group only weeks after the ex-PM promised a Covid public inquiry, it has been revealed.

Martin Reynolds was grilled about switching the function to delete messages in the then-PM’s group April 2021 – just after Mr Johnson announced an inquiry – as he gave evidence on Monday.

Mr Reynolds, Mr Johnson’s principal private secretary, told the inquiry he “cannot recall exactly why I did so” – before adding that he did not believe it was to “prevent” the inquiry having access to the messages.

The former No 10 official – dubbed “Party Marty” for his infamous ‘bring your own booze” drinks event email during Partygate – also said he was “deeply sorry” for his role in organising the garden party and Mr Johnson’s birthday gathering at No 10.

He said he was sorry for “my part in those events” and said he wanted to “apologise unreservedly to all the families of all those who suffered during Covid for all the distress caused”.

Ex-No10 chief admits he ‘disappeared’ messages in PM’s WhatsApps group chat

A timeline of Dominic Cumming’s role in Downing Street

02:00 , Lydia Patrick

Dominic Cummings, the former chief adviser to then-prime minister Boris Johnson, is giving evidence to the UK Covid-19 Inquiry.

Mr Cummings was one of Mr Johnson’s first appointments when he succeeded Theresa May as Conservative Party leader and PM in the summer 2019. His hiring was a signal to the hard-line Brexiteers who had ushered Mr Johnson to power that he was serious about delivering the withdrawal agreement from the European Union that his successor had failed to secure over months of tortuous negotiations.

A political strategist, Mr Cummings was an influential special adviser to Michael Gove between 2007 and 2014 before he became director of the Vote Leave campaign in 2015 and masterminded its victory in the Brexit referendum of 2016. He coined its “take back control” slogan and was seen as a divisive and outspoken figure who made enemies easily.

Portrayed as a visionary anti-establishment disrupter by Benedict Cumberbatch in the Channel 4 film Brexit: The Uncivil War, Mr Cummings was once described by David Cameron as a “career psychopath” and caused offence in Conservative circles by dishing out withering insults. He memorably labelled former Brexit secretary David Davis “thick as mince” and “lazy as a toad”, said the European Research Group were “useful idiots for Remain” and described the civil service as a “blob” of incompetence and bureaucracy.

Read the full report by Joe Sommerlad here

A timeline of Dominic Cummings’ career in Downing Street

Bombshell WhatsApp messages reveal Dominic Cummings’ secret foul-mouthed rants about Boris Johnson

01:00 , Lydia Patrick

Dominic Cummings branded Boris Johnson “exhausting” and in a foul-mouthed tirade said the cabinet was “useless f***pigs” in explosive WhatsApp messages revealed today at the Covid-19 inquiry.

In a pivotal day, Mr Johnson’s former communications chief Lee Cain gave evidence, followed by Mr Cummings, the former prime minister’s chief of staff during the pandemic.

Mr Cummings apologised to the inquiry for the “appalling” language he used in messages but said that he was reflecting “a widespread view” about the incompetence shown by ministers who were “dealing with this crisis extremely badly”.

The messages showed the disdain he held for his former boss Mr Johnson, as it was revealed Mr Cummings had to sit with him for “two hours just to stop him saying stupid s***”.

Mr Cummings coarse language was not limited to politicians as he denied being a misogynist after messages showed he called former top civil servant Helen MacNamara a “c***”.

Bombshell WhatsApp messages reveal Cummings’ secret foul-mouthed rants about Johnson

A rundown of day two of the inquiry

00:00 , Lydia Patrick

• Mr Johnson believed Covid was “a hoax” and “pathetic”, no worse than swine flu, and that it was nature’s way of dealing with the elderly

• No 10 staff had derided the dithering PM as “the trolley”, as he changed direction so often

• Mr Johnson took the “pretty insane” decision to go on holiday in February 2020, one month before lockdown

• There was “no plan” for how to protect vulnerable people from the virus

• Mr Johnson admitted there had been a “totally disgusting orgy of narcissism by a government that should be solving a national crisis”

• Mr Cummings said in a message that he wanted to “personally handcuff” the UK’s most powerful female mandarin, as he called her a “c***”

• In November 2020 Mr Cummings blocked Mr Johnson on WhatsApp after the then PM pleaded for briefings against his government to stop

Boris Johnson’s handling of Covid crisis slammed by former top advisers

Tuesday 31 October 2023 23:00 , Lydia Patrick

Boris Johnson’s one-time closest advisers lined up to slam his leadership during the Covid pandemic as he was blasted for his handling of the crisis.

In an extraordinary day of evidence at the Covid-19 inquiry, it was revealed that the former prime minister’s chief aide, Dominic Cummings, had described the constant change of strategy as “exhausting” and branded his cabinet “useless f***pigs” in explosive WhatsApp messages.

Mr Cummings said Mr Johnson did not think Covid was a “big deal”, while the hearing was also told that the then PM was “obsessed” with the idea that older people should be allowed to catch the virus and accept their “fate” in order to keep the economy open.

Boris Johnson’s handling of Covid crisis slammed by former top advisers

Dominic Cummings denies misogyny claims despite obscene sexist rant at UK’s most powerful female mandarin

Tuesday 31 October 2023 22:00 , Lydia Patrick

Dominic Cummings has insisted he is not a misogynist despite referring to a top civil servant as “that c***” in a series of foul-mouthed messages to Boris Johnson.

In an astonishing day of testimony at the Covid inquiry, shedding new light on a culture of sexism at the heart of the former prime minister’s government, Mr Cummings apologised for the “deplorable” language and even claimed he “was much ruder about men”.

