By Ben Kerrigan-
Labour’s shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth has described Mr Cummings’ “very grave allegations” as being “well-founded” and the health secretary would have to “give us an explanation” in order for the country to “maintain confidence in him”.
Mr Cummings left his role in Downing Street towards the end of 2020 following an internal struggle inside No 10, leading him to become very critical of the British government .
The former government adviser used his evidence session to the health and science select committees on Wednesday to cast a shadow of doubt over a government ill prepared for the pandemic, and prepared to lie through its teeth to manage the crises. Lying has always been one of the bad traits associated with politicians, but when committed during a pandemic to a vulnerable public, it becomes very grave indeed.
Cummings argued that mistakes meant “tens of thousands of people died, who didn’t need to die”. During his lengthy appearance, Mr Cummings launched a fierce attack against Mr Hancock, arguing that he “should have been fired for at least 15 to 20 things, including lying to everybody on multiple occasions in meeting after meeting in the Cabinet Room and publicly”. Matt Hancock is expected to appear before Mps today, after Mr.Cummings severely damaged his reputation. How far the Health Secretary can repair his image remains to be seen.
He will have to at least match Cumming’s strength of conviction to discredit the former government adviser, who is bitter with the way he left his role in Downing Street.
Cumming’s assault on Hancock was heavy, holding nothing back, and presenting the Health Secretary as a man the British public cannot trust. His claim that several people in government have called for Hancock’s head was the worst thing any minister wants in their head as they go to sleep at night.
On care homes, he said: “Hancock told us in the Cabinet Room that people were going to be tested before they went back to care homes. We only subsequently found out that that hadn’t happened.
“Now the government rhetoric was ‘we put a shield around care homes’ and blah blah blah – it was complete nonsense.” Making complete nonsense of the government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic was at the centre of Mr. Cumming’s goal- and he made a fair go at it.
He went further to attack Mr Hancock for setting a “stupid” target of offering 100,000 Covid tests a day, saying it “hugely disrupted” efforts to “properly” establish a testing system.
“Hancock wanted to be able to go on TV and say ‘look at me and my 100k target’ – it was criminal disgraceful behaviour that caused serious harm,” he said.
Accused Of being A liar: Matt Hancock Image:gov.uk
On PPE provision, Mr Cummings described the situation as a “disaster” with “hospitals all over the country” running out of supplies, despite assurances from the health secretary that “everything is fine”.
He added that the head of the civil service said: “I have lost confidence in the secretary of state’s honesty in these meetings.
Committee chairman Greg Clark told Mr Cummings he should provide written evidence to support his claims about Mr Hancock, who will be questioned by the committee in two weeks’ time.
Matt Hancock was a key figure in some of the press conferences at the height f the first pandemic in March 2020, and has been an important voice in terms of precautionary measures to prevent the spread of the virus and also in terms of vaccination uptake, If he is a lair, it will have serious implications for his post and the government.
He is expected to give a press conference this morning about the allegations against him.