Dominic Cummings told Michael Gove ministers should be “shot” for failing to respond to the pandemic quickly enough in a WhatsApp conversation revealed by the Covid-19 inquiry.
Boris Johnson’s former chief of staff has complained of a lack of planning in tackling the Covid outbreak as cases and hospitalizations soared.
In messages included in the request sent on March 11, 2020, as the scale of the pandemic became clear, Mr Cummings told Mr Gove: “Obv CabOff [Cabinet Office] this is a damn joke. They told us they have a plan. Based on nonsense.”
“Indeed,” Mr Gove replied.
Mr Cummings said: “I’m tempted to go to the village with my family and hold a press conference where I say you’re on your own. “CabOff and Parliament have ruined us all… people should be shot.”
Mr Gove, a minister and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, asked when the pandemic began in 2020: “Who do you think will be first in line?”, to which Mr Cummings replied: “Not for phones!”
The exchange of WhatsApp messages also revealed that Mr Gove told Mr Cummings at the start of the pandemic that the government was “crap”.
Hugo Keith CC, the inquiry’s lawyer, quoted Mr Gove in a March 4 deposition: “You know me, I don’t rant often, but as a government we are in disarray and missing out on golden opportunities.”
“I will continue to do everything I can, but the whole situation is worse than you think and action needs to be taken, otherwise we will regret it for a long time.”
When asked to explain his comments, Mr Gove told the inquiry he was concerned at the time about the “ability and structure” of the Cabinet Office to deliver the government’s priorities.
He said: “I was thinking about Covid but it wasn’t the main topic I was writing about. It was about the cabinet as a whole, including its ability to deal with Covid.”
The senior Tory subsequently apologized for his remarks, adding that the “weaknesses” in the Cabinet Office for which he recently took responsibility had been further exposed by Covid-19.
Mr Gove apologized to victims and survivors for the government’s “mistakes” during the pandemic and listed shortcomings. But the senior Tory also defended Boris Johnson’s No 10 against accusations of his dysfunction. Gove said he accepted some responsibility for “mistakes” made at the highest political levels during the crisis.
He said: “If I could take a moment to apologize to the victims who have suffered so much pain, to the families who have suffered so much because of the mistakes made by the government in response to the pandemic, there would be loss.”
“As a minister who is responsible for the cabinet and has been involved in many decisions, I must take my share of responsibility for this. Politicians are people. We are fallible. We make mistakes and we make mistakes. I am confident that the investigation will provide an opportunity to examine in detail the many mistakes made by myself and others.”
When Mr Gove was later asked where the Government had gone wrong, he gave a straightforward answer. “I think we slowed down the introduction of quarantine too much in March 2020. “I think we should have taken stricter measures before we finally decided to do this at the end of October.”
The trials should have been more carefully studied, the impact on children was not sufficiently taken into account and there were errors in the procurement of personal protective equipment, he added, pointing out that this was not even an exhaustive list. He said the UK “definitely did not prepare well enough” for the spreading pandemic in March 2020.
However, the minister also defended his conduct and that of his cabinet staff, saying no easy decisions should be taken at this time.
“I want to emphasize that at every moment, in circumstances where every decision was difficult and every course was bad, I and those with whom I worked also tried to make decisions that we believed were possible to cope with unprecedented situation. “a virus and a remarkable attack on the country’s institutions.”
While some mistakes were “unique and specific to the UK Government”, Mr Gove stressed that “we must not forget that governments everywhere have made mistakes”.
Mr Gove also sought to play down allegations repeatedly made during the inquiry that Mr Johnson’s No 10 was in chaos.
Although there have been “strong personalities” in Downing Street under Johnson, “the nature of politics is that you always have strong views, sometimes expressed strongly,” he told Keith.
Mr Gove also said he had a “high opinion” of former health secretary Matt Hancock, who was repeatedly criticized by a number of witnesses before the inquiry.
Several witnesses raised concerns about his performance as health minister. The investigation revealed that the country’s most senior official at the time, Lord Sedwill, wanted to sack Hancock. Mr Gove argued that “too much was asked” of Mr Hancock’s Department of Health and Social Care at the start of the pandemic and that other parts of government should have taken on more. “I think highly of Matt Hancock as a minister,” Gove said.
The promotion secretary, who has held a number of senior government posts, also told the inquiry that the cabinet was “flawed” and ineffective in dealing with crises.
“The Cabinet Office alone has, over the years, not functioned as effectively as it should have to effectively implement public policy, both in the normal course of business and in response to crises,” he said. .
The Surrey Heath MP noted at one point that a significant number of the panel believed Covid-19 was “man-made”, but Mr Keith told him the “divisive” issue was not part of the mandate. research.
Source: I News
I’m Raymond Molina, a professional writer and journalist with over 5 years of experience in the media industry. I currently work for 24 News Reporters, where I write for the health section of their news website. In my role, I am responsible for researching and writing stories on current health trends and issues. My articles are often seen as thought-provoking pieces that provide valuable insight into the state of society’s wellbeing.