Covid inquiry live: Hancock ‘wanted to decide who should live or die if NHS became overwhelmed’

Lord Simon Stevens says Cabinet ministers ‘avoided’ Cobra meetings chaired by then-health secretary

Covid inquiry roundup: Lee Cain and Dominic Cummings provide worrying insight into No 10

Ex-health secretary Matt Hancock believed that he – rather than doctors or the public – should decide “who should live and who should die” if hospitals became overwhelmed with Covid patients, the former NHS chief executive has said.

Lord Simon Stevens said that “fortunately this horrible dilemma never crystallised”, as he told the Covid inquiry on Thursday that it would have to look “very carefully” at the issue of asymptomatic Covid patients being discharged from hospitals into care homes.

Meanwhile, Mr Hancock, who was health secretary at the start of the Covid outbreak, told Public Health England’s then medical director Yvonne Doyle “not to patronise him” when she warned that the virus could be in the UK, she told the inquiry.

She said she was barred from doing media interviews for a time after that, and apologised to him, even though she had been telling the truth.

It comes a day after former top civil servant and ethics chief Helen MacNamara said the “female perspective” was missed during the pandemic as she condemned a “toxic” and “macho” culture at the highest levels of Mr Johnson’s government.

Key Points

• Matt Hancock ‘wanted to choose who lived or died if NHS overwhelmed'
• Revealed: Ministers braced for 840,000 Covid deaths
• Hancock told medical chief not to ‘patronise’ him by telling truth
• Watch: Ministers ‘avoided’ Cobra meetings chaired by Matt Hancock

[1 November 2023 03:53 · Maroosha Muzaffar]

Helen McNamara to appear at Covid inquiry

Helen McNamara is to appear at the Covid inquiry today.

Boris Johnson’s former chief of staff, Dominic Cummings, called Ms MacNamara a ‘c***’ in one message during the pandemic.

Mr Cummings made clear his views about how the “dysfunctional system” during a “meltdown of the British state” failed to deal with the crisis.

“The perception among the political team in No10 about the failings in the system, the failings of the civil service and the failings of different institutions was so extreme,” Ms McNamara has told the BBC. Their instinct, she claimed, was to “smash everything up”.

“We were systematically in real trouble.”

[1 November 2023 03:00 · Lydia Patrick]

ICYMI - Ex-No10 chief admits he ‘disappeared’ messages in PM’s WhatsApps group chat

One of Boris Johnson’s key aides turned messages to “disappear” in a key Covid WhatsApp group only weeks after the ex-PM promised a Covid public inquiry, it has been revealed.

Martin Reynolds was grilled about switching the function to delete messages in the then-PM’s group April 2021 – just after Mr Johnson announced an inquiry – as he gave evidence on Monday.

Mr Reynolds, Mr Johnson’s principal private secretary, told the inquiry he “cannot recall exactly why I did so” – before adding that he did not believe it was to “prevent” the inquiry having access to the messages.

The former No 10 official – dubbed “Party Marty” for his infamous ‘bring your own booze” drinks event email during Partygate – also said he was “deeply sorry” for his role in organising the garden party and Mr Johnson’s birthday gathering at No 10.

He said he was sorry for “my part in those events” and said he wanted to “apologise unreservedly to all the families of all those who suffered during Covid for all the distress caused”.

[1 November 2023 02:00 · Lydia Patrick]

A timeline of Dominic Cumming’s role in Downing Street

Dominic Cummings, the former chief adviser to then-prime minister Boris Johnson, is giving evidence to the UK Covid-19 Inquiry.

Mr Cummings was one of Mr Johnson’s first appointments when he succeeded Theresa May as Conservative Party leader and PM in the summer 2019. His hiring was a signal to the hard-line Brexiteers who had ushered Mr Johnson to power that he was serious about delivering the withdrawal agreement from the European Union that his successor had failed to secure over months of tortuous negotiations.

A political strategist, Mr Cummings was an influential special adviser to Michael Gove between 2007 and 2014 before he became director of the Vote Leave campaign in 2015 and masterminded its victory in the Brexit referendum of 2016. He coined its “take back control” slogan and was seen as a divisive and outspoken figure who made enemies easily.

Portrayed as a visionary anti-establishment disrupter by Benedict Cumberbatch in the Channel 4 film Brexit: The Uncivil War, Mr Cummings was once described by David Cameron as a “career psychopath” and caused offence in Conservative circles by dishing out withering insults. He memorably labelled former Brexit secretary David Davis “thick as mince” and “lazy as a toad”, said the European Research Group were “useful idiots for Remain” and described the civil service as a “blob” of incompetence and bureaucracy.

Read the full report by Joe Sommerlad here

[1 November 2023 01:00 · Lydia Patrick]

Bombshell WhatsApp messages reveal Dominic Cummings’ secret foul-mouthed rants about Boris Johnson

Dominic Cummings branded Boris Johnson “exhausting” and in a foul-mouthed tirade said the cabinet was “useless f***pigs” in explosive WhatsApp messages revealed today at the Covid-19 inquiry.

