By Ben Kerrigan-
Cummings claims Johnson said he did not mind ‘chaos’ at No 10 because it meant no one else in control.
The odd claim suggests the prime minister did not mind situation that was out of control , probably because the prime minister had initially been a fan of herd immunity.
His comments came after a series of shocking claims of lies and incompetence in the hands of government ministers, entrusted with the duty of keeping the public safe during an emergency crisis like the global pandemic.
Alleging a reckless stance by Boris Johnson, Cummings said “there was no proper border policy because the prime minister never wanted a proper border policy”. He suggested that the government just copied what Singapore or Taiwan did.
Cummings also accused Boris Johnson of arguing that lockdown was a mistake, and he wanted to be like the mayor in Jaws (who kept the beaches open when the shark was a threat).
He says Johnson was worried about the impact on the tourism industry. But he was told if they did not control April there would not be a tourism industry.
Cummings reserved one of his sternest criticism against Matt Hancock for the high death figures which he said was partly because untested people were sent back into care homes.
Cummings says he found this shocking. When they found out in April this was happening, the PM said a less polite version of “What on earth is happening?”. Matt Hancock had said in the cabinet room in March that people would be tested before they went back to care home.
The government claimed that it had put a shield around care homes. That was “complete nonsense”. Quite the opposite happened, he says.
Cummings says he thought about the entire direction of policy in the week of 16 March, and spoke to people about how if policy did not change, he would resign and hold a press conference saying that thousands of people would die.
He says he he had a conversation with Johnson in July 2020 when he said he would leave by the end of December. He says he told Johnson the whole system was “chaos” and that he thought Johnson was more frightened of Cummings having the power to stop the chaos than he was of the chaos itself.
He also told the PM said he was fed up of working with people like Matt Hancock. Cummings says Johnson laughed and said that Cummings was right. He says Johnson said:
”You’re right, I am more frightened of you having the power to stop the chaos around than the chaos. Chaos is not bad. Chaos means that everyone has to look to me to see who’s in charge.