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Dominic Cummings calls PM a ‘joke’ over Coronavirus handling

Published 16:08 12 Oct 2021 BST

Updated 16:09 12 Oct 2021 BST

Ava Evans

Dominic Cummings calls PM a ‘joke’ over Coronavirus handling

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Cummings put the boot into his old boss

It’s been a minute since Dominic Cummings made headlines. But the Prime Minister's former adviser couldn't help himself on Tuesday when the perfect opportunity arose to put the boot into Boris - yet again. Responding to a report by a group of cross-party MPs calling the government's early response to Covid as one of the worst public health failures in UK history, Cummings said: "The government system for dealing with crises is a disaster." He continued: “The system was bad for many years before Covid. Me and others put in place work to try to improve the system in 2020 after the first wave “Unfortunately the prime minister, being the joke that he is, did not push that work through. “Now we have a joke prime minister and a joke leader of the Labour party, and we obviously need a new political system.” The damning report blamed a weak border policy, poor judgement in discharging covid-positive patients back into the community, and a terrible track-and-trace system for the devastating number of covid-related deaths. To date, almost 138,000 people have died in the UK. Former Health Secretary, Matt Hancock, was offered some respite: the report described his April 2020 target to have 100,000 Covid tests a day as “an appropriate one to galvanise the rapid change the system needed". Cummings, who previously said Hancock’s target was "stupid", rejected the idea that he “galvanised" the system. “There was a target before Hancock blurted it out on TV...The way he announced it caused a lot of problems," he said. Related Links Minister refused to apologise after Covid report reveals catalogue of government failures All the times Boris Johnson holidayed during a national crisis MP who said £82K salary was 'really grim' voted to slash welfare 49 times Cummings became a household name in May 2020 when he drove 264 miles to Durham with suspected Covid, and then a further 25 miles to Barnard Castle to “test his eyesight”. The road trip was particularly egregious, as Cummings was advising the government to use emergency powers to lockdown the entire country, denying people the right to even attend the funeral of loved ones. In May, Cummings hit the small screen during his appearance before the Health, Science and Technology Select Committees where he outlined Johnson’s total indifference to the Covid death toll and said then-Health Secretary, Hancock “should have been fired for at least 15 to 20 things”. Cummings, like many MPs questioned Tuesday, offered no apology for the report's findings. Welsh health minister, Eluned Morgan, has been the only minister to apologise, saying: "I think we have a duty to say sorry to people where we've made mistakes." Health Secretary Sajid Javid has been busy (all day) receiving a flu jab. Johnson is on holiday in Marbella. Cabinet Secretary Steven Barclay, has not read the report.

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