Dominic Cummings set to give explosive evidence at Covid Inquiry - live updates

Rishi Sunak blocked plans to support low-paid workers who had to isolate

Rishi Sunak blocked plans to give workers financial support if they needed to isolate despite warnings it was necessary to stop Covid spreading. As Chancellor during the pandemic, he ignored pleas from Government advisers for a scheme to allow people on low incomes to take time off.

The Covid Inquiry heard today that ministers were told they should provide cash to make it financially viable for the low paid to isolate if they’d come into contact with people who tested positive.

But in his diary, Chief Scientific Adviser Sir Patrick Vallance revealed that Mr Sunak rejected the idea. In an entry in September 2020, he wrote: “CX (Chancellor) blocking all notion of paying to get people to isolate despite all the evidence that this will be needed.”

It came to light as Boris Johnson’s former director of communications warned that Mr Sunak’s Eat Out to Help Out scheme "made absolutely no sense whatsoever". Lee Cain criticised the half price meals plan that saw people given a generous discount if they ate out at restaurants on weekdays during August 2020. He told the Covid Inquiry that he asked the question: “What are we signalling to the public?”

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10 key things we've learned from today's hearing

Dominic Cummings concluded his evidence at the UK Covid-19 Inquiry by saying: "I apologise again for my terrible language."

Here are 10 things we learned on a massive day at the inquiry:

• Boris Johnson did not think Covid was a “big deal” at the beginning of March 2020 as he thought it would “be like swine flu”.
• Cabinet Secretary Mark Sedwill suggested the PM should go on TV and encourage people to have “chickenpox parties” to spread coronavirus.
• The first nationwide lockdown could have been avoided if the Government acted when the first reports of Covid emerged from China, according to Dominic Cummings.
• There was a 10 day delay between the Government agreeing to impose the first nationwide lockdown and it actually beginning.
• Mr Johnson believed the coronavirus pandemic was "Nature's way of dealing with old people", according to the diaries of a top Government scientist.
• Matt Hancock “kill[ed] God knows how many” people by failing to introduce testing in care homes, Mr Cummings warned Mr Johnson in a WhatsApp message.
• Rishi Sunak as Chancellor ignored advice from Government scientists that low paid workers should be given financial support to allow them to isolate.
• In WhatsApp messages, Mr Cummings said he wanted to "personally handcuff" Deputy Cabinet Secretary Helen MacNamara and escort her out of No10 so he no longer had to dodge “stilettos from that c**t".
• Mr Cummings blocked Boris Johnson on WhatsApp after he complained that No10 had descended into a "totally disgusting orgy of narcissism".
• Mr Johnson branded Mr Cummings a “total and utter liar” as he accused him of misleading him over his lockdown-busting trip to Durham.

Treasury blocked support for low-paid workers forced to isolate

The Treasury - while Rishi Sunak was in charge - resisted compensation for low-income workers who were forced to isolate.

Rishi Sunak must suspend Dominic Raab during bullying inquiry says union chief

Mr Cummings, in evidence, wrote: "A lot of people had a happy time in spring-summer 2020 staying at home with family working via June. Lots of poorer people had to go to work or lose money. There was resistance to thinking about how to compensate people for staying at home when they were told they had to."

In September 2020, chief scientific advisor Sir Patrick Vallance said the Chancellor (Mr Sunak) was "blocking all notion of paying to get people to isolate despite all the evidence that this will be needed.”

Mr Cummings said: "I can't remember what the Chancellor's personal view of it was." He claimed that officials in the Treasury had resisted providing support.

No10 handling of Barnard Castle debacle was 'absolute car crash' says Cummings

Mr Cummings said Downing Street's handling of the fallout from his trip to Barnard Castle was an "absolute car crash" and "did cause a lot of people pain".

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 said he backed Boris Johnson even though he was 'unfit' for power

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."

'Cummings is a total and utter liar' Boris Johnson said in WhatsApp message

Yikes. A message sent by Boris Johnson in July 2020 lifts the lid over the PM's thoughts about the Barnard Castle affair.

You'll remember that Mr Cummings drove up to Durham with his family rather than isolating in London - a trip that was exposed by The Mirror. While there he was seen visiting picturesque landmark Barnard Castle.

Mr Johnson wrote to aide Jack Doyle: "Cummings is 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."

And the message continued: "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."

Furious WhatsApp from Boris Johnson accused Cummings of 'demented orgy of narcissism'

Boris Johnson accused Mr Cummings of launching a "demented orgy of narcissism" in a bitter spat after he quit.

Mr Cummings walked out after relations between the two deteriorated. A number of stories had appeared in the press claiming that Mr Johnson's partner Carrie was pulling the strings in Downing Street.

In a WhatsApp in November 2020, the PM wrote: "You speak of briefings from team Carrie. She hasn't briefed anyone and my instructions to all were to shut the f*** up." Mr Johnson pointed out that "allies of Lee (Cain) and Dom" had claimed Ms Symonds was secretly forging lockdown.

It continued: "Are you responsible for all that c***? No? Then look at it from my point of view. This is a totally demented orgy of narcissism by a government that should be solving a national crisis. We must end this."

Mr Cummings then blocked the PM.

'I was much ruder about men than I was about women'

Mr Cummings denied being misogynistic following the message about Helen MacNamara.

He told the inquiry: "The message was not misogynistic. I was much ruder about men than I was about women."

Mr Cummings denied he ever acted with "offence and misogyny" in Downing Street. He was asked by Hugo Keith KC: "Did you treat individuals in Downing Street with offence and misogyny?"

He replied: "Certainly not."

Dominic Cummings called for female official to be 'handcuffed and escorted out'

Chilling messages reveal Dominic Cummings sent abusive demands to Boris Johnson calling for a senior Cabinet Office official to be "handcuffed" and escorted out.

Helen MacNamara, who was Deputy Cabinet Secretary, was branded a "c***" by the No10 aide in a horrific WhatsApp to the PM. The message was branded "misogynistic" - which Mr Cummings denied.

He wrote: "If I have to come back to Helen's bulls*** 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***".

In another message, shown at the inquiry, Dominic Cummings said: "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."

WhatsApp plea for Boris Johnson to sack Hancock saying 'his uselessness is still killing' people

Dominic Cummings pleaded with Boris Johnson to sack Matt Hancock, saying he was "unfit for the job" and saying he had "killed people".

In chilling WhatsApps in May 2020, the advisor wrote to the PM: "Hancock is unfit for this job. The incompetence, the constant lies, the obsession with media bulls*** over doing his job.

"Still no f****** seirious testing in care homes his uselessness is still killing god knows how many."

In a follow up message he said: "You need to think through timing of binning Hancock. There's no way this guy can stay. He's lied his way through this and killed people and dozens and dozens of people have seen it."

(Getty Images)

Hospitalisation convinced Boris Johnson it was right to change course

Boris Johnson's serious illness made him glad he had eventually changed course on how to tackle the virus, the inquiry heard.

Mr Cummings said the PM had continually dithered over whether to bring in a lockdown. But following his hospitalisation he told his aide: "This thing is no joke. Thank God we changed course, it would have been a catastrophe."

(PA)

Rishi Sunak 'warned bond markets would puke if UK went into lockdown'

Rishi Sunak warned Boris Johnsn the financial markets would "puke" if the UK was put in lockdown, Mr Cummings said.

The former No10 advisor said that by March 19 it was clear that herd immunity had been ditched and that a lockdown was inevitable - but Mr Johnson kept flip-flopping.

"He had the Chancellor (Mr Sunak) come in and say the bond market would puke and we'd have a 2008 style financial crash," Mr Cummings said.

Asked if lockdown could have been brought in sooner - potentially saving more lives - Mr Cummings said: "For sure."

Matt Hancock 'sowed chaos' by spreading misinformation says Cummings

Matt Hancock "sowed chaos" my making incorrect statements about Covid, the inquiry heard.

Dominic Cummings said the then-Health Secretary repeatedly claimed that it was "unlikely" a person had Covid without a dry cough or a temperature.

By that stage, he said, it was clear that it could be transmitted without any symptoms. "It was Mr Hancock who made this point in multiple ways and sewed chaos," Mr Cummings said. "He was repeatedly told by (chief scientific advisor) Patrick Vallance that what he was saying was wrong."

Mr Cummings said: "I never understood why Hancock said this. Patrick Vallance made it extremely clear to me and other people that what Matt Hancock was saying is fundamentally wrong."

