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

[31 October 2023 12:08 · Matt Mathers]

PM wanted old people to ‘accept their fate and let young people get on with it’

Sir Patrick Vallance’s diaries have revealed that Boris Johnson wanted older people to “accept their fate” and let the young “get on with life and get the economy going”, Archie Mitchell reports.

The former chief scientific adviser recalled a “bonkers” set of exchanges with the PM and said he believed Covid was “just nature’s way of dealing with old people”.

[31 October 2023 12:01 · Matt Mathers]

Boris Johnson had ‘useless f***pigs’ in charge, Cummings said

Boris Johnson was accused by Dominic Cummings of having “useless f***pigs” in charge in a sweary email in which he was urged to sack several ministers, Archie Mitchell reports.

The former PM was told by his then chief of staff Mr Cummings that the so-called Westminster “bubble” thought he had “taken his eye off the ball” in August 2020.

Mr Cummings told him he appeared “happy to have useless f***pigs in charge” and accused “feral” cabinet members of leaking to the press.

“Leaving Hancock in post is a big mistake - he is a proven liar who nobody believes or should believe on anything,” Mr Cummings wrote to Mr Johnson.

He went on to list Mr Hancock alongside Grant Shapps, Ben Wallace and Liz Truss as “problem leakers”.

And he highlighted the problem of “second order leakers” plaguing the government.

[31 October 2023 11:57 · Matt Mathers]

Cain: ‘Unfair’ to criticise PM for not making clear domestic abuse victims could leave home

It would be “unfair” to criticise Boris Johnson for failing to make clear to domestic abuse victims that they did not have to stay at home during Covid restrictions, his former communications chief has said.

Lee Cain told the UK Covid-19 Inquiry that the Government did “the best we could” to communicate with groups and sectors about specific issues during the pandemic.

He was asked by inquiry counsel Andrew O’Connor KC about criticism that the then-prime minister did not address those at risk of domestic abuse during press conferences to spread the stay-at-home message.

Mr Cain said: “I think it would be unfair to criticise the PM on that particular issue. I mean, it would depend on if he’d been briefed, if there was something particularly we were trying to get across.”

[31 October 2023 11:53 · Matt Mathers]

Boris Johnson’s back to work drive made ‘absolutely no sense’

Boris Johnson’s drive to get workers back into their offices during the pandemic made “absolutely no sense,” his former head of comms has said, Archie Mitchell reports.

Lee Cain told the Covid inquiry that “businesses were not even asking for people to come back to work”. “In face they were encouraging their employees to stay at home,” he said.

And he added: “To me it made absolutely no sense whatsoever.”

[31 October 2023 11:51 · Matt Mathers]

Cain: Right-wing Tories and print media wanted quicker end to lockdowns

Lee Cain has said pressure from right-wing Tories and the print media “underpinned” Boris Johnson’s indecision on whether or not to have a “circuit-breaker” lockdown in autumn 2020, Archie Mitchell reports.

Mr Johnson’s former head of comms told the Covid inquiry the ex-PM was “torn on this issue” and would have been calling for Britain to “open up the beaches” in his previous role as a columnist.

“I think that was part of the reason for the oscillation because the rigid measures were very much against his political DNA,” Mr Cain said.

[31 October 2023 11:47 · Matt Mathers]

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

Dominic Cummings said he was forced to sit with Boris Johnson for hours to “stop him saying stupid s***” in sweary WhatsApp messages revealed today at the Covid-19 inquiry.

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

The inquiry was shown WhatsApp messages Mr Cummings sent to Mr Cain saying the former prime minister had gone “back to Jaws mode w***” and that was he “exhausted” trying to explain things to Mr Johnson.

Joe Middleton reports:

[31 October 2023 11:46 · Matt Mathers]

Government was ‘doing its best without diversity’, Lee Cain

Lee Cain has told the official Covid inquiry that government decision-making was held back by a lack of diversity, Archie Mitchell reports.

The former Downing Street head of comms said one of the challenges faced by officials and ministers was the dynamic of the room, which during the pandemic was white and middle aged.

This had an impact on groups such as split families, who Mr Cain agreed risked “slipping through the cracks” of government policy.

[31 October 2023 11:39 · Matt Mathers]

Cain ‘strongly’ stands by lockdown messaging

Cain tells the inquiry he “strongly” stands by the lockdown messaging campaign of “Stay home, protect the NHS, save lives”, as he admitted disagreeing with a committee of behavioural scientists.

The former No 10 director of communications described the messaging as having been “seen as one of the most powerful public health campaigns in modern memory”.

He said focus groups and polling had been used to inform the campaign, rather than the “slightly questionable” insights of the Independent Scientific Pandemic Insights Group on Behaviours (Spi-B), adding that “behavioural science isn’t always correct”.

Mr Cain told the inquiry: “I think the broad view was slightly questionable of some of the insights of Spi-B, so I didn’t have a huge amount of dealings with them at that particular point and the sort of dealings I did, I didn’t find particularly helpful.

“We had a fast research loop that we would do via focus groups, via polling, things that we had seen, you know, we’d use pretty readily in political campaigning that was incredibly effective.”

[31 October 2023 11:09 · Matt Mathers]

Indecision was a theme inside Boris Johnson’s Downing Street

Indecision was a "theme’’ inside Downing Street during the pandemic and could be "worse than the wrong decision’’, Boris Johnson’s former communications chief has said, Archie Mitchell reports.

Lee Cain told the UK Covid-19 Inquiry: "Indecision can sometimes be worse than the wrong decision in certain circumstances.

And I think indecision probably was a theme of Covid that people did struggle with inside Number 10.’’

But the long-term aide also defended the former prime minister’s struggle to make a decision over the first Covid lockdown, saying in a statement it was "to some degree understandable" that he "would occasionally oscillate" between locking down the country and other potential policy options.

Mr Cain told the inquiry: "I would say that it’s pretty easy for advisers like myself to say the prime minister should have done X, the prime minister should have done Y.

"I do think that this was probably one of the biggest peacetime decisions in recent years the prime minister’s had to undertake, and it clearly weighed incredibly heavy on him. And I think it’s him and him alone who has to take that decision, so it is understandable that he wrestled with it."

He added that Mr Johnson’s indecision over the second lockdown was "slightly more difficult to defend".

[31 October 2023 11:00 · Matt Mathers]

Rishi Sunak compared handling Covid to the film, Jaws

Boris Johnson espoused “Jaws w**k” in communicating how the government should handle Covid, debating whether the mayor in the blockbuster shark attack movie was right to keep the beaches open, Archie Mitchell reports.

A message sent by Dominic Cummings during the early stages of the pandemic revealed the ex-Downing Street chief of staff’s frustration at Boris Johnson’s approach, as well as “stopping the trolley” - a reference to the then PM.

“Rishi saying bond markets may not fund our debt etc, he’s back to Jaws mode w**k,” Mr Cummings said.

In a sweary tirade, he said: “I’ve literally said the same thing ten f****** times and he still won’t absorb it. I’m exhausted just talking to him and stopping the trolley.”