In a pivotal day, Mr Johnson’s former communications chief Lee Cain gave evidence, followed by Mr Cummings, the former prime minister’s chief of staff during the pandemic.

Mr Cummings apologised to the inquiry for the “appalling” language he used in messages but said that he was reflecting “a widespread view” about the incompetence shown by ministers who were “dealing with this crisis extremely badly”.

The messages showed the disdain he held for his former boss Mr Johnson, as it was revealed Mr Cummings had to sit with him for “two hours just to stop him saying stupid s***”.

Mr Cummings coarse language was not limited to politicians as he denied being a misogynist after messages showed he called former top civil servant Helen MacNamara a “c***”.

[1 November 2023 00:00 · Lydia Patrick]

A rundown of day two of the inquiry

• Mr Johnson believed Covid was “a hoax” and “pathetic”, no worse than swine flu, and that it was nature’s way of dealing with the elderly
• No 10 staff had derided the dithering PM as “the trolley”, as he changed direction so often
• Mr Johnson took the “pretty insane” decision to go on holiday in February 2020, one month before lockdown
• There was “no plan” for how to protect vulnerable people from the virus
• Mr Johnson admitted there had been a “totally disgusting orgy of narcissism by a government that should be solving a national crisis”
• Mr Cummings said in a message that he wanted to “personally handcuff” the UK’s most powerful female mandarin, as he called her a “c***”
• In November 2020 Mr Cummings blocked Mr Johnson on WhatsApp after the then PM pleaded for briefings against his government to stop

[31 October 2023 23:00 · Lydia Patrick]

Boris Johnson’s handling of Covid crisis slammed by former top advisers

Boris Johnson’s one-time closest advisers lined up to slam his leadership during the Covid pandemic as he was blasted for his handling of the crisis.

In an extraordinary day of evidence at the Covid-19 inquiry, it was revealed that the former prime minister’s chief aide, Dominic Cummings, had described the constant change of strategy as “exhausting” and branded his cabinet “useless f***pigs” in explosive WhatsApp messages.

Mr Cummings said Mr Johnson did not think Covid was a “big deal”, while the hearing was also told that the then PM was “obsessed” with the idea that older people should be allowed to catch the virus and accept their “fate” in order to keep the economy open.

[31 October 2023 22:00 · Lydia Patrick]

Dominic Cummings denies misogyny claims despite obscene sexist rant at UK’s most powerful female mandarin

Dominic Cummings has insisted he is not a misogynist despite referring to a top civil servant as “that c***” in a series of foul-mouthed messages to Boris Johnson.

In an astonishing day of testimony at the Covid inquiry, shedding new light on a culture of sexism at the heart of the former prime minister’s government, Mr Cummings apologised for the “deplorable” language and even claimed he “was much ruder about men”.

To audible gasps, the inquiry was shown Mr Cummings’ WhatsApp texts about then deputy cabinet-secretary Helen MacNamara from 2020, in which he said he would “handcuff her and escort her” from Downing Street.

Counsel to the inquiry Hugo Keith KC put it to Mr Johnson’s former adviser yesterday that he “denigrated women”, to which he replied: “No, that’s not correct. I was not misogynistic.”

[31 October 2023 21:11 · Tara Cobham]

Watch: Cummings and Cain provide worrying insight into No 10

Today’s sitting of the Covid-19 Inquiry saw expletive-filled text messages between Dominic Cummings and former prime minister Boris Johnson unveiled publicly.

In the messages, Cummings, who was then-adviser to Johnson, appeared to be growing frustrated with the Cabinet Office, referring to it as ‘s***’, and the delays to introducing further lockdown measures they were allegedly causing.

He also accused Johnson of saying ‘stupid s****’ and described former health secretary Matt Hancock as the ‘c*** in charge of NHS’.

The inquiry continues to look into the government’s handling of the pandemic.

Sophie Thompson reports:

[31 October 2023 21:00 · Tara Cobham]

Watch: Rishi Sunak compared handling Covid to the film Jaws

[31 October 2023 20:18 · Tara Cobham]

Boris Johnson’s handling of Covid crisis slammed by former top advisers

Boris Johnson’s one-time closest advisers lined up to slam his leadership during the Covid pandemic as he was blasted for his handling of the crisis.

In an extraordinary day of evidence at the Covid-19 inquiry, the former prime minister’s chief aide Dominic Cummings described the constant change of strategy as “exhausting” and branded his cabinet “useless f***pigs” in explosive WhatsApp messages.

Mr Cummings said that Mr Johnson did not think Covid was a “big deal”, while the hearing was also told that then-PM was “obsessed” with the idea older people should be allowed to catch the virus and accept their “fate” to keep the economy open.

Kate Devlin and Archie Mitchell report: