DOMINIC Cummings is set to reveal explosive claims about the Government’s handling of the pandemic in an inquiry this morning.
The former adviser to the Prime Minister has threatened to spill the beans on several conversations and panicked plan making as Covid took hold of the UK.
Read our coronavirus live blog for the latest updates
What is happening this morning?
Mr Cummings is giving evidence to the Commons Health and Social Care and Science and Technology Committees.
It comes after vocal condemnation of Boris Johnson, Health Secretary Matt Hancock, and others since leaving Government after a behind-the-scenes power struggle in November.
Mr Cummings has also hit out at various parts of the Government’s response, despite being employed by No 10 for a large part of the pandemic.
He will be grilled by the committee over his claims, in a session set to last between four and six hours.
What to look out for?
He has made around eight serious claims that are certain to come up in this morning’s grilling.
Here we have outlined what key points to look out for while viewing the bombshell inquiry.
Did the lockdown come soon enough?
Mr Cummings claims on March 14 last year one of the things being “screamed at” Mr Johnson was that there was “no plan for lockdown” – and “our current official plan will kill at least 250k and destroy the NHS”.
Was herd immunity Government policy?
Government ministers have insisted herd immunity was not a tactic at the outset of the pandemic.
But Mr Cummings claimed the official preparation plan had outlined that the initial strategy was to have one peak of the disease, before reaching herd immunity by September.
Has the Government been transparent enough?
The PM’s former top aide has claimed “secrecy contributed greatly to the catastrophe” in February and March last year.
He added: “I can think of no significant element of Covid response that wd not have been improved by discarding secrecy and opening up.”
Was the Government prepared for a pandemic?
He said the plan to tackle coronavirus “was supposed to be ‘world class’, but turned out to be part disaster, part non-existent”.
What can be learned from the public inquiry?
Mr Cummings backs the idea of a public inquiry but also said he thinks it won’t get answers.
He said: “If SW1 wanted to ‘learn’ there wd already be a serious exercise under way. The point of the inquiry is the opposite of learning, it is to delay scrutiny, preserve the broken system & distract public from real Qs, leaving the parties & senior civil service essentially untouched.”
Did the Government close the borders soon enough?
The former adviser has described the early policy at airports as a “joke”.
Did the Prime Minister miss key Covid meetings to write a book about Shakespeare?
Mr Johnson did not chair the first five meetings of the Cobra emergency committee relating to coronavirus in January and February 2020.
A Sunday Times report suggested officials fear Mr Cummings will accuse Mr Johnson of missing them as he was working on a biography of Shakespeare – to get money to fund his divorce from Marina Wheeler, his second wife.
How about Mr Cummings’ own involvement?
Since leaving Government in November after a behind-the-scenes power struggle Mr Cummings has become one of the harshest critics of Mr Johnson’s administration.
But questions have also been posed as to why, as the PM’s most powerful adviser who spoke with Mr Johnson’s authority, he did not do more.