To audible gasps, the inquiry was shown Mr Cummings’ WhatsApp texts about then deputy cabinet-secretary Helen MacNamara from 2020, in which he said he would “handcuff her and escort her” from Downing Street.

Counsel to the inquiry Hugo Keith KC put it to Mr Johnson’s former adviser yesterday that he “denigrated women”, to which he replied: “No, that’s not correct. I was not misogynistic.”

Dominic Cummings denies misogyny claims despite obscene sexist rant

Watch: Cummings and Cain provide worrying insight into No 10

Tuesday 31 October 2023 21:11 , Tara Cobham

Today’s sitting of the Covid-19 Inquiry saw expletive-filled text messages between Dominic Cummings and former prime minister Boris Johnson unveiled publicly.

In the messages, Cummings, who was then-adviser to Johnson, appeared to be growing frustrated with the Cabinet Office, referring to it as ‘s***’, and the delays to introducing further lockdown measures they were allegedly causing.

He also accused Johnson of saying ‘stupid s****’ and described former health secretary Matt Hancock as the ‘c*** in charge of NHS’.

The inquiry continues to look into the government’s handling of the pandemic.

Sophie Thompson reports:

Lee Cain and Dominic Cummings provide worrying insight into No 10

Watch: Rishi Sunak compared handling Covid to the film Jaws

Tuesday 31 October 2023 21:00 , Tara Cobham

Boris Johnson’s handling of Covid crisis slammed by former top advisers

Tuesday 31 October 2023 20:18 , Tara Cobham

Boris Johnson’s one-time closest advisers lined up to slam his leadership during the Covid pandemic as he was blasted for his handling of the crisis.

In an extraordinary day of evidence at the Covid-19 inquiry, the former prime minister’s chief aide Dominic Cummings described the constant change of strategy as “exhausting” and branded his cabinet “useless f***pigs” in explosive WhatsApp messages.

Mr Cummings said that Mr Johnson did not think Covid was a “big deal”, while the hearing was also told that then-PM was “obsessed” with the idea older people should be allowed to catch the virus and accept their “fate” to keep the economy open.

Kate Devlin and Archie Mitchell report:

Boris Johnson’s handling of Covid crisis slammed by former top advisers

Starmer battles to maintain Labour discipline over Israel-Hamas war

Tuesday 31 October 2023 20:08 , Tara Cobham

Sir Keir Starmer battled to maintain Labour discipline with members of his frontbench in open revolt about his stance on the Israel-Hamas conflict.

The Labour leader has resisted pressure from within his own party to call for a ceasefire, instead urging both parties in the conflict to agree to a humanitarian pause to allow aid in and people out of the war zone.

Shadow ministers are among senior Labour figures demanding a change in his stance, with frontbencher Alex Cunningham calling for an “immediate ceasefire” less than an hour before Sir Keir delivered his speech.

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar also criticised Sir Keir, claiming he had made “hurtful” comments about the conflict and there was “repair work to do” to mend bridges with Muslim communities.

Sir Keir insisted he took collective responsibility - the principle that members of his frontbench team adopt a unified position - seriously, but he gave no indication he was about to sack those who had spoken out.

“It is for me to address collective responsibility, I recognise that,” he said.

“It matters and I take that duty extremely seriously, but I put it in the context of understanding what is driving people in the call for a ceasefire, which is in my judgment not the call that we should be making as things stand.”

What we have learned from the Covid inquiry so far this week

Tuesday 31 October 2023 19:51 , Tara Cobham

A busy two days at the Covid-19 inquiry saw appearances from some of the key figures in Downing Street during the early stages of the pandemic.

Here’s what we learned from the appearance of Dominic Cummings, Lee Cain and others over the course of Monday and Tuesday.

What we have learned from the Covid inquiry so far this week

Dithering Johnson suggested Covid was nature dealing with elderly, inquiry hears

Tuesday 31 October 2023 19:40 , Tara Cobham

Boris Johnson's chaotic indecisiveness delayed lockdown measures, two of his top advisers have said, as it was alleged he believed coronavirus was "nature's way of dealing with old people".

Dominic Cummings told the Covid inquiry on Tuesday how the "dysfunctional system" during a "meltdown of the British state" failed to deal with the crisis, as the former prime minister downplayed the pandemic.

Lee Cain, who served as No 10's communications director, criticised Mr Johnson's tendency to "oscillate" between decisions for holding up the Government's response.

The UK Covid-19 Inquiry saw diary entries from Sir Patrick Vallance saying Mr Johnson was "obsessed with older people accepting their fate and letting the young get on with life" and getting the economy running.

Cummings denies misogyny despite foul-mouthed messages about civil servant

Tuesday 31 October 2023 18:57 , Tara Cobham

Dominic Cummings has insisted he is not a misogynist despite referring to a top civil servant as “that c***” in a series of foul-mouthed messages to Boris Johnson.

In an astonishing day of Covid testimony shedding new light on a culture of sexism at the heart of the former PM’s government, Cummings apologised for the “deplorable” language and claimed he “was much ruder about men”.

To audible gasps, the inquiry was shown Cummings’ WhatsApp texts about then deputy cabinet-secretary Helen MacNamara from 2020, in which he said he would “handcuff her and escort her” from Downing Street.

Read more here:

Dominic Cummings denies misogyny claims despite

In pictures: Cummings and Cain after appearing at inquiry

Tuesday 31 October 2023 18:55 , Tara Cobham

Cummings’ bombshell four-letter Covid WhatsApp rants explained

Tuesday 31 October 2023 18:50 , Tara Cobham

Dominic Cummings branded Boris Johnson “exhausting” and in a foul-mouthed tirade said the cabinet was “useless f***pigs” in explosive WhatsApp messages revealed today at the Covid-19 inquiry.

In a pivotal day, Mr Johnson’s former communications chief Lee Cain gave evidence, followed by Mr Cummings, the former prime minister’s chief of staff during the pandemic.

Mr Cummings apologised to the inquiry for the “appalling” language he used in messages but said that he was reflecting “a widespread view” about the incompetence shown by ministers who were “dealing with this crisis extremely badly”.

Joe Middleton reports:

Bombshell WhatsApp messages reveal Cummings’ secret foul-mouthed rants about Johnson

Sturgeon says she ‘gave my all’ in response to pandemic

Tuesday 31 October 2023 18:06 , Tara Cobham

Nicola Sturgeon has said she “gave my all” in the response to the pandemic.

Addressing journalists at Holyrood on whether she deleted WhatsApp messages relating to the pandemic, the former first minister said: “I gave my all to the management of the pandemic.

“Transparency for the families affected, by everybody affected by the pandemic, matters really a lot to me.

“I did my best everyday, as you heard me say many times over the course of the pandemic, I did not get everything right but I did my best and I want the process of these inquiries to get to the heart of what happened – the things that Governments got right and the things that Government’s and leaders alike didn’t get right.”

‘I did not manage Covid response by WhatsApp,’ says Sturgeon

Tuesday 31 October 2023 18:05 , Tara Cobham

Scotland’s former first minister Nicola Sturgeon said: “I did not manage the Covid response by WhatsApp.”

Speaking to reporters at Holyrood, she said she was not a member of any WhatsApp groups and she took decisions on the response at the Scottish Government headquarters at St Andrews House in Edinburgh.

She said she has “nothing to hide” and is “committed to full transparency” for both the UK and Scottish Covid-19 inquiries.

Sturgeon says she dealt with messages ‘in line with policies' of Scottish Government

Tuesday 31 October 2023 18:05 , Tara Cobham

Former Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon has said she dealt with messages “in line with policies” of the Scottish Government.

Speaking to journalists in Holyrood, Ms Sturgeon said: “Any messages I had I handled and dealt with in line with the policies set out by the Deputy First Minister.”

Her comments come after the Scottish Government published its policy on social media messages, which says “business conversations” through informal messaging channels should be deleted “at least monthly”.

Barnard Castle trip ‘did cause lot of people pain’, says Cummings

Tuesday 31 October 2023 17:26 , Tara Cobham

Dominic Cummings said that the handling by Downing Street of the fallout from his trip to Barnard Castle was an “absolute car crash” and “did cause a lot of people pain”.

He was quizzed on the high-profile controversy and the impact it had on confidence in the Government during his appearance at the Covid inquiry.

He said: “It was certainly a disaster, the whole handling of the situation. But there were other factors involved with it all as well – testing and PPE and many other things were all going haywire at the time.”

He said it was “completely reasonable” for security reasons to move his family out of his house, but on the Barnard Castle revelations he said the way it was “handled it was an absolute car crash and disaster and did cause a lot of people pain”.

But he added: “In terms of my actual actions in going north and then coming back down I acted entirely reasonably and legally and did not break any rules.”

Cummings ‘rolled dice’ and backed Johnson as PM despite believing him ‘unfit'

Tuesday 31 October 2023 17:15 , Tara Cobham

Dominic Cummings said he decided to “roll the dice” and back Boris Johnson to be prime minister even though he believed he was “unfit” for power.

Asked if he was sorry, Mr Cummings said “no”, adding: “Politics is about choices.

“And the choice that we had in summer 2019 was do we allow the whole situation, this once-a-century constitutional crisis to continue, meltdown and possibly see Jeremy Corbyn as PM and a second referendum on Brexit – which we thought would be catastrophic for the country and for democracy, for faith in democracy – or to roll the dice on Boris and to try and control him and build a team around him that could control him.

“We didn’t take that choice lightly. We considered in summer 19 an alternative of staying out of it.

“But we thought the combination of second referendum and Corbyn was so bad that we should roll the dice.”

Johnson raged Cummings was ‘total and utter liar’ after Barnard Castle trip

Tuesday 31 October 2023 17:14 , Tara Cobham

Boris Johnson raged that Dominic Cummings was a “total and utter liar” after his lockdown trip to Barnard Castle became public.

In messages shared with the Covid inquiry, dated July 19 2021, Mr Johnson said: “Cummings a total and utter liar. He never told me he had gone to Durham during lockdown.

“I only discovered when the stories started to come out about Barnard castle etc. I believed Mary Wakefield when she wrote a piece in spec giving impression they had been in London the whole time.

“He later claimed that he had told me but that my brain was so fogged by Covid that I didn’t register.

“It’s not true, I would have noted it.

“He never told me. I then tried my very best to defend him.”

Boris said it was ‘cr**’ that wife Carrie was leading lockdown policy

Tuesday 31 October 2023 17:09 , Tara Cobham

Boris Johnson called suggestions his wife Carrie was leading lockdown policy “cr**”, the Covid inquiry has heard.

In a final WhatsApp to Mr Cummings on November 15, 2020, Mr Johnson hit out at suggestions that his now wife Carrie was responsible for briefing against his former senior aide, who had left No 10 two days earlier.

The message from Mr Johnson said: “She hasn’t briefed anyone and my instructions to all were to shut the f*** up. How is any of us supposed to know where these briefings come from? Look at the claims made on behalf of allies of Lee (Cain) and Dom, that I’m out in six months, that I can’t take decisions, that Carrie is secretly forging lockdown policy, and about a billion equally demented claims.

“Are you responsible for all that crap? No. Then look at it from my point of view. This is a totally disgusting orgy of narcissism by a government that should be solving a national crisis.

“We must end this. That’s why I wanted to talk and see what we can jointly do to sterilise the whole thing. But if you really refuse, then that’s up to you.”

Asked if he agreed there was an “orgy of narcissism” in the government, Mr Cummings told the Covid inquiry: “Certainly there was.”

Cummings on Johnson’s relationship with media: ‘Extremely damaging’

Tuesday 31 October 2023 17:07 , Tara Cobham

Dominic Cummings was asked by Hugo Keith about the relationship between Boris Johnson and the media.

Mr Cummings said: “There was a general feeling in Number 10 that the way in which the Prime Minister responded constantly to the media was extremely bad and extremely damaging to the Covid response.

“There were specific concerns about his relationship with the Barclays in the Telegraph.

“And there were specific concerns and also suspicions of possible corruption in terms of his relationship with Osborne, and funnelling money to the Evening Standard.”

He also said that Boris Johnson had spoken to and met with Lord Lebedev in March 2020.

Counsel puts to Cummings that he ‘denigrated women'

Tuesday 31 October 2023 16:55 , Tara Cobham

Counsel to the Inquiry Hugo Keith KC put to Dominic Cummings that he “denigrated women” and “denigrated Helen McNamara” by sending her a misogynistic message.

Mr Cummings responded: “No that’s not correct. I was not misogynistic.

“I was much ruder about men than I was about Helen.

“I agree that my language is deplorable, but as you can see for yourself I deployed the same or worse language (for) the prime minister, secretary of state or other people.

“If you want to look at how we actually ran things, unlike Whitehall, I had two young women as my deputies, I hired young women into the data science team, in the Vote Leave campaign I actually put a woman in her 30s in charge of it much to the rage of a lot of MPs.

“So if you look at the reality of how I actually ran teams, and how they got on with the private secretaries in Number 10, you will see the truth of the matter.”

Cummings apologises for foul-mouthed message about MacNamara

Tuesday 31 October 2023 16:53 , Tara Cobham

Dominic Cummings apologised for his foul-mouthed WhatsApp message about former deputy cabinet secretary Helen MacNamara.

He said: “I apologise for my language towards Helen but a thousand times worse than my language was the underlying insanity of the situation in Number 10.”

Mr Cummings criticised Boris Johnson’s “botched” attempt to change senior civil servants in No 10 and the Cabinet Office.

He said: “The prime minister had – first of all – tried to sack the cabinet secretary and then botched it, and he was still there. Then he had said to everyone that he wanted Helen to be removed as well and that he had lost confidence in Helen.”

That meant “we were in this absolutely nightmare situation where the PM had made clear that he didn’t have confidence in either of the two senior officials, had said to people that he was going to remove them, then he didn’t remove them for week after week”.

Mr Cummings said: “Now, my language about Helen – the language is absolutely appalling and actually I got on well with Helen at a personal level – but a thousand times worse than my bad language is the underlying issue at stake that we had a Cabinet Office system that had completely melted and the prime minister had half begun the process of changing the senior management and then stopped.”

Yousaf’s informal messages will be handed to inquiry, says Robison

Tuesday 31 October 2023 16:51 , Tara Cobham

Informal messages sent and received by First Minister Humza Yousaf during the Covid-19 pandemic, when he served as justice secretary and health secretary, will be handed over to the UK inquiry unredacted, Deputy First Minister Shona Robison has said.

“As the First Minister recently stated, should either Covid inquiry want more information, then we expect every Minister, past and present, every government official and clinical adviser to comply,” she said.

“I can confirm that the First Minister will, when submitting his final statement for Module 2A in the coming days, hand over WhatsApp messages, unredacted to the inquiry.”

Cummings calls top civil servant ‘f***** up frosty’ in messages shown at inquiry

Tuesday 31 October 2023 16:49 , Tara Cobham

In another message, shown at the inquiry, Dominic Cummings said of former top civil servant Helen MacNamara: “We gotta get Helen out of CabOff. She’s f***** up frosty. She’s f***** up me and case. She’s trying to get spads fired and cause trouble on multiple fronts.

“Can we get her in on Monday for chat re her moving to CLG or dft. I get the distinct impression MS isn’t acting swiftly and she is trying to hang on waiting to get hooks into new CabSec and stay in there… we need her out ASAP. Building millions of lovely houses.”

Watch: Covid compared to chickenpox

Tuesday 31 October 2023 16:47 , Tara Cobham

Cummings calls MacNamara a ‘c***’ in series of disparaging messages

Tuesday 31 October 2023 16:46 , Tara Cobham

Dominic Cummings has been shown a series of messages in which he called former top civil servant Helen MacNamara a “c***” and said he would “handcuff her and escort her” from Downing Street.

The Covid-19 inquiry was shown the disparaging messages Mr Cummings sent to Boris Johnson’s former comms chief Lee Cain about the then deputy cabinet secretary in 2020, in which he said he didn’t care “how it’s done” but “that woman must be out of our hair”.

To audible gasps in the press annex of the Covid inquiry, lead counsel Hugo Keith KC read out a message in which Mr Cummings said: “If I have to come back to Helen’s bullshit with PET - designed to waste huge amounts of my time so I can’t spend it on other stuff - I will personally handcuff her and escort her from the building.

