Dominic Cummings has claimed Boris Johnson dismissed a second national lockdown because those dying of Covid were ‘essentially all over 80s’
(Jeff Overs/BBC/PA )
Boris Johnson resisted a second national coronavirus lockdown because he believed those dying were “essentially all over 80” and denied the NHS was overwhelmed, Dominic Cummings has claimed.
The prime minister’s former chief adviser shared WhatsApp messages with the BBC in his first broadcast interview as he accused his one-time boss of putting “his own political interests ahead of people’s lives”.
Mr Cummings has repeatedly accused the prime minister of being too slow in imposing the second lockdown, which came into force on 5 November.
The political adviser, who left Downing Street during a bitter row in November, shared a series of messages from 15 October that appear to be from Mr Johnson to aides.
Mr Cummings also claimed the prime minister wanted to meet the Queen early in the pandemic despite signs the virus was spreading in his office and the public was being told to avoid all unnecessary contact, particularly with the elderly.
MPs urge end to restrictions on Mountbatten diaries
MPs have called for restrictions on access to the diaries of Lord and Lady Mountbatten to be eased “without further obfuscation and delay”.
A £2 million heritage grant in 2010 enabled the University of Southampton to purchase the Broadlands Archive, which contains 4,500 boxes of official papers and personal correspondence from major figures in the Victorian era.
The papers of the Earl Mountbatten of Burma, the last viceroy of India, are part of the collection – and it includes a handwritten note from Mahatma Gandhi to Mountbatten where he details his vow of silence.
Lord Mountbatten, who was the Duke of Edinburgh’s uncle and a mentor to the Prince of Wales, was murdered by the IRA in County Sligo, Ireland, in 1979.
A cross-party group of MPs, led by senior Conservative Julian Lewis, has raised concerns over the lack of access to the personal diaries of the Mountbattens and highlighted the ongoing campaign from biographer Andrew Lownie.
Chiara Giordano20 July 2021 07:52
PM refused autumn lockdown because Covid victims ‘all over 80’, claims Cummings
Boris Johnson refused to take the country into lockdown in the autumn because “the people dying are essentially all over 80”, leaked phone messages appear to show.
The WhatsApp chats, passed to the BBC by former No 10 chief of staff Dominic Cummings, also show the prime minister saying he did not “buy all this NHS overwhelmed stuff” months before deaths soared to over 1,000 a day.
Our policy correspondent Jon Stone has more details:
Chiara Giordano20 July 2021 07:38
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Chiara Giordano20 July 2021 07:37
