PRIME MINISTER Boris Johnson did indeed say "let the bodies pile high", his former aide, Dominic Cummings, told a committee of MPs on Thursday (26), claiming the prime minister was opposed to a national lockdown.
In explosive revelations, while providing testimony to a group of MPs investigating lessons learned from the crisis, Cummings also said Johnson was unfit for the job and that health secretary Matt Hancock “should have been fired for at least 15, 20 things including lying to everybody on multiple occasions”.
Cummings, who left his post as advisor late last year, also blamed the prime minister for being slow to impose a lockdown in 2020 because he thought Covid-19 was a scare story and revealed that Johnson considered getting injected with coronavirus on live television to show it was benign.
"When the public needed us most, the government failed," Cummings told MPs, adding that it was "crackers" that someone such as Johnson got to be prime minister.
Ministers were criticised last year for being too slow to impose a strict national lockdown as Covid infections spread across the UK.
However, according to Cummings, the UK had a weak plan to manage the virus, as opposed to stringent measures adopted by other countries, such as China and others in East Asia.
"This is like a scene from 'Independence Day' with Jeff Goldblum saying, 'the aliens are here and your whole plan is broken, and you need a new plan'," he told MPs.
He added that Johnson later did not heed scientists' advice to implement another lockdown in September when schools had reopened, instead, the decision was taken only in November as infection rates surged again, followed by deaths in winter.
He described political leadership during the crisis as "lions led by donkeys over and over again".
Prime Minister Boris Johnson with his former political advisor Dominic Cummings in file photo by Pete Summers/Getty Images
Cummings also said the health secretary had told ministers the supply of personal protective equipment was under control in April, but that had later proved not to have been the case.
Johnson had come close to removing Hancock from his job in April last year and criticised the health secretary’s role in setting up an expanded coronavirus testing system, Cummings claimed.
A Downing Street spokesman said the prime minister had full confidence in Hancock.
"They've been fully focused on protecting the health and care system and saving lives," the spokesman said, adding that the government would not respond to individual accusations about the conduct of the health secretary.
Johnson told parliament he took "full responsibility" but insisted decision-making during the pandemic had been "appallingly difficult".
"I maintain my point that the government acted throughout with the intention to save life... in accordance with the best scientific advice."
Covid-19 has claimed nearly 128,000 lives in Britain, the fifth-highest official death toll in the world, while the virus is noted on more than 152,000 UK death certificates.
Forsyth was awarded a CBE for services to literature in 1997Getty Images