(Getty Images)

Cummings realises he's about to get caught in 'historic catastrophe'

In early March Mr Cummings said he felt he was about to get caught in a "historic catastrophe" like July 1914.

He said: "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 9th (March, 2020) in No10."

Matt Hancock branded 'know nothing' in dismissive WhatsApp to PM

Dominic Cummings described former health secretary Matt Hancock as a "know nothing on comms" just before Covid-19 hit the UK, the inquiry heard.

In a message to Boris Johnson on February 28 2020, Mr Cummings said: "Hancock is a know nothing on comms and he's totally failed viz the corona comms team such that I am having to convene meetings to sort s*** out this afternoon."

Cummings 'tried to push Boris Johnson over handshaking'

Mr Cummings has spoken about his frustration with Boris Johnson shaking hands as Covid swept through the UK.

Having said the PM dismissed the virus as "another swine flu", the No10 aide said: "I tried to push him on handshaking and it completely boomeranged, we had to be very careful with how we handled this nightmare problem."

Boris Johnson vanished on holiday for crucial 10 day gap

Asked about a 10 day gap when nothing appeared to have been done, Mr Cummings said it was "insane" that many senior figures were on holiday.

The former No10 aide, speaking about the period between February 14 to 24 - which coincided with half term - said: "I didn't go on holiday but many senior people were on holiday including the Prime Minister."

Mr Johnson vanished off to the grace-and-favour Chevening House in Kent. "I thought he'd have said to everybody this is another swine flu, this is another media hoax... I thought if he said that to Cobra it would be counter-productive rather than helpful."

'They weren't ringing alarm bells, they were going skiing'

Dominic Cummings was told on February 6 that Covid was "out of control" but it still failed to set off alarm bells.

The former No10 advisor told the inquiry he had raised the matter with Boris Johnson but was surprised by the lack of urgency. Describing officials in the Department of Health and the Cabinet Office he said: "They weren't banging alarm bells, they were going skiing."

'We thought horror email about lack of planning was a spoof'

Dominic Cummings said a "shocking" email revealed that crucial emergency plans which No10 was relying on weren't in place.

He said that the message, received on March 16, 2020, was initially thought to be a "spoof". He told the inquiry: "It says essentially, the Civil Contingencies secretary says that these plans are not even held centrally at all. So it turned out to our horror that the system that we've been told repeatedly in No10... it then turned out that this supposedly brilliant system and disorder producer had not even seen these documents at that time because they were not held centrally. When that email was circulated people thought it was almost like a spoof."

'Fatalistic' officials thought herd immunity was only way out

"Fatalistic" officials thought achieving herd immunity was the only way out of the Covid crisis, Mr Cummings said.

He told the inquiry: "The entire system in January February, early March, the only plausible approach to this was to to shape the curve of hay herd immunity. No one thought it was really practical to build out."

Mr Cummings said it wasn't until mid March that a test and trace system was considered. He said: "The whole point of the problem. up to the week of the 9th was that the whole system fatalistically thought there was no way you could possibly do a lockdown in Britain.

"This was thought of as a completely crazy idea. So of course, people were not thinking, well let's do lockdown and then build test, and trace."

Vulnerable were 'appallingly neglected' with no plan for shielding

People at highest risk of Covid were "appallingly neglected" in the early days of the crisis, Dominic Cummings claimed.

He told the inquiry that the Cabinet Office prevented a shielding system being created. Mr Cummings said: "There was effectively no plan or any plan to get a plan."

Mr Cummings continued: "One of the most appalling things was on 19 March when we realised there was no shielding plan and the Cabinet Office was trying to prevent us creating a shielding plan."

(UK Covid-19 Inquiry Live Stream)

Cabinet Office 'blocked scientific advice being made public' says Cummings

Mr Cummings said he wanted scientific advice given to the Government to be made public - but the Cabinet Office blocked it.

The former No10 advisor said he'd called for it to happen in the build-up to the first lockdown to allow for greater scrutiny. But he lashed out at a "culture of secrecy".

He said: "I also had a very strong view that the sage minutes and other documentation should be made public in February for scrutiny.

"And actually Patrick (chief scientific advisor Sir Patrick Vallance) was very good about that and Patrick completely agreed. Unfortunately, again, the culture of secrecy of the Cabinet Office, blocked off, not just February March but actually kept blocking it for I can't remember how long."

