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27th May 2021

BBC cut away from Cummings just as he confirmed he was a Kuenssberg source

Charlie Herbert

He said he spoke to Kuenssberg once every three or four weeks.

The BBC spoke over Dominic Cummings at the very moment that he revealed that the only media person he had spoken to in recent months was the broadcaster’s political editor Laura Kuenssberg.

In one of a number of eye-catching moments from his appearance before a cross-party committee on Wednesday, the former aide to the Prime Minister revealed that he “essentially stopped talking to almost all journalists almost all the time.” However he went on to say that this was with on exception.

He told the committee: “The main person I really spoke to in the whole of 2020 was Laura Kuenssberg at the BBC, because the BBC has a special position in the country during a crisis.”

But at this very moment, the BBC decided to do a voiceover explaining that they were ending their coverage on BBC Two, muting Cummings as a result.

Cummings went on to tell the committee that he spoke to Kuenssberg once every three or four weeks and used one example from March 2020, when pictures of tanks near London were circulated, sparking rumours that the capital was about to go into lockdown. He said he told Kuenssberg it was not going to happen, which meant the BBC did not report it as a story.

The BBC did tweet out this clip though, stopping the conspiracy theorists in their tracks.