Inside Politics: Dominic Cummings ready to ‘napalm’ No 10, say allies

Boris Johnson’s former top adviser claims the government wanted to let the virus rip, writes Adam Forrest

Boris Johnson’s former top aide Dominic Cummings (PA)

The Italians who won Eurovision have issued an outraged denial after video footage showed the band’s singer hovering a nostril over a table in the green room. “Please, guys – don’t say that,” the band said on drug claims. “We’re really shocked about what people are saying.” Boris Johnson’s government is outraged denial mode – ministers are really shocked about what Dominic Cummings is saying. The renegade’s allies say he’s ready to “napalm” No 10 this week with his claims on herd immunity and high-level incompetence. But does Cummings have anything really shocking to tell MPs?

Inside the bubble

Policy correspondent Jon Stone on what to look out for today:

Home secretary Priti Patel to unveil yet another shake-up to the immigration system at a Bright Blue think tank event at 11am. And there will be a petitions committee debate on Marcus Rashford’s child food poverty petition – which attracted more than one million signatures – at 4.30pm.

Daily briefing

TO MEET OR NOT TO MEET? Dominic Cummings has been doing so much mudslinging on Twitter, you wonder how much dirt he has left for his parliamentary session this Wednesday. Officials are said to be nervous that Cummings will accuse Boris Johnson of skipping crucial Covid crisis meetings to work on his biography of Shakespeare to help fund his divorce. They will have been reassured by one of the latest tweets: “Critical as I am of the PM in all sorts of ways, it’s vital to understand the disaster was not just his fault.” Home secretary Priti Patel denied Cummings’ claim the government had a herd immunity plan to let the virus rip through the populace by September 2020. “Absolutely not,” she said. Cummings accused health secretary Matt Hancock of “talking buls***” when he denied herd immunity was the policy. He also said that if “competent” people had been in charge, then the second and third lockdowns could “definitely” have been avoided. Get the popcorn ready for Wednesday.

OUR FRIENDS ELECTRONIC: Home secretary Priti Patel this morning reveals a new border scheme requiring electronic permits to travel to the UK. The government is hoping it will make it easier to count how many people are coming into the country. Officials told The Independent evidence from other countries showed that charging for an Electronic Travel Authorisation would not deter legitimate travellers (the US charges around £9). Doing the media round on Sunday, Patel gave the BBC a good kicking, saying its reputation had been “highly damaged” by the Bashir saga. “This is the Netflix generation … How relevant is the BBC?” Ouch. In truth we’re no closer to knowing if the Tory government will try to bring in major changes at the Beeb. In a comment piece for The Times, Dowden promises ministers won’t make “knee-jerk reforms”. The misery isn’t over for BBC bosses. MPs on the digital, culture, media and sport committee are thought to be ready to summon them to discuss the Bashir scandal at a special session soon.

ONTO A WINNER: Jo Cox’s sister has been selected as the Labour candidate in the West Yorkshire constituency the murdered MP used to represent. Kim Leadbeater will fight to hold onto the Batley and Spen seat at the crucial by-election. She said she was “overwhelmed and humbled” to be the Labour candidate. “I’m a proud Yorkshirewoman and have lived in Batley and Spen all my life – I feel passionately about the strength there is in such a diverse constituency.” Labour leader Keir Starmer said her roots in the community will make her “a fantastic champion”. It emerged at the weekend that Starmer “broke down in tears” during his recent interview with Piers Morgan, set to be aired on ITV next month. Starmer is thought to have opened up about the long illness suffered by his mother. Morgan said the Life Stories interview was “spine-tingling”. Speaking of dramatic life stories, Boris Johnson and Carrie Symonds are set to get married next July. The Sun says they’ve sent a “save the date” card to their closest chums.

BONFIRE OF THE ERMINE ROBES? One of Boris Johnson’s ministers has called for the House of Lords to be scrapped in its current form. Penny Mordaunt, minister in the Cabinet Office, calls the unelected upper house a “relic” and “mausoleum” in her new book Greater: Britain After the Storm. Her work has cross-party support and promotion from pop royalty, having been endorsed by Johnson, Tony Blair and Sir Elton John. Ministers will be busy discussing more important potential changes in the next few days – like whether drinks can be ordered from the bar next month. The PM is expected to offer “optimism” this week that he’ll be able to lift the last lockdown restrictions on 21 June. Boosted by research showing vaccines work well against the Indian variant, Matt Hancock said on Sunday that he was “increasingly confident” about the scheduled roadmap. NHS Test and Trace boss Jenny Harries said the data was “looking good”.

SHARMA AND THE JETS: The cabinet minister in charge of preparations for the big UN climate summit in Glasgow has been condemned for travelling tens of thousands of miles by jet. Alok Sharma had told people to make “small changes” to cut their carbon emissions. But it emerged at the weekend that he took 25 flights in just three months – travelling more than 70,000 miles between the end of January and mid-May. An unnamed Tory MP branded him “air miles Alok” in The Telegraph. They can be very cruel, these anonymous Tories. Meanwhile, a legal bid has been launched to stop ministers from deleting any WhatsApp messages that might shed light on decisions taken during the pandemic. A pre-action letter drawn up by lawyers, seen by The Independent, warns of concern that ministers and officials are “conducting government business” via text message, Signal and WhatsApp. Martha Dark, director of legal group Foxglove, said the government did not have the proper arrangements in place and was in “clear breach of the law”.

NEXT PLEASE! Nicola Sturgeon will have to appoint the people who could play a major role in the independence referendum saga. Scotland’s top two law officers – the lord advocate James Wolffe QC and solicitor general Alison Di Rollo QC – are leaving their posts. Whoever replaces them will be expected to certify whether or not Sturgeon’s indyref2 bill is within the Scottish parliament’s powers. Labour and the Lib Dems have both called for the role of the lord advocate – who is weirdly both a government adviser and head of the country’s prosecution service – to be broken up. Meanwhile, the SNP are agitating over the trade deal with Australia, after trade secretary Liz Truss offered terms which would phase out tariffs over 15 years. Sturgeon’s party said Scottish secretary Alister Jack should “fight back” or resign. “I urge you to break your deafening silence on this crucial issue and fight back against this damaging deal,” said SNP Westminster boss Ian Blackford.

On the record

“If we’d had the right preparations and competent people in charge, we would probably have avoided lockdown one, definitely no need for lockdowns two and three.”

Dominic Cummings on the terrible sins of the government he ran last year.

From the Twitterati

“Am pretty sure most journalists knew herd immunity was the strategy, because Patrick Vallance pretty much said it on TV in March 2020.”

FT’s Jim Pickard is not surprised by Cummings’ herd immunity claims...

“Dominic Cummings is going to get one hell of a shock when he realises Dominic Cummings was a key figure in No 10 decision making.”

...while The Guardian’s John Crace thinks Cummings may be in for a surprise.

Essential reading

Holly Baxter, The Independent: I went on Nigel Farage’s American tour – it was really weird

Jess Phillips, The Independent: The government’s traffic light system is confused, dangerous and stupid

Max Hastings, The Times: The clock is ticking on Boris Johnson’s people-pleasing

Alan Rusbridger, The Guardian: The BBC’s enemies must not be free to define its future

Sign up here to receive this free daily briefing in your email inbox every morning