Dominic Cummings hit out at a ‘dysfunctional system’ as the former prime minister ‘trollied’ indecisively.
Boris Johnson’s chaotic indecisiveness delayed lockdown measures, two of his top advisers have said, as it was alleged he believed coronavirus was “nature’s way of dealing with old people”.
But Mr Cummings also faced heavy scrutiny over his lockdown drive to Durham and his “misogynistic” use of language about one of the highest ranking female civil servants. Mr Cummings said vulnerable groups such as ethnic minorities and domestic abuse victims were “entirely appallingly neglected” during lockdown considerations.
Mr Cain, a long-term adviser to Mr Johnson who worked with him on the Brexit campaign, said his former boss’s erratic decision-making was “rather exhausting”.“Get in here he’s melting down,” Mr Cummings wrote on March 19 2020, days before the first lockdown, adding that Mr Johnson was “back to Jaws mode w***”.Explaining the Jaws reference, Mr Cain told the inquiry that Mr Johnson would refer to the mayor from the Steven Spielberg film “who wanted to keep the beaches open”.
“I think at that point – and it’s quite a strong thing to say – what would probably be clear in Covid is it was the wrong crisis for this prime minister’s skillset,” Mr Cain said. Asked if that was a longer-than-desired wait until the lockdown was announced, he said: “Yes, but I think you also have to consider it’s quite a big undertaking to lock down the entire country.”
Messages shown to the inquiry showed that in October 2020, Mr Johnson stressed the need to “recalibrate” away from a nationwide lockdown because it was mainly elderly people dying.
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