Have I Got News For You: Viewers praise Ian Hislop for ‘absolutely ripping into’ Dominic Cummings

Presenter said advisor’s press conference was ‘utter twoddle’

Ian Hislop delighted viewers with his takedown of Dominic Cummings on Friday night’s (29 May) episode of Have I Got News For You.

The latest instalment of the comedy quiz show included a monologue from Hislop about Boris Johnson’s chief advisor and his rather loose interpretation of lockdown rules.

Speaking about Cummings’s bizarre press conference on the controversy, Hislop said: “He gave an hour and a half of utter twoddle. It’s absolutely clear he did break regulations. He found one tiny clause which he said made an exception, but that didn’t cover the journey to Barnard Castle, it was nonsense, absolute nonsense.

He continued: “People were cross because they think he’s taking us for idiots. The eye test thing is marvellous, the idea you’re not sure whether you can drive back to London, so in order to check your eyesight you put your four year old in the back of the car and drive around to see if you knock over any pedestrians or smack into a bollard, and that way you know your eyes aren’t there.

“His greatest irritation is, he said at the beginning, ‘The press are giving misinformation about my whereabouts.’ That’s his job. He got his wife to write pieces in The Spectator suggesting he was in London, which he wasn’t.

“So he’s very, very cross. This man has become the centre of the story. I cannot understand why he hasn’t resigned.”

Many fans of the show took to Twitter to praise Hislop’s “roasting” of Cummings.

“Enjoying Ian Hislop absolutely lacerating Dominic Cummings on HIGNFY,” tweeted Piers Morgan. “There, I’ve said it.”

Kathy Burke added: “Prime Minister Dominic Cummings was brilliantly roasted on HIGNFY tonight. Ian Hislop was pitch perfect.”

More than 1 million people have signed a petition calling for Cummings to be sacked over allegedly breaching the lockdown rules.

Despite Downing Street’s attempts to shift focus away from the row, hundreds of thousands of people added their names to the petition demanding that the prime minister fire his chief aide.

Johnson is standing by his top adviser amid controversy of Cummings’ decision to drive 260 miles to his parents’ house in Durham at the height of lockdown.

While there, Cummings also made a 25-mile trip to Barnard Castle, which he sought to justify by claiming he wanted to test his eyesight ahead of the much longer drive back to London so he could resume his work at No 10.