Dominic Cummings hurls insults at Boris Johnson

Dominic Cummings’ personal assault on Boris: Ex chief of staff says its ‘crackers’ he is PM, accuses him of dismissing virus as ‘scare story like Swine flu’ and tells how he ignored repeated calls for lockdown

• Dominic Cummings lobbed a series of astounding accusations at Boris Johnson
• He said it was ‘crackers’ that former boss ever got the top job in the first place
• Cummings was the strategist behind Johnson’s landslide election win in 2019
• Claimed PM brushed off Covid-19 as ‘scare story’ and called it ‘the new swine flu’ 

Dominic Cummings today lobbed a series of astounding accusations at the Prime Minister while giving an account of the government’s response to Covid today. 

Mr Cummings said it was ‘crackers’ that Boris Johnson – his former boss – ever got the top job in the first place. 

The maverick former No10 chief was the strategist behind Mr Johnson’s landslide election win in 2019 and the Leave campaign winning the 2016 Brexit campaign.

Mr Cummings also said the PM brushed off Covid-19 as a ‘scare story’ and dubbed it ‘the new swine flu’.

Another astonishing allegation saw him claim Mr Johnson’s fiancée Carrie Symonds was a distraction when she went ‘completely crackers’ about their dog Dilyn on a key early day in the pandemic.

Below is every spear Cummings fired at the PM in full:

Dominic Cummings today lobbed a series of astounding accusations at the Prime Minister while giving an account of the government’s response to Covid today

Mr Cummings said it was ‘crackers’ that Boris Johnson (pictured) – his former boss – ever got the top job in the first place

It was ‘crackers’ Boris Johnson ever became the Prime Minister

Mr Cummings said it was ‘completely crackers’ Mr Johnson was in charge and that thousands of people in the country could provide better leadership than the Prime Minister.

Mr Cummings said the fact that the public had to choose between Mr Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn in the 2019 election meant it was clear that the electoral system had ‘gone extremely, extremely badly wrong’.

‘There’s so many thousands and thousands of wonderful people in this country who could provide better leadership than either of those two,’ he said.

‘And there’s obviously something terribly wrong with the political parties if that’s the best that they can do.’

He also said that ‘in any sensible, rational government’ he would have not had the power he did.

‘It is completely crazy that I should have been in such a senior position in my personal opinion,’ he said.

‘I’m not smart. I’ve not built great things in the world.

‘It’s just completely crackers that someone like me should have been in there, just the same as it’s crackers that Boris Johnson was in there, and that the choice at the last election was Jeremy Corbyn.

‘It’s also the case that there are wonderful people inside the Civil Service, there are brilliant, brilliant officials all over the place. But the system tends to weed them out from senior management jobs.

‘And the problem in this crisis was very much lions led by donkeys over and over again.’ 

Cummings (pictured celebrating in Mr Johnson’s study on election night in 2019) was the strategist behind Johnson’s landslide election win in 2019 and the Leave campaign winning the 2016 Brexit campaign

The Prime Minister brushed off Covid-19 as a ‘scare story’ and ‘the new swine flu’

Mr Cummings also accused the PM of playing down the threat of the pandemic.

He said Mr Johnson regarded Covid-19 as ‘another scare story’.

‘The basic thought was that in February the prime minister regarded this as just a scare story … he described it as the new swine flu,’ the former-adviser said.

Boris Johnson offered to be injected with Covid-19 on live TV 

Alongside brushing off coronavirus as just ‘swine flu’, Mr Johnson offered to be injected with it on live television to reassure the public, Mr Cummings claimed.

He told the committee: ‘The view of various officials inside No10 was if we have the PM chairing Cobra meetings and he just tells everyone ”it’s swine flu don’t worry about it, I am going to get Chris Whitty to inject me live on TV with coronavirus so everyone realise it’s nothing to be frightened of”, that would not help actual serious planning.’ 

Dominic Cummings speaks at a committee hearing in Portcullis House in London today

The PM did not heed lockdown warnings in March

The maverick 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 s***. 

‘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.’

And on March 14, Boris Johnson was told that models showing the peak was ‘weeks and weeks and weeks away’ in June were ‘completely wrong’.

He said the PM was warned: ‘The NHS is going to be smashed in weeks, really we’ve got days to act.’ 

Mr Johnson announced a lockdown on March 23. 

Mr Cummings said the situation in Downing Street in mid-March was like ‘a scene from Independence Day with Jeff Goldblum saying the aliens are here and your whole plan is broken and you need a new plan’.

Dominic Cummings claimed Boris Johnson’s fiancée Carrie Symonds distracted the Prime Minister on March 12 – key day early in the pandemic.

He said she went ‘completely crackers’ about their dog Dilyn.

The Prime Minister’s former chief aide said that on March 12 last year, Downing Street was trying to deal with the unfolding pandemic and the US wanting the UK to join in with a bombing campaign in the Middle East.  

But the PM was distracted that day by his partner Ms Symonds, who was furious about a story in the Times that claimed the couple were considering getting rid of their dog Dilyn. 

Mr Cummings said the combination of events ‘sounds so surreal couldn’t possibly be true’.

Carrie Symonds holds the couple’s dog Dilyn in Uxbridge, West London, on December 13, 2019

Carrie Symonds was so incensed by the story in the Times that she took to Twitter to claim it was ‘total c**p’

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