By Ben Kerrigan-
Dominic Cummings told the inquiry into the UK government’s handling of the pandemic that the cabinet secretary, Mark Sedwell(pictured) told PM to use TV interview to describe coronavirus as like chicken pox.
The drama parliament and journalists had been waiting for began unfolding as Boris Johnson’s former key adviser, Dominic Cummings started to let the cat out of the bag by making several compelling revelations about the state of affairs at the hart of government as the pandemic unfolded. there was a meeting where Mark Sedwill, the cabinet secretary, told Boris Johnson that he should go on TV and explain that the herd immunity plan was like chicken pox parties.
Cummings said there was a meeting where Cabinet Secretary, Mark Sedwill was told not to use that analogy . Cummings says he said coronavirus was not like chicken pox, it was spreading exponentially, and thousands of people were dying. The idea that Sedwell wanted the virus to be presented as chicken pox highlights a troubling element of deceit being encouraged from a highly positioned cabinet secretary.
A more worrying thought is that Mr.Sedwell felt comfortable to advice the prime minister to lie to the British public, suggesting that he believed Boris Johnson would be comfortable lying to the public.
Cummings says Sir Patrick Vallance was in favour of publication, “as you would expect from a good scientist”. Prof Chris Whitty thought the same, and so did Sage, according to the former adviser.
Discussions about publishing the Sage documents until the week of 9 March, when they were already “dangling over a cliff”..
Commenting about the Department For Health, Cummings said there were many brilliant people at middle and junior levels, but they were let down by the leadership.
He says Matt Hancock should have been fired for at least 20 things, “including lying to everybody in multiple occasions in meeting after meeting in the cabinet room and publicly”.
He says the cabinet secretary also told the PM Hancock should be fired, as did other senior people.
Rebecca Long-Bailey MP asks Cummings if the government commissioned economic advice, as well as the scientific advice it was receiving.
He says: “I’m sure there were all sorts of economic advice going on. I was focusing my time and effort on things like shielding and Department for Health where it was clear the system was broken.”
There is no document floating around outlining economic cost of lockdown, he says.
Dominic Cummings said he warned the PM on March 12 that there were “big problems coming” if self-isolation measures were not announced immediately.
He said he told Boris Johnson: “We’ve got big problems coming. The Cabinet Office is terrifyingly shit. No plans, totally behind the pace, we must announce today, not next week. We must force the pace. We’re looking at 100,000 to 500,000 deaths between optimistic and pessimistic scenarios.”