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Boris Johnson has confirmed plans to tear up social distancing and mask rules on 19 July despite forecasts of 50,000 daily coronavirus cases by that date, warning that failure to reopen society now could force England to keep restrictions in place until 2022.The prime minister said he believed that high vaccination levels will provide a summer “firebreak” to hold numbers of deaths down as the third wave of Covid-19 peaks, but admitted he might have to reimpose curbs in the winter if new jab-resistant variants emerge.Mr Johnson’s “now or never” announcement that he intends to allow all businesses – including nightclubs – to reopen and scrap limits on social gatherings and attendance at cultural and sporting events in two weeks’ time was welcomed by trade bodies.But the PM was branded “reckless” by Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, while unions and mayors, including those of London and Greater Manchester, made clear they want masks to remain mandatory on public transport.And the TUC said it was “not acceptable” for government to “outsource its health and safety responsibilities” by withdrawing the requirement to work from home where possible and handing over to employers the onus for providing a safe return to workplaces.The Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group said the government was “repeating many of the same mistakes they made last summer”.“It’s a gut-churning deja vu for those of us whose loved ones paid the ultimate price for those mistakes,” said co-founder Jo Goodman, who lost her father to the virus.And the Royal College of Nursing warned that healthcare workers will need enhanced protections if the government sends out the message to the public that masks are no longer needed.“This disease does not disappear on 19 July,” said the RCN’s Jude Diggins. “No available vaccine is 100 per cent effective. Public mask-wearing is straightforward and well-established – government will regret the day it sent the wrong signal for political expediency.”Public sector union Unison warned the “hasty” changes were “too much too soon” and would create “a confusing cocktail of guidance”. A YouGov poll found that 71 per cent believe masks should remain mandatory on public transport  and 66 per cent in shops for a further period after restrictions are lifted.And more than half (54 per cent) of those questioned in a separate survey by Savanta ComRes said that the public cannot be trusted to take the appropriate measures to protect themselves and others from coronavirus.In a press conference from Downing Street, Mr Johnson confirmed that he intends the delayed step four of his roadmap out of lockdown – initially pencilled in for 21 June, but held back because of the surge in cases of the infectious Delta variant of Covid – to take place on 19 July. But he stressed that ministers will not take a final decision until they have assessed the latest data on 12 July against their four tests for safe reopening.He announced there will be no mandatory “Covid passports” to control entry into venues such as pubs and restaurants – though businesses can impose schemes of their own.And he said that individuals will be allowed to take their own decisions on social distancing, as part of a drive to “move from government diktat to people using their personal responsibility”.Mr Johnson said that by July 19 every adult will have had the chance to have a first vaccine dose and two-thirds will have received their second jab. The recommended interval between doses will be cut for under-40s from 12 to eight weeks, allowing everyone over 18 to be fully protected by the middle of September, he said.But chief medical officer Chris Whitty and chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance left no doubt that they expect Delta variant cases to continue to gather pace in the weeks before 19 July.Flanking the PM, Prof Whitty said there was “uncertainty” over when the current third wave of coronavirus will peak, but said that modelling suggests it will come before pressure on the NHS reaches the intensity seen in January this year. And he said that the coming winter can be expected to be “very difficult for the NHS”.Mr Johnson himself said that the 27,334 positive cases reported on Monday across the UK could be expected to rise to 50,000 or more by 19 July, adding that “we must reconcile ourselves, sadly, to more deaths from Covid”.Nine deaths and 358 hospitalisations were recorded on Monday, but the 4.9 per cent weekly rise in fatalities was far below the 53.2 per cent increase in infections, in an indication of the effectiveness of vaccines.Mr Johnson warned: “If we don’t go ahead now, when we we’ve clearly done so much with the vaccination programme to break the link between infection and death, if we don’t go ahead now, when the summer firebreak is coming up with the school holidays and all the advantages that that should give us in in fighting the virus, the question is when would we go ahead?“Particularly given the likelihood that the virus will have an extra advantage in the colder months of the autumn and the winter.”Delaying beyond 19 July would “run the risk of either opening up at a very difficult time when the virus has an edge, has an advantage, in the colder months or again putting everything off to next year”, he said.But Prof Richard Tedder, senior research investigator in medical virology at Imperial College London, warned that scrapping all restrictions to social and economic life was “a very difficult balancing act”.“Using vaccines in the present way to ‘free up our behaviour’ comes with the very real risk of facilitating the escape of variants which will be even more resistant to vaccines and potentially more infectious,” he said. “Failing to recognise this is playing with fire.”Despite his previous promise to make relaxations of Covid restrictions “irreversible”, Mr Johnson admitted new curbs may be needed “if we do find another variant that doesn’t respond to the vaccines or if, heaven forbid, some really awful new bug should appear”.Mr Johnson’s plans for England were not echoed in the devolved nations, with Scotland’s clinical director saying face coverings should stay in place north of the border, and Welsh health minister Eluned Morgan saying Cardiff “will be driven by the data not by any political deadline that has been set out artificially, which time and time again in England has been set and then missed”.Sir Keir Starmer said that lifting all protections in one go when the infection rate is going up was “reckless”.“A balanced approach, a proper plan, would say keep key protections,” said the Labour leader.“One of them would be masks in enclosed places and on public transport – that’s a common sense position. More ventilation – that’s happening in other countries – is absolutely essential and proper payments for those that need to self-isolate.”The chair of Westminster’s all-party parliamentary group on coronavirus, Layla Moran, warned that Mr Johnson’s “rush” to ditch restrictions would expose thousands of unvaccinated people in younger age groups to the “devastating” impact of long Covid.Under Mr Johnson’s plans, the NHS Test and Trace system will continue to instruct Covid-positive people and their contacts to self-isolate. But the PM signalled that he wants to give exemptions to double-jabbed individuals identified as contacts of coronavirus patients.Transport secretary Grant Shapps will announce later this week whether they will also be allowed to return from “amber list” countries – including most popular European holiday resorts – without quarantine.Education secretary Gavin Williamson will announce on Tuesday the removal of group bubbling in schools and an end to the requirement for early years settings, schools and colleges to routinely carry out contact tracing. More

Boris Johnson’s national security adviser has said the world is “likely” to become a more dangerous place over the next five years.Sir Stephen Lovegrove – chief adviser to the prime minister on security issues – highlighted the growing risks from hostile foreign powers and cyberattacks when he appeared before MPs on Monday.Asked by Tory MP Tobias Ellwood if the world would become more dangerous over the next five years, Sir Stephen replied: “Many of the developments we’re seeing at the moment tend [to be] on the downside.”The national security adviser added: “So I would say it’s likely to be more dangerous.”His comments come as US indicated that it believes Russian hackers were responsible for Friday’s “colossal” ransomware attack which hit hundreds of businesses across America and around the world.Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove told MPs that the risk of cyber-attacks “has grown significantly in the course of the last 10 years” – promising the government would be “investing more time and care and thought in cyber-security”.Grilled by MPs on the National Security Strategy Committee, Mr Gove admitted the UK and its allies were “vulnerable” to cyber-attacks from “hostile states and other bad actors – whether terrorists organisations or anarchist or other groups”.Mr Gove claimed the UK had already developed “formidable capacity” to deal with such attacks, but said the government was trying to boost its cyber capabilities by training up a “cadre” of skilled technicians.Asked whether the government should increase its spending on defence and security, Sir Stephen said he did not see the picture changing significantly for the Ministry of Defence (MoD), compared to last year’s budget settlement.