“I don’t care how it’s done but that woman must be out of our hair - we cannot keep dealing with this horrific meltdown of the British state while dodging stilettos from that c***.”

Cummings denied he was misogynistic.

The inquiry also heard that Ms MacNamara and a fellow civil servant had drawn up a report complaining of “toxic cultural problems in No 10, people talking over junior women, a sexist macho culture”.

The inquiry also heard that Cummings had described the Cab Office, where ms MacNamara worked, as “terrifyingly shit”.

Scottish Deputy First Minister ‘can’t give details on what’s been provided to inquiry'

Tuesday 31 October 2023 16:37 , Tara Cobham

Scottish Deputy First Minister Shona Robison has said she is not able to provide details on what has or has not been provided to the Covid inquiries.

Making a statement in Holyrood, Ms Robison said it was for the inquiries to decide what should be published, in the wake of a row over the potential deletion of WhatsApp messages – including reports that Nicola Sturgeon messages may not have been retained.

“It is important to note that both inquiries have made all their requests to witnesses in confidence, and those requests are not public,” she said.

“All those receiving requests, including Scottish Government, have been told by the inquiries not to share their content. It is entirely up to – and wholly a matter for – the independent inquiry chairs to determine, where appropriate, whether to publish the material they receive.

“The Scottish Government is obliged to comply with this requirement and as such I will not, and cannot, provide precise details on any of the requests that the Scottish Government has received to date, including specific information on what has been asked of individuals who have received requests from the inquiries.

“Nor can I discuss in detail what material individuals have or have not provided.”

Johnson argued lockdown would be ‘killing patient to tackle tumour’, says Cummings

Tuesday 31 October 2023 16:35 , Tara Cobham

Boris Johnson argued that lockdown would be “killing the patient to tackle the tumour” on March 19 2020, Dominic Cummings said as he accused him of dithering over the decision.

Mr Johnson’s former chief adviser was asked about a diary note by an aide, attributed to the then-prime minister, stating: “We’re killing the patient to tackle the tumour. Large ppl (taken to mean large numbers of people) who will die, why are we destroying economy for people who will die anyway soon.”

Hugo Keith KC, lead counsel to the UK Covid-19 Inquiry, asked Mr Cummings who made that comment.

“I think it was the PM,” Mr Cummings replied, saying it was a reflection of the debate going on in Downing Street and that the Treasury being “baffled” that “why are we not sticking to” the plan.

Asked whether there was a real problem in getting Mr Johnson to agree to a course of action and to stick to it, Mr Cummings agreed that that “is the nub of it”.

He said: “By the 19th it was totally obvious that there was going to be a lockdown. And my fear then was that if the PM suddenly trolleyed back, then all it would do was cause more needless confusion.”

Boris getting rid of Sedwill was ‘one of most disastrous moments of entire 2020’

Tuesday 31 October 2023 16:33 , Archie Mitchell, Political Correspondent

Boris Johnson getting rid of Britain’s top civil servant Sir Mark Sedwill was “one of the most disastrous moments of 2020”, Dominic Cummings has claimed.

Mr Cummings said: “It was a total disaster. But it was also, from a personal level, it was very unfair on Mark.”

He acknowledged that he “played his part” in the PM’s loss of confidence in Sir Mark.

Cummings told Johnson that Hancock had ‘killed people’, inquiry hears

Tuesday 31 October 2023 16:32 , Tara Cobham

In a message sent to Boris Johnson by Dominic Cummings in May 2020, the top adviser told the Prime Minister that Health Secretary Matt Hancock had “killed people”.

In a WhatsApp message shared with the inquiry, he said: “You need to think through timing of binning Hancock. There’s no way the guy can stay. He’s lied his way through this and killed people and dozens and dozens of people have seen it.

“He will have to go the question is when and who replaces.”

Johnson said why destroy economy for people who will die anyway, Cummings confirms

Tuesday 31 October 2023 16:26 , Archie Mitchell, Political Correspondent

Dominic Cummings confirmed it was Boris Johnson who said in a meeting during the pandemic: "Why are we destroying the economy for people who will die anyway soon?"

On Monday, the inquiry heard that Mr Johnson had, according to a note read from the diary of a former private secretary, asked why the economy was being destroyed “for people who will die anyway soon”, in the days before the country went into lockdown.

The diary note from Imran Shafi, which he attributed to Mr Johnson, stated: “We’re killing the patient to tackle the tumour. Large ppl (taken to mean large numbers of people) who will die, why are we destroying economy for people who will die anyway soon.”

Asked on Tuesday who made the comment, Mr Cummings said: "I think it was the PM."

Cummings warned Johnson of NHS imploding ‘like zombie apocalypse film’, inquiry hears

Tuesday 31 October 2023 16:25 , Tara Cobham

Dominic Cummings warned Boris Johnson of the NHS imploding “like a zombie apocalypse film”, the UK Covid-19 Inquiry heard.

Calling for daily meetings on the crisis in the Cabinet room, Mr Johnson’s former chief adviser said in a WhatsApp to the then-prime minister on March 12 2020: “The overwhelming danger here is being late and the NHS implodes like zombie apocalypse film – not being a week early.”

Asked about the message, Mr Cummings told the inquiry new NHS data he had seen revealed “that the whole crisis was coming much, much, much faster than we had been told”.

Dominic Cummings: ‘Mark Sedwill is babbling about chickenpox… god f****** help us’

Tuesday 31 October 2023 16:08 , Matt Mathers

The Covid inquiry revealed a text from Dominic Cummings to Lee Cain which said then cabinet secretary Mark Sedwill was “babbling about chickenpox”., Archie Mitchell reports.

“God fucking help us,” Mr Cummings added..

The former No10 chief of staff was asked what was being said about chickenpox by the top civil servant.

He said there was a meeting in the PM’s study on the day of the message, sent on March 12, 2020. “The cabinet secretary said to the PM, ‘PM, you should go on TV and you should explain that this is like the old days with chickenpox, and people are going to have chickenpox parties and the sooner a lot of people get this and get it over with the

better, sort of thing.’

“This had been mentioned before, this analogy, and I said ‘Mark you should stop using this analogy of chickenpox parties’.”

Mr Cummings said it was “terrifying” that such a senior civil servant was being briefed that Covid was similar to chickenpox.

Cummings: Hancock ‘sowed chaos’ by saying people without some symptoms were unlikely to have Covid

Tuesday 31 October 2023 16:05 , Matt Mathers

Matt Hancock “sowed chaos” by continuing to insist in March 2020 that people without symptoms of a dry cough and a temperature were unlikely to be suffering from coronavirus, Dominic Cummings has said.

Boris Johnson’s former chief adviser was asked by Hugo Keith KC, lead counsel to the UK Covid-19 Inquiry, whether it was understood in Downing Street, despite the then-health secretary’s claims, that there was in fact asymptomatic transmission.

Mr Cummings replied: “It was and Mr Hancock had made this point in multiple ways and sowed chaos by saying this.

“He was repeatedly told by Patrick Vallance the what he was saying was wrong. But he kept saying it.

“So this false meme lodged itself in crucial people’s minds. I don’t understand, never understood why Hancock said this. But Patrick Vallance made extremely clear to me and to others in No 10 that what Hancock was saying was factually wrong.”

Cummings: Local authorities were considering booking out ice rinks to store bodies

Tuesday 31 October 2023 16:03 , Matt Mathers

Dominic Cummings said conversations such as storing “massive numbers of bodies” in ice rinks “exploded” in the week beginning March 9 2020, the UK Covid-19 Inquiry heard.

Answering a question on whether he was persuaded that the herd immunity approach was the wrong way to go, Mr Cummings said: “In the week beginning the ninth… I had growing doubts on an hourly basis.

“By the 11th my view was, I’ve got an appalling feeling that I’m in one of those historic catastrophes, like July 1914. I’ve got a lot of smart people coming to me saying a) the fundamentally the strategy is wrong, misconceived, but also at a practical level.

“At this point remember I was sitting in an office and suddenly overhearing people having phone calls about whether local authorities could book out ice rinks and get trucks to carry massive numbers of bodies and store them in ice rinks.

“These conversations suddenly exploded in the week of the ninth.

“So on the one hand a fundamental argument is the strategy misconceived or not, but we also had this sort of growing cascade of nightmare conversations going on around us where we realised that the system was just completely out of control in terms of coping with its original plan A.”

Watch: PM was not disturbed on holiday at start of pandemic as Covid seen as ‘distant problem’

Tuesday 31 October 2023 15:51 , Matt Mathers

Cummings: Government’s Covid plan was ‘pretty much a joke’

Tuesday 31 October 2023 15:45 , Matt Mathers

Dominic Cummings said the government’s “Contain, Delay, Mitigate” Covid plan, published in March 2020, was “pretty much a joke”, Archie Mitchell reports.

The former No10 chief of staff said there was a sense in Downing Street of “hang on a second, we have been told that we’re the best prepared in the world… this document is pretty much a joke”.

“What the hell is going on?” he added.

He said the action plan was one of “many documents” that demonstrated the government was “miles off the pace” in dealing with Covid.

Cummings: ‘Insane’ that Johnson and senior officials were on holiday as Covid struck

Tuesday 31 October 2023 15:27 , Matt Mathers

Dominic Cummings has said Covid in February 2020 was seen as a “distant problem” and not an “immediate crisis”, with Boris Johnson and other senior officials on holiday, Archie Mitchell reports.

Grilled on why the prime minister did not receive any briefing between February 14 and February 24, Mr Cummings said it was because it was not “seen as an imminent crisis”.

He told the Covid inquiry: “I did not go on holiday but many people were on holiday during that time.”

He added that it was “insane” so many senior people, including the PM, were on holiday. “There was indeed a massive crisis,” he said.

Cummings: Shutting borders wouldn’t have worked without scaled-up test and trace system

Tuesday 31 October 2023 15:07 , Matt Mathers

Dominic Cummings agreed that without a scaled-up test and trace system, shutting the borders would not have sufficed in combating the spread of coronavirus.

But he said: “It’s half of the nub of the issue, but the other half of the nub is that if you regard the whole thing in a fatalistic way anyway – which DH (the Department of Health), the Cabinet Office and Sage did at the beginning – and you think that there is no effective alternative to herd immunity.

“If you say that, at an overall conceptual level, there’s either A: shape a curve towards herd immunity, or B: try to build your way out of the problem, the entire system in January, February, early March thought that the only plausible approach to this was to shape the curve of herd immunity.

“No one thought it was really practical to build our way out of the problem.

“The fundamental U-turn that we shifted to, was to try and build our way out of it instead of fatalistically accepting it.”

Cummings: Government assumed lockdown was ‘not possible in a western country’

Tuesday 31 October 2023 14:55 , Matt Mathers

The government was working on the assumption that lockdown was “not possible in a Western country” as Covid struck, Dominic Cummings has revealed, Archie Mitchell reports.

