Boris Johnson said that Matt Hancock’s efforts to set up a track and trace system last spring were “whistling in the dark”internal government messages leaked by former adviser Dominic Cummings.
In a frank email exchange on 26 April 2020, Mr Johnson told his adviser he was concerned that the UK could end up with “the double distinction of being the European country with the most fatalities and the biggest economic hit”.
And the PM said that efforts to trace contacts of Covid patients appeared to involve “legions of imaginary Clouseaus” – a reference to the bungling Pink Panther detective played by Peter Sellers.
A week later on 3 May, Cummings told Johnson in a text message that the failure to keep Covid out of care homes meant that “at the moment I think we are negligently killing the most vulnerable who we are suposed to be shielding”.
Mr Johnson made no attempt to dispute this assertion in his reply, instead asking for the latest figures on infections.
Inventing a new word to describe the impact of the health secretary’s performance, Mr Cummings said the UK had been “Hancocked”.
“Our political institutions systematically… promote Hancocks and systematically block learning from high performance, which is seen as a dangerous menace by normal bureaucracies,” he wrote.
“Thus we get Hancocked.”
Labour said the comments showed that the prime minister had lost confidence in Mr Hancock’s handling of the coronavirus crisis as early as the spring of last year and said it was “astounding” that the health secretary kept his job.
Mr Cummings launched his latest broadside against Mr Hancock – who he has previously said should have been sacked “15 or 20 times” for lying during the pandemic – just hours after the health secretary was forced to apologise for a romantic embrace with a female adviser at the Department of Health in breach of social distancing guidelines.
In an entry on his Substack blog, the prime minister’s former top adviser said he was publishing memos and text messages to show how Mr Hancock “failed terribly” in the early stages of the crisis.
He alleged that the health secretary “failed to act” to stop Covid-19 spreading into care homes and to get a viable track and trace system running because he was “absorbed” in plans for a press conference to announce his success in meeting a deadline for 100,000 daily coronavirus tests.
In his message to the PM on 26 April, Mr Cummings set out his own plans for test and trace, adding: “As usual, my team of irregulars is having to do this cos the centre cannot do it. NOT SUSTAINABLE.
“All this should have been done weeks ago and should not need me to do it. We can’t go on like this.”
Mr Johnson responded: “Thanks totally agree
“The whole track and trace thing feels like whistling in the dark
“Legions of imaginary clouseaus and no plan to hire them
“Apps that don’t yet work
“And above all no idea how to get new cases down to a manageable level or how long it will take
“By which time uk may have secured double distinction of being the European country w the most fatalities and the biggest economic hit
“So your email is bang on. We GOTTA turn it round.”
Responding to the release of the exchange, Labour’s shadow health minister Justin Madders said: “Matt Hancock’s failures continue to stack up.
“This latest blog from Mr Cummings reveals the prime minister lacked confidence in Hancock’s handling of the crisis, and yet astoundingly Boris Johnson kept the health secretary in post.
“He left care homes exposed, has admitted breaking his own Covid rules and failed to deliver Test and Trace when it was most needed. The charge sheet against Hancock continues to grow – so why hasn’t the prime minister had the confidence to sack him?”
Mr Cummings was himself blamed for undermining public confidence in lockdown rules with a trip to Durham with his wife and son early in the pandemic.