“Every single department in the whole of government would like more money,” he said. “Ultimately national priorities are for the prime minister and government to set.”Mr Gove said: “There are aspects of our national security which do not fall with our defence budget. With cyber threats, there are things that we should be doing in everything from our universities to way we tailor our apprenticeships.”On Monday more details emerged on how a Russia-linked criminal gang launched the single biggest global ransomware attack yet, having targeted software from Kaseya, a Miami-based supplier.An affiliate of the notorious REvil gang infected thousands of victims in at least 17 countries on Friday, largely through firms that remotely manage IT for multiple customers, according to cybersecurity researchers.Us president Joe Biden suggested at the weekend that the US would respond if it was determined that the Kremlin is at all involved.Less than a month ago, Mr Biden pressed Russian president Vladimir Putin to stop giving safe haven to REvil and other ransomware gangs whose unrelenting attacks the US deems a national security threat.Mr Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov was asked if Russia was aware of the attack or had looked into it. He said it had not yet investigated, but suggested it could be discussed by the US and Russia in consultations on cybersecurity issues. More

All rules on social distancing and mask-wearing are set to be torn up in England on 19 July, as Boris Johnson brushed aside appeals from city mayors and unions to keep safety restrictions on public transport, in shops and in workplaces.In a press conference from Downing Street, the prime minister announced that following the end of step 4 of his roadmap out of lockdown, individuals will be asked to take personal responsibility for making their own decisions on whether to wear masks and keep their distance from one another.Limits on attendance at mass events like concerts and sports matches will be scrapped, while requirements for table service in pubs and restaurants will go, businesses of all kinds – including nightclubs – will reopen, and people will be allowed to gather in groups of any size indoors or outside.The requirement to work from home where possible will be lifted, and employers will be asked to consult with staff on the return to the workplace.Mr Johnson confirmed that he intends the delayed step 4 of the roadmap – initially pencilled in for 21 June, but held back because of the surge in cases of the infectious Delta variant of Covid – to take place on 19 July. But he stressed that ministers will not take a final decision until assessing the latest data on 12 July against their four tests for safe reopening.And he said that there would be no mandatory “Covid passports” to control entry into venues such as pubs and restaurants – though businesses can impose schemes of their own.The interval between vaccine doses will be cut for under-40s from 12 to eight weeks, allowing everyone over 18 to receive two jabs by the middle of September.One scientist warned warned the PM was “playing with fire” by introducing new freedoms which might allow vaccine-resistant variants of Covid to develop.Daily infections are currently running at more than 25,000, and Mr Johnson admitted that positive cases may hit 50,000 a day by 19 July.The Unite union branded the decision to end mandatory mask use on buses and trains “an act of gross negligence by the government” at a time when infection rates of Covid-19 continue to rise.A YouGov poll found that 71 per cent believe face masks should remain mandatory on public transport  and 66 per cent in shops for a further period after restrictions are lifted.And London mayor Sadiq Khan and Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham issued appeals for Mr Johnson to rethink the change.Mr Burnham said: “I struggle to see how ministers can drop the requirement to wear masks on public transport without causing real problems for some people who are dependent on it. Those more vulnerable to infection or anxious about it will be put in a very unfair position.”And after talks with Transport for London, Mr Khan said: “The simplest and safest option going forward would be for the government to retain the requirement for face coverings on public transport”.While transport operators will be able to require mask use as a condition of travel, the prospect of confusion caused by differing rules on the complex network of publicly and privately-operated bus, train and tram services means it is thought unlikely that many will attempt to do so.TUC deputy secretary Paul Nowak said it was “not acceptable for the government to outsource its health and safety responsibilities to individuals and to employers”.And Unison assistant general secretary Jon Richards warned of a “confusing free-for-all, with ministers absolving themselves of any responsibility for public health” if face-coverings and other protective measures such as perspex sheeting are ditched prematurely in the workplace.Mr Johnson said that regulations requiring masks and social distancing will be replaced by guidance on when individuals may wish to take protective measures, such as in crowded spaces such as Tube trains.The one metre-plus distancing rule will be retained in ports and airports where people are arriving from abroad, as well as for people self-isolating after a positive test.The NHS Test and Trace system will continue to operate and people will still be required to self-isolate if they test positive for coronavirus or are asked to do so by Test and Trace.But Mr Johnson signalled that he wants to give exemptions