The UK government would not take the Covid-19 pandemic seriously in March of 2020, the ex-leader of Britain’s Labour party Jeremy Corbyn said today.

This comes after the former chief adviser of the British prime minister Dominic Cummings alleged yesterday the UK’s government's initial response to the pandemic was to not take it that seriously, in explosive testimony.

Speaking today on RTÉ Radio One’s Drivetime, Mr Corbyn said that he had various meetings about Covid-19 with Boris Johnson and his government.

“I remained leader of the opposition up until April of last year, and during the period of the build up of the Covid crisis,” he said.

“I immediately formed an emergency subcommittee of the shadow cabinet. We immediately started challenging the government on taking the issue seriously. We had meetings with the government: several with the cabinet office, and one with Johnson later on and with other ministers.

“They simply would not take it seriously. They believed in this herd immunity nonsense.”

When discussing the UK’s government Covid-19 strategy yesterday, Mr Cummings said that: “Tens of thousands died who didn’t need to die”.

Mr Corbyn said that he “would like to think” he would have handled the pandemic better had his party won the last general election in December of 2019.

“First of all, we didn’t spend our time disparaging the World Health Organisation which Johnson and many of his backbench Tory MPs did,” he said.

“Secondly, we took the issue very, very seriously from the beginning, that when the WHO declares something to be a pandemic, you’ve got to take it very seriously and act accordingly.”

The MP for Islington North also addressed a comment made by Mr Cummings yesterday in which he said: “What is it about your parties that give choices like Johnson v Corbyn?”

Mr Corbyn responded: “He then said the worst choice in the election was between Boris Johnson and me. I can understand he doesn’t like me, I kind of get that. But Johnson was supposed to be his boy, his man. So they’ve obviously fallen out.

“There’s nothing worse than thieves that fall out, is there really? In that, Cummings has worked for Johnson in the referendum campaign, worked for him after that, worked for him in the cabinet office, worked for him during the election campaign.”

On a final note, Mr Corbyn was asked whether he believes Mr Johnson will be affected by Mr Cummings’ comments yesterday.

“I hope so, but I fear it won’t because we have a very quiet and complicit media in Britain,” he said.