Responding to questioning about the government’s preparedness for a second wave, having mitigated an initial wave with lockdown measures, Mr Cummings said: “There was an assumption across government, across the Cabinet Office, Department of Health and Sage that lockdown was impossible in a Western country.”

Dominic Cummings backed supermodel Caprice’s calls for border controls

Tuesday 31 October 2023 14:52 , Matt Mathers

Dominic Cummings has lashed out at how the supermodel Caprice Bourret was criticised for calling for Britain’s borders to be closed when Covid struck, Archie Mitchell reports.

“A lot of people, and public health experts mocked her as if she was an idiot,” Mr Cummings told the Covid inquiry.

He was referring to Caprice clashing with medical expert Dr Sarah Jarvis on TV during the pandemic over whether Britain should shut its borders to control the pandemic.

“At that time there was a reaction to a lot of people that closing the borders is racist,” Mr Cummings added.

Cummings: ‘There were effectively no plans for vulnerable people’

Tuesday 31 October 2023 14:34 , Matt Mathers

Dominic Cummings has said there were effectively “no plans, and no plan to get a plan” for vulnerable people during Covid, Archie Mitchell reports.

The former Downing Street chief of staff said the entire question of vulnerable people “was almost entirely appallingly neglected” throughout the pandemic.

And he described the realisation on March 19, 2020, that there was no plan for those who needed to shield from the disease.

Cummings: Sage agreed with herd immunity

Tuesday 31 October 2023 14:26 , Matt Mathers

Cummings claims Sage scientists “collectively” agreed with the government’s original plan to pursue herd immunity from Covid by September 2020, Archie Mitchell reports.

“Many people from Sage actually gave interviews that week articulating that plan A strategy,” Mr Cummings told the Covid inquiry.

Cummings: I wanted Michael Gove rather than PM to deal with devolved administrations

Tuesday 31 October 2023 14:23 , Matt Mathers

Cummings tells the inquiry he wanted then chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Michael Gove rather than Boris Johnson to deal with the devolved administrations (DAs) in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Setting out why he did not want Mr Johnson in Cobra-style briefings, Mr Cummings said: “If you are having meetings to actually figure out the truth then meetings like that have to be conducted in a very different way.

“They can’t be one of these things with 50 people on a video conference with the DAs.”

Who is Tom Shinner?

Tuesday 31 October 2023 14:18 , Matt Mathers

Cummings tells the inquiry No 10 Downing Street was not properly equipped to deal with a crisis on the scale of Covid.

After complaining about not having the right staff, Cumming is asked why it was necessary for “your colleagues, your friends” to be brought into government during the crisis.

He said “part of the whole point” of bringing Tom Shinner into government was that “I knew that he had been involved in the Cabinet Office” during Brexit no deal preparations.

Mr Shinner was director of policy and delivery coordination at the Department for Exiting the European Union.

His directorate led DExEU’s work to coordinate the domestic policy implications of exit, across government departments, to seize the opportunities and ensure a smooth process of exit.

Cummings: No10 was not configured to be nerve centre of a crisis

Tuesday 31 October 2023 14:07 , Matt Mathers

No10 Downing Street was “not configured to be the nerve centre of a national crisis like Covid”, Dominic Cummings has told the Covid inquiry, Archie Mitchell reports.

The former chief of staff to Boris Johnson said Downing Street is not fit for the task physically, in terms of the personnel and having the right level of power.

“So at the time it was just completely unsuitable for this, that’s why I tried to change it,” Mr Cummings said.

Cummings: Johnson preferred to be in his study over Cobra meetings

Tuesday 31 October 2023 14:05 , Matt Mathers

Cummings tells the inquiryJohnson “preferred to be in his study” over attending emergency Cobra meetings on Covid.

The then-prime minister “wasn’t enormously keen” on Cobra, his former chief adviser added.

Asked by inquiry lead counsel Hugo Keith KC whether Mr Johnson was averse to attending the meeting because of its physical location, Mr Cummings said: “It’s hard to say. I mean, he certainly preferred to be in his study and he didn’t like going to Cobra.”

Cummings: ‘Multiple reasons’ Cobra didn’t work well during pandemic

Tuesday 31 October 2023 13:56 , Matt Mathers

The evidence session has resumed and Mr Keith is now asking Cummings about the role of government Cobra meetings during the pandemic.

Cummings tells the inquiry the emergency committee did not work well during the crisis for “multiple reasons”.

He says one reason is that the data going into Cobra meeting is “strictly controlled” for national security concerns. Cummings adds the committee was used to dealing with “relatively small things” - like “floods” and “terror attacks” with just a few people involved - rather than national crises.

Daughter who lost her father to Covid-19 hopes and prays lessons are learned

Tuesday 31 October 2023 13:46 , Lydia Patrick

Deborah Lewis the founder of bereaved Covid19 Families UK expressed her concerns live on Sky News, she says she is still unable to get closure from losing her father.

She said: “More should have been done sooner, maybe more of our relatives would have survived.

“The bereaved, we all know we cannot bring our loved ones back but what we can do is hope and pray that lessons are learned so people in the future don’t have to go through the devastation and heartache that we’ve been through

“We are still in tears, heartbroken, and unable to move on because of the government’s actions.”

Grieving daughter says she ‘feels like she’s been punched in the stomach’ after reading Johnson’s comments

Tuesday 31 October 2023 13:40 , Lydia Patrick

Brenda Doherty, whose mother died aged 82 in March 2020 after contracting Covid-19 in hospital, said reading comments made by Boris Johnson about older people in the pandemic was like being “punched in the stomach”.