from self-isolation requirements to double-jabbed individuals identified as contacts of coronavirus patients.And transport secretary Grant Shapps will announce later this week whether they will also be allowed to return from “amber list” countries – including most popular European holiday resorts – without quarantine.An announcement is also expected by education secretary on Tuesday Gavin Williamson on the removal of group bubbling in schools.Mr Johnson said the government was able to go ahead with wholesale lifting of Covid restrictions because of the success of the vaccine programme.Despite a 53 per cent rise in positive cases last week, with the daily total regularly topping 25,000, hospitalisations and deaths from coronavirus have risen more slowly, he said.The latest figures showed 128 deaths over seven days, up 5 per cent on the previous week, while 1,953 patients were taken into hospital over the same period.Prof Richard Tedder, senior research investigator in medical virology at Imperial College London, warned: “There has to be, whatever the financial costs, a recognition that we are on a very difficult balancing act, even with the extensive and laudable rollout of vaccines to people in this country.“Using these vaccines in the present way to ‘free up our behaviour’ comes with the very real risk of facilitating the escape of variants which will be even more resistant to vaccines and potentially more infectious. Failing to recognise this is playing with fire.“The repeated mantra ‘look at the infection rate, and the low disease rate’ is truly dangerous.”But sociology professor Robert Dingwall of Nottingham Trent University said that making mask-wearing voluntary was “a positive step”.“The benefits of masks have always been uncertain because the quality of the evidence in both directions is so weak,” said Prof Dingwall. “Any benefit has probably been quite small – or it would have been obvious even from weak studies – and needs to be offset by the psychological impact on population fear and anxiety, on children’s learning and interactions with adults, on people with communication issues and on the substantial number of adults who cannot wear masks because of underlying health conditions or other disorders, including previous trauma from assaults or abuse.”Unite national officer for passenger transport Bobby Morton said: “To end the requirement to wear masks on public transport would be an act of gross negligence by the government.“Rates of infection are continuing to increase and not only does mask-wearing reduce transmissions it helps provide reassurance to drivers and to passengers who are nervous about using public transport.“Until rates of Covid-19 are fully under control throughout the whole of the UK, the rules on mask-wearing on public transport should remain in place.” More

Related video: Boris Johnson to restore freedoms as he tells public to ‘learn to live’ with Covid-19Tony Blair would “obviously” have been a better leader than Boris Johnson during the pandemic, Dominic Cummings has said.The prime minister’s former top adviser also said Mr Johnson admitted in 2016 it would be “ludicrous” for him to be prime minister.Mr Cummings claimed the admission came on the day after the EU referendum which delivered victory for Leave and just after David Cameron announced he would quit as PM.Elsewhere, Ireland’s foreign minister Simon Coveney has said a joint article published by the Brexit minister and Northern Ireland secretary was “very strange” and their approach to addressing perceived problems with the protocol have the potential to cause “huge problems”.Show latest update

1625496898Tony Blair would have made better pandemic PM than Boris Johnson, says CummingsTony Blair would have “obviously” done a much better job of leading the UK through the Covid pandemic than Boris Johnson, the prime minister’s former top adviser Dominic Cummings has said.Asked by visitors to his blog whether the former Labour prime minister would have done a better job, he replied: “Obviously he’d have done a much better job – he would at least read papers, chair meetings, understand how goverment machine works, not trolley around all day.“And my impression is since losing on Brexit he’s jumped ahead of almost all MPs in understanding that science and technology must be the future orientation for UK.”Full report from political editor Andrew Woodcock here:Liam James5 July 2021 15:541625496120Is the government ‘buying British’? | Defence questionsDuring defence questions in the House of Commons, Labour’s John Healey asked Ben Wallace, the defence secretary, what proportion of the government’s defence equipment budget goes to the US, rather than British suppliers.The shadow defence secretary told the Commons: “The Prime Minister has promised an extra 10,000 jobs in defence each year for the next four years. Buy British is the best way to deliver this promise so that we design and build for ourselves in Britain. It strengthens our economy, it strengthens our sovereignty. Now his defence equipment budget is now £19bn, what proportion goes not to Britain, but to US suppliers?”Mr Wallace said buying from UK suppliers may not necessarily amount to “buying British”, adding it was important to buy abroad to keep a foot in the international market. He said: “Many suppliers in this country may not be entirely UK in so far as their ownership of the country… We often insist that a significant proportion of those projects are made in the UK.“For example, the Boxer vehicle which is over 65 per cent components UK made, including in Stockport for example the metal frame, does provide British jobs even if sometimes the ownership of the countries are indeed international.“But of course it’s important to have international components because we also… want to sell abroad and if we shut everyone else out, we shouldn’t be surprised if they don’t buy from us.”Liam James5 July 2021 15:421625494751Kim Leadbeater sworn in as Labour MPKim Leadbeater has taken her seat in the House of Commons after winning the Batley and Spen by-election for the Labour Party.The sister of murdered MP Jo Cox was welcomed into Parliament by Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer and was accompanied by party colleagues as she entered the chamber.She opted to affirm her allegiance to the Queen during the brief swearing-in ceremony and then gave a thumbs-up to MPs on both sides of the Commons.Ben Wallace, the defence secretary, told MPs: “Could I just congratulate the honourable member for Batley and Spen for taking her place and also say my personal admiration for both her bravery and sense of duty in putting herself forward to stand for that seat after the tragic loss of her sister.” More

London mayor Sadiq Khan has urged Boris Johnson to maintain the mandatory requirement to wear face coverings on public transport in place beyond 19 July.The prime minister is expected to announce later on Monday that masks will no longer be required from the final step of England’s road map out of lockdown in two weeks’ time.But Mr Khan believes masks must be required beyond so-called “freedom day” – saying they would give all Londoners “confidence” to travel on Transport for London (TfL) network safely.“Today the mayor has had discussions with the TfL commissioner, and both are clear that the simplest and safest option going forward would be for the government to retain the requirement for face coverings on public transport,” said Mr Khan’s spokeswoman.“Should the government lift the requirement for mandatory face coverings on public transport, TfL will have discussions with other train operating companies and the DfT about next steps and how to ensure passengers have the confidence to use public transport.”It is not clear if Mr Khan, chair of the TfL network, is preparing to defy the government and enforce a mandatory requirement to wear masks on the network.The mayor’s spokeswoman said divergence of rules across different modes of transport would be “complex as well as confusing for passengers” – noting that millions of Londoners use national rail services as well as TfL each day.Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham has also urged the government to retain the mandatory requirement to wear a face covering on public transport and other “locations where people don’t have a choice to go”.But he told BBC Radio 4’s World At One that he would not make them mandatory on the Manchester tram network that his office controls, saying: “I just don’t think it would work”.“If the government comes up with a national ruling I just don’t see how we would be able to enforce it at our level,” he said.Unite and other transport workers’ trade unions have called for face coverings to remain mandatory on public transport.Unite’s Bobby Morton said scrapping the requirement to wear masks while infections increased would be “an act of gross negligence by the government”.He added: “The idea of personal responsibility and hoping that people will wear masks is absolutely ridiculous.”Train operators have pledged to “support” passengers who continue wearing face coverings if they become voluntary. But industry body the Rail Delivery Group (RDG) demanded that any relaxation of the rules around their use indoors must apply to trains.“Trains should be treated consistently with other indoor settings when it comes to the removal or ongoing use of restrictions,” said a RDG spokesman. More

Prime minister Boris Johnson is to tell the nation that the UK must “begin to learn to live with this virus” at a Downing Street press conference on coronavirus this evening. Mr Johnson will also provide an update on rules in relation to mask-wearing, social distancing, care home visits, vaccine “passports” and working from home guidance. He is expected to tell Brits to use their “judgement” to manage Covid-19 risks once the final stage of his roadmap out of lockdown is reached, expected to be on the 19 July. No 10 has not yet announced whether the briefing will take place in the usual 5pm slot.“Today we will set out how we can restore people’s freedoms when we reach Step 4,” Mr Johnson said. “But I must stress that the pandemic is not over and that cases will continue to rise over the coming weeks.“As we begin to learn to live with this virus, we must all continue to carefully manage the risks from Covid and exercise judgment when going about our lives.” You can watch his full remarks live on Independent TV this evening. Alongside the prime minister’s press conference, health secretary Sajid Javid will update MPs on Covid-19 rules in the House of Commons at around 3pm and the government will publish the results of its reviews of Covid-certification certificates and social distancing. The prime minister is expected to announce that social distancing in pubs and bars will end on 19 July, allowing customers to order at the bar, while scanning QR codes to check in to such venues is also likely to be scrapped. Mask-wearing is, meanwhile, set to become voluntary inside shops and hospitality venues and on public transport. Housing secretary Robert Jenrick told Sky News that “the state won’t be telling you what to do” in future, but that people “will want to exercise a degree of personal responsibility and judgement”. He added: “different people will come to different conclusions on things like masks, for example.”Health secretary Sajid Javid has similarly said that the UK must “find ways to cope” with the virus, as it has with flu. But this approach has drawn criticism from scientists including Sage’s professor Susan Michie, who likened allowing community transmission to surge to building “new ‘variant factories’ at a very fast rate”. Labour have, meanwhile, urged the government to admit how many Covid-related deaths they’re willing to accept in order to drop all remaining guidance and restrictions. More

Boris Johnson admitted that he was a “ludicrous” choice for prime minister, his former top aide Dominic Cummings has said.Mr Cummings said the admission came on 24 June 2016, the day after the EU referendum which delivered victory for Leave and just after David Cameron announced he would quit as PM.In a scathing dissection of the prime minister’s character, Cummings – the backroom supremo of the Vote Leave campaign – said that he and his team were already aware at that point that Johnson was “in any objective sense, unfit to be PM”.But he said he agreed three years later to join Johnson in Downing Street because he believed that, ”features of Boris that are in principle very bad in a PM can be turned to advantage”.In the latest of a series of highly critical commentaries about the PM on his Substack blog, Mr Cummings said Johnson’s character was divided into Normal Boris – or Boris-N – and Self-Aware Boris – or Boris-SA – which came to the fore only when his political future was threatened.“Boris-SA knows that Boris-N cannot manage, knows Boris-N cannot focus, knows Boris-N has no interest in policy and knows he needs saving from himself,” he wrote. “Boris-N wants to remain ‘viable in the system’, Boris-SA will smash the system to survive.”He said that Mr Johnson lies “so blatantly, so naturally, so regularly” that there was no distinction with him between truth and falsehood.The PM “trusts nobody including his own family”, will “sacrifice anybody for his career” and is “totally untrusted by anybody in No 10”, said the former senior adviser.And he described the PM’s wife Carrie as a “wildcard”, who had initially backed Cummings and his team, but in 2020 “like some demonic Russian virus” infecting a computer system had started creating “a new and very unwelcome version” of Johnson’s personality – Boris-Carrie mode – which he said he will discuss in a future blog.Answering questions from readers, he said it was “obvious” that Tony Blair would have done “a much better job” as prime minister during the Covid pandemic than Johnson and the PM was “obviously” wrong to plan the removal of most social distancing rules on 19 July against the advice of many scientists”.Mr Cummings recalled a moment on the day after the referendum, when Mr Johnson pulled him aside for a private word at Vote Leave HQ.“Boris told me with a laugh, ‘Obviously it’s ludicrous me being PM — but no more ludicrous than Dave (Cameron) or George (Osborne), don’t you think?’,” wrote Mr Cummings. “I agreed.”Mr Johnson’s period as foreign secretary from 2016-18 provided “a severe warning” of the dangers of allowing him into Downing Street, said Mr Cummings.“Boris won’t read the papers,” he wrote. “He cannot chair meetings to save his life. He has no idea how Whitehall works and has no interest in it. He wants to believe everyone loves him and is blind to official manoeuvring even when it is brazen…“His whole being wants to throw himself into the arms of polite young Balliol [the University of Oxford college] men and enjoy the trappings of power while they do the work and pull the strings.“He believes in the system — after all it’s made him famous and is making him PM!”Cummings said that within days of winning the Tory leadership in July 2019, Mr Johnson pleaded with him to come into Downing Street with his team of Vote Leave veterans.He said that Mr Johnson told him he feared being the shortest-serving PM ever, and that his downfall would usher in a Jeremy Corbyn government, a second EU referendum and “maybe the end of the Tory Party”.He said Johnson admitted he did not know how to deal with negotiations with the EU or how to get any deal through parliament and needed Cummings because “the Vote Leave team knows how to win under extreme pressure and I’m under extreme pressure”. Cummings said that he saw “great attractions” in standing to one side and allowing the Conservative party to “implode”.He thought at the time that “instead of saving Westminster and the Conservative Party from themselves, this is maybe the best chance we’ll get in decades to destroy the Conservative Party and create something much better”, he wrote.But Mr Cummings said that his team decided to throw their weight behind Johnson, believing that “if we win the election then he tries to move us out of No 10, we can try to move him out of No 10 – two can play at that game – and we can use reshuffles to move some much more able people into position”.Explaining his decision to join Johnson’s administration in Downing Street, he said: “Some pundits have suggested I’m an idiot because I didn’t understand Boris’s character until late 2020.“I and my team worked with Boris in the referendum. Some of us worked with him, officially or unofficially, between the referendum and summer 2019. We knew his skills and his weaknesses. We knew he was, in any objective sense, unfit to be PM. We also knew that he knew too, since he’d told us.“But the question facing us in summer 2019 was not: ‘is Boris fit to be PM?’.“It was: ‘Should we a) try to help him solve the constitutional crisis, if necessary by winning an election, or b) leave the whole thing alone, knowing that without us the Conservative Party, being what it is, will probably fail to solve the problem and cause a second referendum, Corbyn as PM and maybe its own destruction?’”Mr Cummings said he believed the “problems of Boris as PM” could be “partly mitigated by himself and his team, who understood politics and the functioning of Whitehall better than either Mr Johnson or the Tory party.His “ignorance of Whitehall, his uninterest in policy and his desire to enjoy himself rather than work hard” combined with the constitutional crisis created by the Brexit result created “a very weird opportunity to force through certain important things that the system left to itself won’t do,” wrote Cummings.“Precisely because he doesn’t know what he’s doing, we may be able to get him to agree things ‘the system’ will think are ‘extreme’ but we think are necessary — like reorienting the whole state machine away from Brussels towards science and technology.”Mr Cummings rejected depictions of Mr Johnson as either a “clown or a “campaigning genius”.“Boris is complex portrayed as simple,” he wrote. “Behind each mask lies another mask – but there’s no masterplan behind all the masks, just the age old ‘will to power’.”He said Johnson was “happy to hide behind the mask of a clown” and was not bothered by the ridicule he attracts.“He is both much more useless than the media portray and much more capable of self-awareness and ruthlessness than they ever portray, or his enemies usually discern,” wrote Cummings.“He routinely says and does things so foolish that people are open-mouthed, and is so hopeless at getting rid of duffers, so determined to avoid difficult situations, that people are usually shocked when he suddenly moves with ruthless speed to remove them.“He was desperate to be prime minister but has almost no interest in the job.” More

Tony Blair would have “obviously” done a much better job of leading the UK through the Covid pandemic than Boris Johnson, the prime minister’s former top adviser Dominic Cummings has said.The comment came as Mr Cummings delivered a scathing assessment of Mr Johnson’s ability and character in the latest of his Substack blogposts.Mr Cummings said it had been clear to him for some time that Johnson was “unfit to be PM” as he was a habitual liar with little interest in achieving anything in power and little understanding of government and was “totally untrusted by anybody in No 10”.He said Mr Johnson was known in Downing Street as the “trolley” because of his tendency to veer around uncontrollably.Answering questions from blog readers, Mr Cummings was asked whether former Labour PM Blair would have done a better job of leading the UK through the Covid pandemic.He replied: “Obviously he’d have done a much better job – he would at least read papers, chair meetings, understand how goverment machine works, not trolley around all day.“And my impression is since losing on Brexit he’s jumped ahead of almost all MPs in understanding that science and technology must be the future orientation for UK.”Mr Cummings said Mr Johnson was “absolutely” wrong to lift almost all Covid restrictions on 19 July as he plans.Asked whether this was a good decision, the former Downing Street adviser replied: “Obviously not, and No10 has been told by scientific advisers not to do what they’re doing.” More