Dominic Cummings leaks bombshell WhatsApps claiming Boris Johnson described Hancock as ‘totally hopeless’

Boris Johnson described health secretary Matt Hancock as “totally hopeless”, according to leaked messages spurned former adviser Dominic Cummings has published on his blog.

After Cummings and Hancock both performed a thorough ‘he said, she said’ dance at their respective parliamentary hearings aimed at learning lessons from the coronavirus pandemic last month, Cummings has finally provided “evidence” to substantiate his allegation that Johnson wanted to fire Hancock, something Hancock denied.

In screenshots of what Cummings said was a WhatsApp conversation between him and the Prime Minister in March 2020, Johnson is alleged to have said Hancock was “totally f****** hopeless” in response to Cummings criticising Hancock on ramping up tests in the NHS.

Meanwhile, in another exchange about the struggles to procure ventilators for Covid-19 patients, Johnson reportedly said: “It’s Hancock. He has been hopeless.”

On PPE, something Hancock said was not an issue for the UK during his evidence, Johnson also allegedly wrote:

“I can’t think of anything except taking Hancock off and putting Gove on.”

While Cummings said he would provide evidence to the select committee where he originally made these claims, he did not, causing them and Hancock to give him a slap on the wrist. This is the first time he has substantiated his allegations.

He also repeated claims that Hancock failed to protect care homes, which Hancock denied, that the government’s border policy has contributed to the spread of the Delta variant, and that Hancock lied when he claimed everyone got the care they needed during his evidence hearing last week.

Moving to Johnson’s style in the Cabinet, Cummings said:

“As soon as things get ‘a bit embarrassing’ [he does the whole ‘let’s take it offline’ shtick before shouting ‘forward to victory’, doing a thumbs-up and pegging it out of the room before anybody can disagree.”

He also said Johnson will step down after the next election to “make money and have fun” which may be a good thing because...

“If No 10 is prepared to lie so deeply and widely about such vital issues of life and death last year, it cannot be trusted now either on Covid or any other crucial issue of war and peace,” Cummings wrote.

Responding to the claims, Labour’s Angela Rayner said the claims were “absolutely damning”.

Meanwhile, Matt Hancock said he disagreed that he was “hopeless”.

And teasing in his blog, Cummings added: “Hancock has also given a fictitious account of what happened on masks but I’ll leave that to another day.”

We’ve got the popcorn ready for that day.