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
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Your support makes all the difference.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.
Matt Hancock wanted to decide who should live and who should die during Covid – former NHS boss
An unhappy struggle between panto and principle: the Covid inquiry’s winners and losers so far
Matt Hancock told Public Health England director ‘not to patronise him’
Boris Johnson’s No 10 was toxic, sexist and devoid of humanity, says former top civil servant
Cumming: Cabinet Office filled with the wrong people
Cummings tells inquiry there were “a lot of the wrong people in the wrong job” in the Cabinet Office as he described a culture of “constantly classifying everything to hide mistakes”.
“The Cabinet Office over a long period of time has accumulated more and more power, formal and informal,” he said.
“It’s become incredibly bloated. It’s acquired huge numbers of people, huge numbers of teams. And particularly on the whole, the sort of deep state, national security side, crisis management, has become in all sorts of ways extremely opaque and effectively completely invisible to any political figure, including the prime minister.
“So it was extremely difficult to know in Number 10 who exactly in the Cabinet Office was doing what, whose responsibility it was, who were we supposed to talk to to get action and that was critical, particularly in the first couple of months (of the pandemic).”
Cummings: ‘We’re wasting time in crap meetings’
Dominic Cummings sent an email to No10 staff in May 2020 saying Boris Johnson was “wasting far too much time in crap meetings”, Archie Mitchell reports.
“We are not using the PM’s time well.” Mr Johnson’s former chief of staff said in the early months of the pandemic.
In the email, shown to the Covid inquiry, Mr Cummings called for any Covid briefings to be cleared by him or another official, Tom Shinner, among a slew of other changes.
“Without radical changes further disasters are guaranteed,” Mr Cummings added.
Watch: Cummings uses ‘revolting’ language to describe Cabinet ministers during Covid
Cummings: 'Crackers’ I was appointed to No10
Dominic Cummings has said it is “crackers” he was made the chief of staff in No10 under Boris Johnson, Archie Mitchell reports.
Asked at the official Covid inquiry whether this is a view he still holds, Mr Cummings said: “For sure.”
Cummings: My expletive-laden descriptions of cabinet ministers 'were widespread view'
Cummings tells inquiry he was “reflecting a widespread view” when he used expletive-laden descriptions of cabinet ministers.
Hugo Keith KC, lead counsel to the inquiry, said: “We’re going to have to coarsen our language somewhat” as he read out some of the terms used by Mr Cummings in WhatsApp and email messages, including “useless f*******, morons, c****.”
“I apologise,” Mr Cummings said.
Asked by Mr Keith whether he contributed to a lack of effectiveness on the part of ministers, Mr Cummings replied: “No, I think I was reflecting a widespread view amongst competent people at the centre of power at the time about the calibre of a lot of senior people who were dealing with this crisis extremely badly.”
Cabinet secretary up to 100 times more powerful than ministers, Cummings says
Dominic Cummings has claimed Britain’s top civil servant, the cabinet secretary, is between 10 and 100 times as powerful than any other minister, except the prime minister, Archie Mitchell reports.
The former Downing Street chief of staff said the media “aim to cover up this fact”.
Mr Cummings also said the prime minister’s principal private secretary is also "much more powerful" than anybody in the cabinet apart from the prime minister.
Dominic Cummings: ‘My appalling language is my own’
Dominic Cummings has been quizzed over calling colleagues “useless f***pigs, morons and c***s”, with the Covid inquiry’s lead counsel Hugo Keith KC asking if his “revolting” language contributed to a lack of effectiveness of cabinet ministers, Archie Mitchell reports.
“My appalling language is my own,” Mr Cummings said.
But he added that he was “reflecting a widespread view amongst competent people at the centre of power”.
Cummings told to ‘slow down’ as he gives evidence
Dominic Cummings was told to “slow down” as he started giving evidence to the inquiry.
Boris Johnson’s former chief of staff is being asked about his role in government during the Covid pandemic.
‘One for the ages'
Lee Cain’s description of Covid being the “wrong crisis” for Boris Johnson was “one for the ages,” The Independent’s chief politics commentator John Rentoul says.
“I was in the inquiry hearing for Caino’s words for the ages: ‘It was the wrong crisis for this PM’s skill set,’” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
Cain: Lack of diversity in PM’s top team led to blindspot on free school meals campaign
Boris Johnson was told “hungry children” were not the place to start when considering restraint on public finances in the pandemic, Caine tells the inquiry, as he described the overnment’s “huge blunder” around the Marcus Rashford free school meals campaign.
Lee Cain said there had been a clear lack of diversity in the prime minister’s top team when it came to informing policy and decision-making.
In a written statement to the inquiry, Mr Cain said: “I remember asking in the Cabinet Room of 20 people, how many people had received free school meals. Nobody had – resulting in a policy and political blind spot. This was a huge blunder.
“The PM (to some degree understandably) said we needed to draw a line in the sand on public spending commitments, but this was clearly not the place to draw that line – something the PM was told by his senior team.”
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