What a difference a day makes. By the end of Dominic Cummings’s evidence session with MPs it was a wonder that Matt Hancock didn’t just resign and turn himself into the nearest police station. It was devastating stuff. And yet, 24 little hours later, Hancock was back at the Downing Street podium, untroubled by the fuss, behaving, apparently, as though nothing had happened. Appropriately for a man in charge of the health service, it was the biggest comeback since Lazarus.
How so?
First, he is fortunate in having Dominic Cummings for an enemy. True, Cummings can muster evidence, deploy an argument and pursue it with determination; but on the other hand, “Dom” is pretty much still hated by the public and, more to the point, much of the Conservative party, who cannot easily forgive or forget the damage he has inflicted on their government and party. Cummings is far from being rehabilitated, and can easily be portrayed as an unreliable witness, a bitter and twisted figure who is mad, bad and dangerous to know.
