Covid inquiry: chaos at No.10 from the very top down

“Even given all that is already known about poor decision-making, avoidable deaths, lockdown-breaking parties and atrocious procurement” during the pandemic, the evidence being heard at the Covid Inquiry still has the power to shock, said The Guardian. 

This week, Boris Johnson’s former chief adviser, Dominic Cummings, testified, and his testimony was as damning as expected. Cummings said that the Government’s initial plan for dealing with Covid was a “joke”. He described the Cabinet Office, at the heart of No. 10, as a “dumpster fire”. Official data, he said, was inconsistent and communication failures were rife; he called Johnson’s absence on holiday in February 2020, as Covid loomed, “insane”. 

'A toxic culture'

Cummings’ evidence was certainly hair-raising, said The Times. In his WhatsApp messages, he described the then health secretary Matt Hancock as “slippery”, “useless” and a “c***”. He suggested that the cabinet were “useless fuckpigs”. When asked by the Inquiry’s KC, Hugo Keith, whether his language was too “trenchant”, he said no: if anything, he had “understated” the issue.

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Certainly, Johnson has come off badly in the Inquiry, said Tim Stanley in The Daily Telegraph. There was a sharp intake of breath when it was reported that the PM said his party believed “Covid is nature’s way of dealing with old people – and I am not entirely sure I disagree with them”. But listening to Cummings’ ravings, one did begin to wonder if perhaps “Dom was himself part of the problem”. He helped install a man he called the “shopping trolley” – because he veered around so much – in office. He created a toxic culture, sending foul messages calling ministers and civil servants “c***s”.

'Wrong crisis for this PM's skill set'

Besides, all the back-stabbing rather distracts from the real issues, said an editorial in The Daily Telegraph. Such as: “Were the lockdowns the right way to handle the pandemic or not?” Cummings criticised Johnson for not locking down decisively. “But Johnson was doing what most of us faced with such a crisis would do, which is to ask questions and show a healthy scepticism.” Locking down was, to put it mildly, a big decision. With hindsight, his doubts were well-founded.

But it wasn’t just Cummings who had it in for Johnson, said Sean O’Grady in The Independent. “Everyone” in No. 10, it seems, called him “the trolley”. Simon Case, Britain’s top civil servant, said the Covid response was “a terrible, tragic joke” because Johnson “cannot lead”. “The team captain cannot change the call on the big plays every day... IT HAS TO STOP.” Patrick Vallance, the chief scientific adviser, noted that Johnson was “weak and indecisive”. Lee Cain, the PM’s spokesman, gave his gently devastating verdict when he testified this week: “It was the wrong crisis for this prime minister’s skill set.” Whatever the Inquiry concludes, it looks likely to be fatal to Johnson’s reputation, which now resembles “one of those neglected statues of forgotten statespeople covered in guano”.