Matt Hancock 'wasn't clear and asking for what he needed'

Dominic Cummings is struggling to keep his loathing for Matt Hancock under the surface.

We're told he will be discussing this further, but he manages to land a dig when asked about what wasn't working. He said: "I'm afraid that the Secretary of State for Health kept telling us around the Cabinet table, as the Cabinet Secretary (Simon Case) himself said Hancock is not being clear and asking us for the help he needs. And that's contributed to the problem."

(Channel 4)

Cummings backs up claim Boris Johnson preferred being in study to going to COBRA

We're back underway with Dominic Cummings giving evidence.

And he claims that Boris Johnson wasn't keen on going to COBRA meetings because he preferred to be in his study. Mr Cummings said: "He certainly prefered being in his study, he didn't like going to COBRA."

Readers will remember that another senior figure said the same thing. On Monday The Mirror reported Helen MacNamara, who was Deputy Cabinet Secretary, will reveal how the former PM “never warmed” to the emergency response committee gathering as he did not feel they were his “territory”. Mr Johnson skipped five Cobra meetings at the beginning of 2020 as the Government failed to adequately prepare for the pandemic.

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Boris Johnson's 'psychotic' messages feel like a punch to the stomach says bereaved daughter

A campaigner whose mum died from Covid says she feels like she's been "punched in the stomach" after seeing Boris Johnson's "psychotic" messages.

Brenda Doherty, a member of Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK, said: “I feel like I’ve been punched in the stomach after reading Boris Johnson’s messages this morning. They are psychotic. During the first and second waves of the pandemic the UK had one of the highest death tolls per person in the world from Covid-19 and it’s clear just how personally responsible for that he was.

"While Covid-19 was ripping through the country and I was doing everything I could to protect my mum, he was unable to take decisions, and left the country at the mercy of the virus he was supposed to be protecting it from.

"By the time the second wave came around and thousands, like my mum had died, he was saying that if you caught Covid you would “live longer”, that he didn’t buy “all this NHS overwhelmed stuff” and agreeing that “we should let the old people get it”.

"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.”

Revelations show Tories are 'totally unfit to govern' says Sir Ed Davey

Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey has said today's revelations reveal the Tories to be "totally unfit" to govern.

He said: "This inquiry is painting a clear picture of a Conservative Party totally unfit to govern our country.

"Every shocking revelation is another devastating blow to the families who lost loved ones to Covid. It is hard to hear how badly Conservative Ministers failed them, our NHS and our country.

"The British people deserve the chance to hold the Conservatives to account at a General Election, and kick them out of power for good."

'I no longer buy this NHS overwhelmed stuff', Johnson said

There''s been a lot going on today. It's worth taking a look at a message Boris Johnson sent to former communications director Lee Cain, that was discussed earlier.

Mr Johnson wrote: "I must say I have been slightly rocked by some of the data on covid fatalities. The median age is 82 - 81 for men 85 for women.

"That is above life expectancy. So get Covid and live longer. Hardly anyone under 60 goes into hosptial (4 per cent) and virtually all those survive.

"And I no longer buy all this nhs overwhelmed stuff. Folks I think we might need to recalibrate."

The message was sent in October 2020 - before the vaccine rollout.

Pretty much everyone called Boris Johnson 'the trolley' says Cummings

Boris Johnson's tendancy to change his mind meant that he was referred to as a "trolley", Mr Cummings said.

The inquiry has heard multiple witnesses voicing frustration about the former PM's decision making.

Mr Cummings said: "Pretty much everybody called him the trolley."

'Cabinet Office was a dumpster fire and poor briefings caused chaos'

Dominic Cummings banned the Cabinet Office and the Treasury from sending documents about Covid directly to the PM.

He branded the Cabinet Office as a "dumpster fire" and said poor quality documents were causing "chaos" in meetings.

Mr Cummings told the inquiry: "The Cabinet Office was a bomb site and we had a huge problems of quality control with documents going into meetings." He continued: "Many officials came to me and saying it was causing chaos because the Cabinet Office was a dumpster fire."

'Wrong people' were in top jobs, says Cummings

Dominic Cummings said the "wrong people" were in many of the top jobs.

He told the inquiry that he tried to convince Boris Johnson to reshuffle the Cabinet in January 2020, and again the following month.