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Boris Johnson’s team is prepared for accusations from his former aide Dominic Cummings that the prime minister could have averted thousands of deaths in the winter wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Cummings is preparing a test dossier criticizing his former boss for the government’s slow response to the second wave of the disease, it was reported Sunday.
Assistants are anxious because Cummings, as one of the most advanced figures in No. 10, had access to private conversations, emails, and presentations. In November, as the government was pressured to introduce a second blockade, Johnson and Chancellor Rishi Sunak were eager to resist the move unless it was inevitable.
An ally told Cummings “he was pressuring the prime minister to blockade earlier in the autumn and he has a lot of evidence to show that his decision to delay had devastating consequences.” Sunday Times.
He will have a public forum to present his case against Johnson next month when he will have to appear before a joint investigation by the health and science selection committees on the pandemic.
A friend of Cummings predicted the fireworks and told the Financial Times, “He never pretends to score. He always shoots at the target. . . and that matters a lot to him. “
Although Britain is sunbathing in one of the most successful vaccine launch programs in the world, its pandemic mortality rate does not compare favorably with other countries. The official death toll from contracting Covid-19 during the pandemic has risen from 127,000.
Cummings he dropped a bomb to Johnson on Friday evening when he accused him of falling “far below the standards of competition and integrity the country deserves.”
Among the former aide’s complaints was a statement that Johnson had wanted Conservative donors to secretly pay for the renovation of his apartment at 11 Downing Street.
On Friday, the government announced that the prime minister had paid himself about £ 60,000 after abandoning a plan to get the sum paid for by a donor.
Liz Truss, secretary of international trade, told the BBC Andrew Marr Show on Sunday the costs had been “covered by the Prime Minister”. But when asked if a donor had initially lent the money to Johnson, she said she “was not involved in the details of the apartment renovations.”
The Labor Party is seeking to force a senior minister to come to Parliament this week to respond to allegations about funding the reform. Rachel Reeves, cabinet office minister, wrote to Johnson asking for a full investigation into the money spent on the apartment.
Cummings also claimed that Henry Newman, a friend of Johnson’s partner, Carrie Symonds, was the source of leaks last year about the timing of the second national shutdown. He wrote that Simon Case, cabinet secretary, had told him that “all the evidence definitely leads to Henry Newman,” and added that Johnson had then asked if it would be possible to stop the investigation to avoid a row with his promise.
Despite this FT revealed on Friday that MI5, introduced by Case to conduct the investigation, believed the leaker was in fact Cummings.
The case will be asked about the complaints on Monday when the deputies of the selective committee of public administration and constitutional matters question it.
Labor, who are about 10 points behind the Conservative party at the polls, are trying to take advantage of a storm of nasty allegations ahead of the May 6 local elections.
On Friday Lord Eddie Lister, Johnson’s senior adviser, resigned after it was revealed he had stayed on the payroll of two real estate developers while working on Downing Street.
Sir Keir Starmer, the Labor leader, has called for a full investigation into the government’s “mockery”.
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