Inside Politics: Does Dominic Cummings have ‘documentary evidence’ on Matt Hancock?

The former No 10 adviser is said to have documents showing Boris Johnson’s anger at his health secretary over the care home debacle, writes Adam Forrest

(REUTERS)

Is it important to rake over the past in great detail? China doesn’t think so. Beijing has hit back at Washington’s “conspiracy” obsession, after Joe Biden ordered US intelligence officials to “redouble” their efforts to work out how the pandemic began. Boris Johnson and Matt Hancock aren’t keen on going back over the origins of the UK’s Covid crisis. Their allies have waved away Dominic Cummings’ evidence session as the work of a conspiratorial obsessive, stuck in the past. But the opposition parties are demanding that a public inquiry is brought forward so we can finally get the bottom of the historic mess.

Inside the bubble

Political editor Andrew Woodcock on what to look out for today:

Boris Johnson welcomes the far-right Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban into No 10 for talks. Chancellor Rishi Sunak holds a virtual meeting of G7 finance ministers, and Nicola Sturgeon is expected to announce whether Glasgow will remain in level three of Scotland’s Covid restrictions at lunchtime.

Daily briefing

MATT GLOSS: Boris Johnson still has “full confidence” in Matt Hancock, according to a statement put by No 10 last night. The health secretary denied Dominic Cummings’ allegations he had repeatedly lied to colleagues as “unsubstantiated,” adding: “I’ve been straight with people in public and in private throughout.” But he glossed over the claims he had angered the PM by promising that hospital patients were tested for Covid before being discharged into care homes. “My recollection of events is that I committed to delivering testing for people going into care homes, when we could do it.” Without huge capacity “it wasn’t possible” to test everyone, he said. ITV News reports that Cummings has “documentary evidence” to back up his allegation that Johnson felt misled and feared his health secretary was guilty of “negligence”. Don’t expect the PM to shed any light on the matter. Johnson shrugged off Cummings evidence session – saying some of the “commentary” around his testimony didn’t “bear any relation to reality”.

SUMMERTIME SADNESS: Businesses and Tory backbenchers are in dismay after Boris Johnson said England “may need to wait” for the final lifting of lockdown curbs scheduled for 21 June. The Federation of Small Businesses said firms “cannot have their glimmer of hope snuffed out”. Up to 75 per cent of new Covid cases in the UK could be from the Indian variant, Matt Hancock revealed. The latest data presented by the minister shows Indian variant infections have doubled over the past week to almost 7,000 cases. Dr Jenny Harries said we were “on the cusp” of knowing whether variant cases will take off across the country. Elsewhere, Michael Gove hinted that Covid passports might not go ahead after all. The Cabinet Office minister told a committee of MPs that certification involved a lot of “hassle” and “friction” – and pointed to the fact that Israel had suspended its scheme due to the success of its vaccine programme.

THE STRONGMAN AND THE CHARMER: Downing Street has insisted that Boris Johnson is perfectly willing to challenge authoritarian leaders, as he prepares to welcome his Hungarian counterpart Viktor Orban to No 10 today. The PM’s spokesman acknowledged that Orban – who has spoken about “Muslim invaders” and referred to migrants as “poison” – had made “divisive and wrong” remarks. Johnson will “not shy away” from raising human rights issues, the spokesman claimed. Labour has urged Johnson to get tough on Belarus and Russia when he speaks to the far-right leader later. Shadow foreign secretary Lisa Nandy claimed No 10 was “rowing back on the decision to roll out the red carpet,” adding: “Turns out when you have no moral anchor, you end up adrift.” Speaking of the morally rudderless, George Galloway is back. The persistent populist has announced he will stand at the Batley and Spen by-election, potentially splitting the Labour vote in the vital contest. It takes place on 1 July, officials revealed.

NOTHING TO SEE HERE: Rishi Sunak has claimed the Treasury has nothing to learn or regret from the Greensill lobbying scandal, as he defended his matey text message exchanges with David Cameron. At a stormy evidence session, MPs scoffed at the chancellor’s claim that no more attention was paid to Cameron than to an approach by any other person. Sunak insisted he and the Treasury spent only “a very small amount of time” on the ex-PM’s pleas for help, telling the inquiry: “I don’t know David Cameron very well.” Mel Stride, the Treasury committee’s Tory chair, said: “It just doesn’t seem credible if it was a former prime minister pushing something as vigorously as he did.” Sunak described telling Cameron he would try to “push” officials as “just a turn of phrase” – telling MPs not to worry their pretty little heads about it. “I wouldn’t read too much into that.”

DO THE RIGHT THING: Jacob Rees-Mogg has pilled pressure on disgraced Tory MP Rob Roberts to quit. The Commons leader said it would be “honourable” for the Delyn MP to resign his seat after an investigation found he sexually harassed his staff member. Rees-Mogg insisted the government wanted to deal with the loophole which means the recent ruling does not trigger a recall petition “in the most straight forward way possible”. Despite fears the Tories could kick the can down the road – not wishing the trouble of another by-election – Rees-Mogg acknowledged it was “frankly ridiculous” that MPs who misuse envelopes could be hit by more serious sanctions than those found to have sexual harassed staff. Elsewhere in the Commons, Tory MP Dehenna Davison made a cheeky dig at Dominic Cummings when appearing via videolink. An eye test chart – spelling out ‘Barnard Castle’ – was placed on the wall behind her.

JOKE ISN’T FUNNY ANY MORE: Outgoing DUP leader Arlene Foster was awarded £125,000 in damages after a tweet by the TV presenter Dr Christian Jessen was found to be defamatory. Dr Jessen tweeted an unfounded claim that Northern Ireland’s first minister had been having an affair on 23 December 2019 – and didn’t delete it for another two weeks. Referring to Dr Jessen’s initial “LOL” response when he was informed of potential legal action, Foster’s lawyer said: “I don’t think Dr Jessen will be laughing this morning.” In other legal business, lawyers for Northern Ireland secretary Brandon Lewis claimed he has been wrongly portrayed as “sticking his head in the sand” over delays implementing abortion laws in the province. Lewis’ counsel told a court hearing that the government intends to use new powers to compel the Stormont administration to commission services if nothing changes by the summer.

On the record

“I don’t think Dominic Cummings should have the last word on this. It’s not about taking anyone’s word – it’s about getting to the bottom of it.”

Keir Starmer calls for public inquiry to be brought forward.

From the Twitterati

“Last year, this would have been treachery. This year it’s loyalty.”

Robert Hutton laughs at Tory MP Dehenna Davison’s Barnard Castle eyesight poster…

“The nodding dog Tory MPs being briefed today to dismiss Cummings as bitter and twisted are the same MPs who … defended his character and integrity after the Barnard Castle trip. Organised hypocrisy by an amoral government.”

…whereas Alastair Campbell finds the mocking of Cummings’ more sinister.

Essential reading

Cathy Newman, The Independent: Cummings once asked for ‘misfits’ to join him – now we can see why

Andrew Grice, The Independent: Just how badly damaged is Boris Johnson by Cummings’ evidence?

Andy Beckett, The Guardian: The shapeshifting Tories have grown their base – but this could be their downfall

Martha Gill, New Statesman: Why the government’s ‘war on woke’ is failing

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