Cummings Says PM Saw Covid as Scare Story: U.K. Politics Update

(Bloomberg) -- Boris Johnson is facing a barrage of criticism over his handling of the pandemic from his former adviser, Dominic Cummings, who has told a parliamentary committee the prime minister did not take the crisis seriously enough as Covid hit.

The ex-aide is giving evidence to a parliamentary hearing about the government’s missteps that contributed to the U.K. suffering the worst pandemic death toll in Europe. Cummings leveled the blame at the whole government -- saying ministers and officials had “disastrously” failed the public when people needed them most.

While Cummings himself is a controversial figure, the risk for Johnson is that the criticism brings an abrupt end to the run of positive headlines he’s received over the U.K.’s successful vaccine rollout, and optimism over the end of lockdown.

Key Developments:

• Cummings tells MPs he’s “sorry” for his role in failed government response to Covid
• Cummings says top officials went “skiing” as Covid crisis blew up
• Transport Secretary Grant Shapps dismisses Cummings’s appearance as a “side show”
• Johnson set to take questions in Parliament from 12:30 p.m.

Johnson Thought Covid Was ‘Scare Story’ (9:50 a.m.)

Boris Johnson regarded coronavirus as a “scare story” in February 2020 and described it as “the new swine flu”, Cummings told the MPs.

He said government officials thought it would be best if the prime minister did not chair emergency Cobra meetings.

“The view of various officials inside Number 10 was if we have the prime minister chairing Cobra meetings and he just tells everyone it’s swine flu, don’t worry about it, I’m going to get [chief medical officer] Chris Whitty to inject me live on TV with coronavirus so everyone realizes it’s nothing to be frightened of, that would not help serious planning.”

‘People Were Literally Skiing’ as Crisis Unfolded (9:45 a.m.)

Cummings was critical of how slowly the government was to realise the scale of the crisis in the early months of 2020. He said Covid was raised with the prime minister in the first half of January but was not the administration’s top priority until the final days of February.

“In no way shape or form did the government act in January like it was the most important thing,” Cummings said. “The government and Number 10 were not operating in a war-footing in February. Lots of people were literally skiing in the middle of February.”

“In retrospect I should have hit the panic button much more than I was in February,” Cummings said.

Cummings: Ministers ‘Fell Disastrously Short’ (9:35 a.m.)

Dominic Cummings began his testimony to Parliament by telling MPs that “senior ministers, senior officials, advisers fell disastrously short of the standards that the public has a right to expect in a crisis like this.”

“When the public needed us most, the government failed,” Cummings said. “I want to say sorry.”

Shapps: Cummings’s Appearance a ‘Sideshow’ (Earlier)

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps dismissed Cummings’s appearance in Parliament as a “side show.”

“I’ll leave others to determine how reliable a witness to all this he is,” he told Sky News on Wednesday.

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