Dominic Cummings reopens the box of thunder
Dominic Cummings has reopened the box of thunder against Boris Johnson. The former adviser to the prime minister launched a cascade of accusations over the weekend, ahead of his appearance in Westminster on May 26, when he plans to reveal the “shocking truth” about the failed pandemic strategy that has claimed more than 128,000 fatalities in the UK.
In a series of explosive Twitter posts, Cummings blames Johnson for initially seeking “herd immunity.”. “In the week of March 9 (2020), Downing Street was warned that this strategy could lead to disaster and cause the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people,” says the former Johnson strategist and architect of the Brexit victory. .
“It was at that moment that Plan B was launched,” Cummings emphasizes, referring to the first confinement that was finally implemented on March 23.. As he is prepared to testify before a parliamentary committee on Wednesday, “herd immunity until September” was the slogan that was in force for several weeks.
His statements will put the government's scientific adviser, Patrick Wallace, on the fore, who on March 13 even insinuated that “group immunity” was one of the objectives. Two days later, Health Secretary Matt Hancock amended the story for the media, stating that herd immunity was “neither a goal nor a strategy.”
In his flurry of tweets, released on Saturday night, Cummings accuses Hancock of spreading “lies” about preparing for the health crisis and confirms that he pressured Boris Johnson several times to promote the resignation of the Secretary of Health, on the rope loose until achieving its particular redemption (and that of the premier) with the recent success of the vaccination campaign.
Cummings argues that the second and third lockdowns could have been avoided “if there had been someone competent in charge.”
Boris's Rasputin – who caused a national furor with his family's 400km journey from London to Durham during the first lockdown – says he and scientific advisers recommended a “short circuit” in the hardest-hit areas of northern England in September , but that the premier resisted until he was forced to impose the second “lock” in November.
Internal government sources, quoted by The Sunday Times, acknowledged their concern at Cummings' personal accusations against Johnson for his disdain in the run-up to the crisis and his five notorious absences from as many Cobra emergency cabinets. The former strategist can argue that the premier was busy writing his overdue biography of Shakespeare, driven by the need to pay for the divorce from his second wife, Marina Wheeler.
Cummings also attacked in his tweets against “the incompetence of the media” and refuted the widespread belief until now that it was precisely he who resisted the confinements.. “Obviously, they were destructive,” he writes in the past. “But it was what had to be done, because the alternative was hundreds of thousands of people drowning to death and many others deprived of public health for months.”
The former strategist, who left through the back door of Downing Street in November, also attacks “the particularly horrible process” of Covid tests among the population: “If the tests had been implemented on a massive scale earlier, we could possibly have avoided the last two confinements until the arrival of the vaccines”.
Downing Street has responded briefly to Cummings' accusations, alleging, through a spokesman, that “herd immunity has never been an objective or part of our strategy against the coronavirus”. The aforementioned spokesman stressed that the goal has been and continues to be “to save lives and avoid saturation of the National Health System.”
Cummings has promised to make the documentation to support his testimony available to the parliamentary committee on Science and Health, although the Official Secrets Act prevents him from making “classified material” public.