Dominic Cummings, a former senior adviser to Boris Johnson, has accused the UK prime minister of ‘unfit for work’ as he painted a picture of chaos, indecision, and deception at the heart of government while ministers fought against it.
The incendiary statements by Dominic Cummings, former special adviser to UK PM Boris Johnson, on the Conservative government’s management in terms of the COVID-19 pandemic and how the poor performance of officials caused tens of thousands of deaths dominated the front pages of the newspapers on Thursday.
Among the cataract of powerful accusations from Cummings, mastermind of Brexit and Johnson’s election campaign were also those that the Health Minister blatantly lied about the magnitude of the epidemic and that the prime minister is not qualified to govern the United Kingdom.
It is worth noting that the UK is the country with the highest number of deaths from COVID-19 in all of Europe, close to 128000.
Moreover, according to BBC, it was:
- Not an apology
- Not a change of debt
- Not a deal
- Not an ego fight
According to them, the most important thing is to find out who is responsible for the “unforgivable” death toll in Britain.
Cummings Believes that the Government Failed the Population
Dominic Cummings, a former senior adviser to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, said the government didn’t do enough to protect the people in the first months of 2020 when the first reports of the coronavirus pandemic began to arrive.
Cummings’ allegations were presented as proof before a legislative council started investigating what could have been done differently in terms of managing the COIVD-19 pandemic, which has left 170000 cases of death in the UK.
The former adviser told legislators that PM viewed the coronavirus just as “a terrifying story” back in February 2020 and compared it to the swine flu outbreak.
According to him, the government was not ready to handle the pandemic in February 2020 the way it should have been handled. He even stated that there was not even a strategy on how to deal with it. Cummings told members of the commission that the government failed the population’ when they desperately needed its support.
He expressed regret to all those peoples who had close people who died by saying that he ‘bitterly regretted’ not recommending better action.
It is important to keep in mind that Cummings has caused anger among the British population with his trip during March 2020, while the country was completely closed, and inter-city travelling was prohibited.
Another reason that many people dislike him is because of his previous position as the director of the Vote Leave (to leave the European Union) before the 2016 UK European Union referendum, which led to the UK leaving the EU.
During the campaign, he was blamed for using the fear factor, along with Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson, as some of the advertisements showed that if the United Kingdom stayed as a member of the European Union, lots of Turks would come to the UK in case Turkey become a member state of the EU.
Cummings was dismissed by PM last November, after a power-sharing dispute within the ranks of the government that ended up with the firing of certain public officials.
Boris Johnson Defends Himself from Attacks by His Former Adviser
PM Boris Johnson rejected allegations by his previous adviser that he mishandled Britain’s coronavirus campaign and is unable to hold the position as a prime minister. In particular, he denied that there were thousands of unnecessary deaths under his rule. The Secretary of Health, Matt Hancock, also rejected Cumming’s allegations.
“We absolutely reject Mr. Cummings’ claims about the Health Secretary,” a spokesman for Hancock said in a statement, adding that Hancock and his department have “worked incredibly hard in unprecedented circumstances to protect the NHS and save lives”, he stated. He further added that the health secretary will continue his hard work along with the Prime Minister to deliver the vaccination in the best way possible and to solve everything related to this pandemic.
Are Cummings Accusations that Serious?
Cummings told MPs that there were at least 15 reasons why Hancock should have been fired, accusing him of ‘shameful and criminal behaviour’ for his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Johnson’s allies believe that Cummings’ accusations will not seriously harm the prime minister. A senior minister said his claims were like “revenge” and that people would perceive Cummings as ‘bitter.’
Moreover, Johnson’s allies are confident that the public is more focused on the successful vaccination program than on what happened last year.
Keir Starmer, the head of the official opposition, considers Cumming’s testimonial as to the latest chapter in a saga of uncertainty, turmoil, and terrible misjudgments. He believes that at some point in the future, the way Johnson’s government handled the COVID-19 pandemic might emerge the surface once again, and people to realize how much this government has failed them. Whether that will happen or not is yet to be seen, but at the moment, the UK government is fully focused on the vaccination process against COVID-19.