Speaking as part of the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK campaign group, she accused the former prime minister of having had a “callous and brutal attitude”.

She said: “I feel like I’ve been punched in the stomach after reading Boris Johnson’s messages this morning.

“They are psychotic.”

She added: “He clearly didn’t see people like my mum as human beings, and thousands others died unnecessarily after the same mistakes were repeated because of Johnson’s callous and brutal attitude.

“I’d do anything to spend another day with my mum, and now we know that we might have had years and years together if only the country had a more humane prime minister when the pandemic struck.”

Government made ‘huge blunder’ on Rashford meals campaign, inquiry hears

Tuesday 31 October 2023 13:35 , Lydia Patrick

The Government made a “huge blunder” around the Marcus Rashford free school meals campaign, a former key adviser to Boris Johnson said, as he lamented the lack of diversity among policymakers.

The then-prime minister was told “hungry children” were not the place to start when considering restraint on public finances in the pandemic, former No 10 director of communications Lee Cain said.

Mr Cain said there had been a clear lack of diversity in the prime minister’s top team when it came to informing policy and decision-making.

In a written statement to the UK Covid-19 Inquiry, Mr Cain said: “I remember asking in the Cabinet Room of 20 people, how many people had received free school meals. Nobody had – resulting in a policy and political blind spot. This was a huge blunder.

“The PM (to some degree understandably) said we needed to draw a line in the sand on public spending commitments, but this was clearly not the place to draw that line – something the PM was told by his senior team.”

Giving evidence on Tuesday, Mr Cain said: “It’s quite clear that there were challenges of gender diversity, socio-economic diversity and ethnic minority diversity at the very top of the PM’s top team.”

Watch - Cummings said ‘pretty much everyone’ called Boris Johnson ‘the trolley’ during pandemic

Tuesday 31 October 2023 13:30 , Lydia Patrick

Cummings: ‘Cabinet Office was a bomb site and dumpster fire’

Tuesday 31 October 2023 13:20 , Lydia Patrick

Dominic Cummings described the Cabinet Office as a “bomb site” and a “dumpster fire” when he took up his role as adviser to Boris Johnson, in his evidence to the UK Covid-19 Inquiry.

Dominic Cummings said an “overall dysfunctional system” was in place during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Tuesday 31 October 2023 13:13 , Lydia Patrick

Asked if there was any part of the Government machine in which he “did not find fault”, Mr Cummings replied: “In the summer of 2020 I spent a lot of time talking to special forces and I found that they were exceptional.”

After Mr Keith told him to focus on the structure in place that was dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic, Mr Cummings said: “I would say, overall, it’s widespread failure but pockets of excellent people and pockets of excellent teams doing excellent work within an overall dysfunctional system.”

Cummings: ‘Pretty much everyone called Boris Johnson the trolley'

Tuesday 31 October 2023 13:05 , Matt Mathers

Dominic Cummings has said “pretty much everyone” called Boris Johnson the trolley during the pandemic, Archie Mitchell reports.

The ex-PM’s then chief of staff was asked at the Covid inquiry about how he, the cabinet secretary, his director of communications and others used the term “about his propensity to change direction”.

Mr Cummings replied: “Pretty much everyone called him the trolley.”

Cummings: Dysfunctional government had pockets of excellent people

Tuesday 31 October 2023 13:02 , Matt Mathers

Dominic Cummings said there were “pockets of excellent people and pockets of excellent teams doing excellent work” in government during the pandemic, Archie Mitchell reports.

But the former Downing Street chief of staff said these were embedded in “an overall dysfunctional system”.

Cumming: Cabinet Office filled with the wrong people

Tuesday 31 October 2023 12:59 , Matt Mathers

Cummings tells inquiry there were “a lot of the wrong people in the wrong job” in the Cabinet Office as he described a culture of “constantly classifying everything to hide mistakes”.

“The Cabinet Office over a long period of time has accumulated more and more power, formal and informal,” he said.

“It’s become incredibly bloated. It’s acquired huge numbers of people, huge numbers of teams. And particularly on the whole, the sort of deep state, national security side, crisis management, has become in all sorts of ways extremely opaque and effectively completely invisible to any political figure, including the prime minister.

“So it was extremely difficult to know in Number 10 who exactly in the Cabinet Office was doing what, whose responsibility it was, who were we supposed to talk to to get action and that was critical, particularly in the first couple of months (of the pandemic).”

Cummings: ‘We’re wasting time in crap meetings’

Tuesday 31 October 2023 12:56 , Matt Mathers

Dominic Cummings sent an email to No10 staff in May 2020 saying Boris Johnson was “wasting far too much time in crap meetings”, Archie Mitchell reports.

“We are not using the PM’s time well.” Mr Johnson’s former chief of staff said in the early months of the pandemic.

In the email, shown to the Covid inquiry, Mr Cummings called for any Covid briefings to be cleared by him or another official, Tom Shinner, among a slew of other changes.

“Without radical changes further disasters are guaranteed,” Mr Cummings added.

Watch: Cummings uses ‘revolting’ language to describe Cabinet ministers during Covid

Tuesday 31 October 2023 12:49 , Matt Mathers

Cummings: 'Crackers’ I was appointed to No10

Tuesday 31 October 2023 12:47 , Matt Mathers

Dominic Cummings has said it is “crackers” he was made the chief of staff in No10 under Boris Johnson, Archie Mitchell reports.

Asked at the official Covid inquiry whether this is a view he still holds, Mr Cummings said: “For sure.”

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