Boris Johnson “regarded [Covid] as a scare story – he described it as the new swine flu”, Dominic Cummings has told MPs. He claims the PM offered to get injected with Covid on TV to play down fears.

“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 Chris Whitty to inject me live on TV with coronavirus so everyone realises it’s nothing to be frightened of’ that would not help serious planning.”

Dominic Cummings has said she did not want to talk at government’s emergency Cobra meetings because there were too many leaks.

He also tells MPs he has texts and WhatsApp messages sent to Boris Johnson in the early stages of the crisis in 2020 which he is happy to share with them.

Cummings said he regrets that he “did not follow up” and “push” on pandemic preparations at the end of January, adding that it was not until the end of February that it was realised the plans were “hollow”.

Dominic Cummings has claimed key officials in government were “literally skiing” in the middle of February, as he described the lack of “urgency” at No 10.

He told MPs: “This is really important point to register: the government itself and No 10 was not operating on a war footing in February in any way shape or form.

“Lots of key people were literally skiing in the middle of February. It wasn’t until the last week of February that there was again any sense of urgency in terms of No 10 and Cabinet Office.”

Boris Johnson’s former senior adviser Dominic Cummings has told MPs the government “disastrously short” of the standards that should be expected of it when coronavirus hit the UK.

He also apologised for his own role in the mistakes that were made in his opening remarks to MPs.

“When the public needed us most the government failed,” he said. “I would like to say to all the families of those who died unnecessarily how sorry I am for the mistakes that were made and for my own mistakes at that.”

Dominic Cummings has shared a picture which appears to show a whiteboard of the government’s Covid plan – with the words “who do we not save?” on it – ahead of his imminent appearance before MPs.

The timing of Dominic Cummings’ evidence session comes just over a year after he created widespread controversy by driving to his parents’ property in Durham during the first lockdown.

Mr Cummings, who had been a figure lurking in the background of government dealings and a key individual in the Vote Leave campaign, has always been a curious character in the world of modern British politics.

So with his tell-all testimony expected to contain a few fireworks about his ex-colleagues, Greg Evans takes a look back at some of Mr Cummings’ most memorable moments to date.

After Dominic Cummings gives evidence to a joint select committee of MPs on Wednesday, our chief political commentator John Rentoul will answer your questions about what the PM’s former chief adviser said.

All you have to do is register to submit your question in the comments section on the below link. If you’re not already a member, click “sign up” in the comments box. Don’t worry if you can’t see your question – they will be hidden until John joins the conversation to answer them.

Join us live at 4pm as he tackles as many questions as he can.

That’s one way to avoid a tough question. While out for a run, Matt Hancock stopped and spoke to reporters to encourage newly-eligible 30-year-olds to “go out and get a vaccine”. Covid jabs were extended to the age bracket from today.

But when asked about Dominic Cummings’ upcoming evidence session before MP’s, the health secretary quickly resumed his running duties and gave only a wave as a Sky News reporter shouted after him.

“Smile and run boys, smile and run”, seems to be today’s official advice to ministers.

Ahead of his appearance before MPs, Dominic Cummings tweeted a picture of a whiteboard on which the government’s “plan B” for the first wave of the virus was sketched out.

Mr Cummings noted the government’s original plan was for limited intervention with the hope of achieving herd immunity but that was abandoned when it became clear the scale of the death toll that would result.

The “first sketch” was drawn up in Boris Johnson’s study on the evening of Friday 13 March and shown to the PM the following day.

Plan A “breaks” the NHS and results in a daily death toll of more than 4,000, Mr Cummings said, while plan B was supposedly for “lockdown, suppress, crash programs” – the accelerated drive to boost tests, treatments and develop vaccines in order to escape both the first and second waves.

Stepping away from Cummingsgate for a moment. Minister for women and equalities Liz Truss has admitted there were “fundamental disagreements” with the government’s LGBT+ panel before the decision was taken to disband the group last month.

She told MPs there was a “difference of opinion” on the issue of the Gender Recognition Act, with members of the panel supporting self-identification for gender recognition.

It comes after former members of the panel, which was disbanded in April, criticised ministers in the equality office of creating a “hostile environment” for the minority in Britain.

Our political correspondent Ashley Cowburn has more: