Markus Andrews

U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s former chief aide said Wednesday that the government “failed” the British people and “fell disastrously short” in handling the coronavirus pandemic.Dominic Cummings made a blistering attack on the government he once served, telling lawmakers investigating Britain’s pandemic response that some ministers and officials went on vacation as the virus swept toward the U.K. in February 2020.He said the government “was not operating on a war footing on this in February in any way, shape or form. Lots of people were literally skiing.”“The truth is that senior ministers, senior officials, senior advisers like me, disastrously short of the standards that the public has a right to expect of its government in a crisis like this,” Cummings said.“When the public needed us most, the government failed,” he said, adding that people “died unnecessarily” as a result.The U.K. has recorded almost 128,000 coronavirus deaths, the highest toll in Europe Lockdowns shut down most of the economy, and the country experienced one of the world’s deepest recessions A mass vaccination campaign that started in December has brought infections and fatalities down sharply, but the government acknowledges it will have to answer serious questions about its handling of the virus at a future public inquiry.Cummings’ testimony to Parliament s science and health committees gave a taste of what might come out. Parliamentary committee sessions are often dry affairs, but Cummings’ was broadcast live on television.One of the architects of the successful campaign to take Britain out of the European Union, Cummings was appointed a top adviser when Johnson became prime minister in 2019. He left in November amid a power struggle inside the prime minister’s office.In recent days, Cummings has used Twitter to direct a torrent of criticism at his former employer, accusing Johnson of overseeing a chaotic government whose failure to act quickly against the coronavirus caused thousands of unnecessary deaths.Cummings accuses the government of sticking with a policy of “herd immunity” — allowing the virus to spread through the population while protecting the most vulnerable — until it was too late to prevent draconian lockdowns and many deaths.The government denies that “herd immunity” was ever its policy. More

Dominic Cummings has doubled down on claims that the government was ready to make “herd immunity” its main response to the coronavirus pandemic, in the face of denials from Downing Street and a string of ministers that it was ever official policy.In a fresh string of tweets ahead of his appearance before a parliamentary committee on Wednesday, Boris Johnson’s former top adviser said that as late as 14 March last year, advisers were “screaming” at the prime minister that the absence of a plan for lockdown would “kill at least 250,000 people and destroy the NHS”.And he said that in “surreal” scenes two days earlier, the PM received advice that he should go public to explain the herd immunity idea, under which people believed to be vulnerable to serious illness or death would be isolated from society while others were allowed to catch Covid-19 in order to develop the antibodies which would protect them from future attacks.Mr Cummings said the advice came after the chief executive of the government’s behavioural insights team, Dr David Halpern – a member of the PM’s Scientific Advisory Group on Emergencies (Sage) – said on 11 March that No 10 was considering a policy of “cocooning” the most vulnerable until herd immunity had been established.Critics of the UK government’s handling of Covid-19 have pointed to a 13 March interview in which chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance said that around 60 per cent of people would need to contract the virus to provide protection to the country and suggested that the government wanted to “allow enough of use who are going to get mild illness to become immune to this to help with the whole-population response which would protect everybody”.It was not until 16 March that Mr Johnson called for Britons to avoid non-essential contact and stop all unnecessary travel, with a full lockdown coming a week later on 23 March.But Mr Johnson’s official spokesperson told reporters: “Herd immunity from infection has never been government policy.”And international trade secretary Liz Truss said: “I attended a number of meetings of cabinet at that time and herd immunity was never the declared strategy.”Meanwhile, No 10 denied suggestions that Mr Johnson missed five crucial meetings early in the pandemic because he was working on a book about William Shakespeare which he was due to deliver under a contract signed in the hope of funding his expensive divorce from wife Marina Wheeler.The book, entitled Shakespeare: The Riddle of Genius, is advertised on the Amazon website with a publication date of 31 March 2022.The digital marketplace describes the volume as being written by “the inimitable, mop-headed, New York Times-bestselling British journalist and politician” and says that “with characteristic curiosity, verve, and wit”, Johnson “reminds us why Shakespeare truly was a genius, a writer not just for his time, but for all time”.But his official spokesperson told reporters he was “not aware” of Mr Johnson doing any work on the book since becoming PM.And asked if it was the reason for his absence from the Cobra meetings, the spokesperson said: “No.”Despite remaining at country retreat Chequers for the meetings in January and February 2020, Mr Johnson had been “leading the response throughout”, said the spokesperson, adding that it was not unusual for Cobra meetings to be chaired by a minister other than the PM.In the latest of a thread of more than 50 tweets issued over the past few days, Mr Cummings published graphs which he said showed that the official “optimal” plan in early March was to go for a “single peak strategy” which would see coronavirus cases soar during the spring and early summer. Under this scenario, it was thought that enough infected people would have gained immunity by September for it to fade away during the autumn, he said.But he said this “Plan A” was ditched because “it became clear the official system had given no thought to all the second-order effects of 250k dying, almost all without ICU (intensive care unit) care”.And he added: “True deaths would clearly be much [greater than] 250k cos there would be no NHS for anybody for months”.The former Vote Leave supremo – who quit Downing Street in November after a bust-up with Johnson – described a meeting on 12 March, the day after Dr Halpern’s comments.“On 12/3, the most surreal day of 18 months in Gvt, it was argued to the PM that a/ individual isolation be delayed (‘we’re not ready’), b/ we might not do household quarantine *at all*, c/ given Halpern’s interview on 11th, the PM should publicly explain the ‘herd immunity’ plan,” wrote Mr Cummings.Meanwhile, viewers of ITV1’s Good Morning Britain gave Conservative minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan short shrift after she denied herd immunity had ever been official policy.“It was never the policy of this government,” the energy minister said.“Boris Johnson was very clear that the only thing that mattered was that we make sure that we saved lives and we keep our NHS safe and able to function, not only to protect those who might get Covid but also everybody else.”Responding to footage of Prof Vallance played by hosts Susanna Reid and Bill Turnbull, Ms Trevelyan insisted that the scientific adviser was talking about herd immunity being “one of the potential tools in the armoury” and not the official policy.But one viewer wrote on Twitter that she was “lying through her teeth”, while another said she looked “pretty ridiculous in the face of the Vallance footage”. 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Popular holiday hotspots such as the Canaries and the Balearics could be moved to the green list of travel destinations in “an island approach for border measures”, a minister has said.The aviation minister, Robert Courts, said British tourists could be given the go ahead to visit islands through the traffic light system.Independent MP Margaret Ferrier asked transport ministers in a written question whether the traffic light system would “include an island policy to reopen routes to relatively low-risk regions of nations as was implemented in summer 2020”.Mr Courts’s response, first reported by The Telegraph, stated: “The government will take an island approach for border measures where possible.“Changes to the traffic light country system will be reviewed and implemented every three weeks, unless concerning evidence means we need to act faster to protect public health.”Such a move could mean Britons getting the go-ahead to travel to the Greek Islands, the Canaries or the Balearics this summer, even if Greece and Spain remain on the amber list.Last year, low-risk regions and islands were added to and removed from the UK’s travel corridors list independent of their mainland state depending on their individual level of risk.It led to a surge in bookings for the Canary Islands for Christmas when they were added to the travel corridor list in late October, only for them to be removed again on 10 December.Despite some amber-list countries opening their doors to British visitors, on Monday business minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan urged the public to stick to green-list countries only.Mrs Trevelyan told Times Radio: “The reality is, at the moment, amber countries are still not meeting the criteria for our scientists to say that they should be green.“So the recommendation remains ‘don’t go unless you have to’, and remember that, if you do go, you will have to quarantine for 10 days and that will be monitored.“The reason we ask people still not to go is because there is still too great a risk as far as our scientists are concerned.”However, Fernando Valdes, Spain’s tourism minister, was confident the country would be added to the UK’s green list following the next review of restrictions.He told Sky News: “We do have some holiday destinations which are very loved by British tourists such as the Balearic islands, Costa Blanca or Malaga.“With our notification rates which are pretty low and by the same notification range of the UK, so I have to suspect that on the next review that the UK government can provide … Spain is going to change on its notification.”Additional reporting by PA More

More than half a million children may have become eligible for free school meals during the coronavirus pandemic, according to Labour analysis.Government data shows that between 23 March 2020 (the start of England’s first Covid lockdown) and 1 October 2020, a total of about 302,400 pupils became eligible for free school meals.Labour analysis of data received from local authorities in response to Freedom of Information (FoI) requests estimates a further 115,654 pupils became eligible between 1 October 2020 and 1 January 2021. More

It is set to be a big day in Westminster on Wednesday (26 May), as Dominic Cummings, the prime minister’s former chief adviser, gives evidence to a joint select committee of MPs about his former boss’s handling of coronavirus.His session is scheduled to be three hours long, from 9.30am until 12.30, which means it will overlap with Prime Minister’s Questions, starting at noon. That means that Labour leader Keir Starmer will have little time to assess the significance of Mr Cummings’s testimony and to ask Boris Johnson about it.Mr Cummings fascinates the media, partly because of his unconventional character, as portrayed by Benedict Cumberbatch in the TV documentary about the Brexit campaign; partly because he was so close to the centre of power in the government; and partly because of the human drama of his falling out with the prime minister.Most people assume he is consumed by the desire for revenge, and that he will try to present an indictment of Mr Johnson’s handling of the pandemic crisis – complete with first-person accounts from “the room where it happened” and confidential documents. Mr Cummings claims to have “the only copy of a crucial historical document from Covid decision-making” and is expected to find a way to share it with the committee despite the rusty restrictions of the Official Secrets Act.The Labour leader will then be in a race against time to try to work out how to use Mr Cummings’s evidence against their common opponent, when Sir Keir and Mr Johnson face each other across the despatch boxes. I’ll be writing about all this on the day, and then I’ll be here to answer your questions, live at 4pm, on Wednesday 26 May.All you have to do is register to submit your question in the comments below. If you’re not already a member, click “sign up” in the comments box to leave your question. Don’t worry if you can’t see your question – they will be hidden until I join the conversation to answer them. Then join us live on this page at 4pm as I tackle as many questions as I can. More

The Conservatives have apologised to victims of Islamophobia and racism in the party, after a report criticised “anti-Muslim sentiment”.Amanda Milling, the party’s co-chair, said it was accepting “all the recommendations” made by the long-awaited inquiry by Professor Swaran Singh.“On behalf of the Conservative Party I would like to apologise to anyone who has been hurt by discriminatory behaviour of others or failed by our system,” she said.Ms Milling promised to publish our plan to implement the recommendations for overhauling how racism complaints are handled “in six weeks’ time”“It is clear that there have been failings in our complaints process and we will begin work on implementing the recommendations set out by the investigation,” she added.The apology came after the inquiry found that two-thirds of complaints related to anti-Muslim discrimination – but the party’s complaints process was not fit for purpose to deal with them.Boris Johnson also came under fire for his comments about women wearing the burka, which gave the impression of being “insensitive to Muslim communities”, the Prof Singh said.His inquiry, set up by the prime minister in December 2019, also found:* The Conservatives recorded 1,418 complaints concerning 727 incidents of alleged discrimination, between 2015 and 2020.* The people interviewed by the investigation who experienced discrimination did so “at the level of a local party association.* Local anti-Muslim sentiment was “demonstrated by a number of social media complaints against party members which were upheld”.* Many of those interviewed believed Islamist extremism was being conflated with Islam.Prof Singh said: ““Our report should make for uncomfortable reading for the party and, more importantly, spur it into action.” More

Like an FA Cup Final or a WBA title fight, Westminster is greatly looking forward to Dominic Cummings’s appearance at the Health and Social Care Committee. Even though the rest of the country might have heard more than enough from the PM’s former chief adviser, what he says about what various senior figures did – and did not – as the Covid crisis mounted last year will make a difference to careers and reputations. He also happens to be great theatre, as his appearance in the sunny garden of Downing Street one year ago demonstrated, and as his high profile departure from No 10 in the shadows last year confirmed.So who might the losers and winners be?Losers More

People living in Indian variant hotspots should exercise their own “individual judgement” on whether they follow new guidance not to travel in and out of local areas, Downing Street has said.Boris Johnson’s official spokesman failed to explain why town halls and local health chiefs in the eight areas affected were not warned about the advice, saying only that the government had kept in contact with local authorities throughout the pandemic.Labour said the measures amounted to “local lockdowns by stealth” and called for them to be scrapped and replaced with enhanced testing and front-loaded vaccination for the areas most affected.And Leicester City Council effectively told residents they could ignore the new guidance. In a statement, the authority said it amounted to no more than “advice” and no evidence had been provided on why people or businesses in the city should not continue to follow the existing rules applying to the rest of England.In a statement, the council said that no-one from the Department of Health and Social Care or Public Health England had been in contact about the new advice, which came at a time when Leicester has lower rates of the highly-infectious variant than other parts of the country.The government guidance says people in the eight areas – Bolton, Blackburn, Kirklees, Bedford, Burnley, Leicester, North Tyneside and the London borough of Hounslow – should not travel in or out of their area, should not meet indoors and should stay two metres apart.It was posted online without fanfare on Friday, but only became widely known after being spotted by journalists on Monday.Bolton council leader David Greenhalgh said he had been assured by government, NHS and Public Health England sources that there were no additional restrictions in the town and “no local lockdown”.While he advised people to observe guidance, he told a press conference that his message to the people of Bolton was that there was no need to cancel holidays planned for half-term next week.“Keep to your plans, but keep to them safely and responsibly,” he said.Mr Greenhalgh warned that many people felt the town had been “unfairly treated” in previous lockdowns and was now being “singled out” for tougher restrictions. “There’s an underlying resentment that can very easily, if we are not careful, turn into anger,” he warned.Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham said it appeared that a website displaying existing guidance for local variant areas had been “amended” on Friday without anyone in the authority being warned.He described it as a “major communications error” which had caused a “huge amount” of confusion and concern among people and businesses who travel in and out of Bolton as part of their normal daily lives.And he called for a government minister to make a statement before Bank Holiday Monday to clarify what was required from people.Ministers should “clear it up and clear it up really quickly”, he said, adding: “That can only be done by the government acknowledging what appears to be a mistake and saying exactly what is required of people.”Mr Burnham said: “People will have made plans for the Bank Holiday weekend and it is not reasonable to expect people to change those plans on the basis of something issued without explanation.”Hounslow Council leader Steve Curran said the government’s communications had been “woefully lacking” and “shambolic”.“This government needs to step up and start communicating with councils properly,” he said. “It needs to inform us directly of decisions and give us time to put measures in place to inform, protect and support our communities. Anything short of that risks lives.“For one of London’s most connected boroughs – with Heathrow on its doorstep, the M4 and A4 running through it, the Piccadilly Line, the main line from Waterloo, plus the North Circular via Kew Bridge – to try and limit travel within its borders is not only impossible, it’s a ridiculous idea.”The mayor of North Tyneside, Norma Redfearn, said the new guidance was “disproportionate” for the area.“We received no consultation or communication about this advice which has implications for people across North Tyneside and the wider region,” said Ms Redfearn. “It is essential the government explain what this advice means in practice.”Bedford Borough Council said in a statement: “We were not made aware of the introduction of this advice and are urgently looking at the implications of this on the services we provide.”Mr Johnson’s spokesperson denied it amounted to a “lockdown”, telling reporters: “It is important to emphasise that this is guidance. These are not statutory restrictions. People should try to follow it if at all possible. We recognise that in certain circumstances this will not be possible.”Asked whether residents should refrain from travelling to work outside their home areas and going on holiday during next week’s half term, or whether politicians should avoid campaigning in the by-election for Batley and Spen – which lies within the Kirklees area – the spokesperson said: “This will be down to individual judgement.“I think the public understand, as we set out when we first moved to step 3 (of the roadmap out of lockdown), that we are moving away from central government edicts back to a situation where the public are able to exercise their judgement.”He said that Mr Johnson had spoken in a press conference on 14 May about the additional risks in areas with high prevelance of the variant and that councils had been provided with “marketing assets” such as posters. But he gave no explanation of why the guidance was not specifically highlighted to local health teams.Shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth said the guidance was “plonked on a website on Friday night” without proper communication.He called on the government to “withdraw this guidance now and convene a meeting this afternoon of the relevant directors of public health to produce a plan involving isolation support and enhanced contact tracing” as well as a plan to roll out vaccination to everyone in affected areas.Speaking in the House of Commons, he told vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi: “A year ago ministers like him were defending Dominic Cummings on Twitter. Now Mr Cummings tweets about the lack of competent people in charge, while many of our constituents looking at this latest lockdown fiasco will think that Mr Cummings has a point.”Mr Zahawi told MPs that Mr Johnson had said two weeks ago that the government was “urging people in these areas to take extra caution when meeting anyone outside their households or support bubble”.This included “meeting outside rather than inside where possible, keeping two metres apart from people you don’t live with and that people should try to avoid travelling in and out of the affected areas unless it is essential”, said the minister. More