Well b back

That did come up lol. His response was Sarah Owen says it his striking that his testimony today has been praising of Rishi Sunak, she asks if he is aiming for a future job in a Sunak administration. Cummings says most people in Westminster and Whitehall probably think - and his wife would agree - that "the less they see of me, the better".

For those not following earlier DC referred to BJ as a shopping trolley, constantly changing direction, but not even mentioning to others he was about to change policy, and then ring the media himself. About Sunak he just said He says the chancellor was "at his wit's end about the shopping trolley," referring to his earlier comments describing the prime minister as a "shopping trolley" who went from one side to the other.

Just been asked again, and this was response. Have a feeling Hancock will not be sleeping well tonight. Cummings challenged to publish evidence Hancock lied Throughout today's session Dominic Cummings has repeated accused Health Secretary Matt Hancock of lying. Chair of the Science committee Greg Clark says it is important that he should provide evidence of his claims. Cummings says he would be "happy" to discuss how to provide" it and explain what happened. Greg Clark notes that the health secretary will give evidence to the committee himself in the coming weeks.

With actual evidence of what Hancock did and didn’t do to hand, I wonder how he will handle his meeting with the enquiry in 2 weeks time. Will he be sacrificed before then ? Or will he be forced to appear, with the likes of Johnson claiming they knew nothing of what Hancock was doing so we have removed him from his post.

One for @sonyc wow Cummings: Hancock used scientists as 'shields' for himself Cummings is asked whether the prime minister was focused on the job. He says the PM had various distractions back in February 2020 in his personal life - he was finalising his divorce, his girlfriend was pregnant and he had his engagement. Moving on to the health secretary, he says Matt Hancock used Sir Patrick Vallance and Prof Chris Whitty as "shields" for himself. He said the attitude was "if things go wrong, blame the scientists". He is asked again why Hancock was not sacked and he says the PM was told to keep him in his role "because he is the person you fire when the inquiry comes along". Cummings says he argued this would cause another set of disasters in the autumn and he advised "we have got to get rid of this guy now".

I should have tried to force PM into lockdown - Cummings Cummings says that before leaving post, he had decided to stay to "stop any many people dying as I could do" - but it was "obvious" after the second national lockdown "that I was going to be gone within days". But he says he "terribly regrets" that during the period when the PM was considering whether to have an autumn lockdown, he did not threaten to resign within 48 hours. He says he should have offered to go "quietly" if the PM agreed to impose another lockdown, or if not to call a press conference and tell the public the PM was making a "terrible decision". "I should have gambled on holding a gun to his head, essentially".

And were silenced.

Like him or loathe him ( I come into the loathe ) he is a very clever man, and his reverse psychology saying he was not smart but running the country was very clever. Who else gets the impression he is currently mentioning the tip of the iceberg and has some major revelations that go way beyond this to release when the time is right ?, you just feel he has much worse concerning something like national security or Brexit up his sleeve.

Cummings: I thought the PM was 'unfit for the job' when I quit Cummings says his relationship with the prime minister "took another terrible dive" after the second national lockdown in October, because the PM "knew I blamed him for the whole situation." He says Boris Johnson's girlfriend, Carrie Symonds "wanted rid of me". But "relevant, but not the heart of the problem", he says, was that by this point he regarded the PM as "unfit for the job", and he was trying to "push other things through, against his wishes".

Gosh, this is quite a claim, he has evidence for everything said so far so I guess he has some for this Cummings paints difficult relationship with PM's partner Asked about his departure from Downing Street late last year, Cummings says it was "definitely connected to the fact that the prime minister's girlfriend was trying to change a whole bunch of different appointments in No 10 and appoint her friends to particular jobs". "In particular, she was trying to overturn the outcome of an official process about hiring a particular job in a way which was not only completely unethical but which was also clearly illegal". "I thought the whole process about how the prime minister was behaving at that point was appalling, and all of that was definitely part of why I went."

Not sure on this but are you not allowed to lie to Parliament ? That is a genuine question as didn’t Starmer deliberately get him to use those words ? Downing Street and the government are facing some really serious allegations. Among them, are whether the PM made comments about seeing "bodies pile high" rather than take the country into a third lockdown. The BBC reported the comments in April - but the prime minister denied making them in Parliament. Cummings - however - has told MPs he DID hear the prime minister make the comments. "I heard that in the prime minister's study" he said. Boris Johnson is now likely to face more questions about whether he made the remarks - and if he misled Parliament by denying them.

Regards the care homes, Cummings has just admitted guilt. Action ( as I understand it ) had already begun via family members of people that died in care homes. Has Scotland not already got some cases ?. The committee actually asked Cummings if he had evidence that Hancock lied. He shew evidence of at least 2 instances where he could prove it ( suspect there are many more ). On seeing this the chairman said this is very serious if these allegations are true and wished to have forwarded to him all proof. At least 2 questionnaires then mentioned corporate manslaughter, and that was before they got to care homes.

The explosive claims made by Dominic over the last few hours cannot be ignored. He was around the table when some of the key pandemic decisions were made – and his analysis is devastating for the Government. He has painted a picture of a Downing Street which was too slow to act on Covid. He has launched an extraordinary attack on the health secretary – accusing him of failing to tell the truth and not being fit to do his job. He has rubbished the claims a protective shield was put around care homes as “complete nonsense”. He has even suggested it was crackers he and Boris Johnson were in charge of the country. Cummings is a controversial figure around Westminster, not least because of the impact on his lockdown trip to Durham. But this is first full, public account of what went on in No 10 during this crisis. It leaves Boris Johnson and his ministers with a number of serious questions to answer.

I found it hard to believe on 12/3 that there was an emergency Cobra meeting as they were realising ‘ they were f***** regards COVID ‘ Trump had called to ask the U.K. to join them that evening in bombing Iraq, yet Boris had other things to contend with, an argument with Carrie about how her dogs were being portrayed in the press and how this was far more important. Then he quoted the what’s app messages on the day lol. I wonder how many also would have tuned in to watch Boris being injected with COVID live on TV. Would it have got higher ratings than live coverage of him in ICU fighting for his life. It all makes sense when you hear that Boris was bragging about going to places where COVID was present and shaking hands with people.

A bit more for @sonyc Cummings: Care home testing 'complete chaos' Cummings says clearly some care home residents were tested before returning from hospital but it only happened "very partially and sporadically". As a result, he says people went back to care homes and infected people "and it spread like wildfire". He says there was a "cascading series of crises" that had "a domino effect" throughout the system. The problems were caused he says because of the "whole disaster over testing" and the shortage of PPE. Just as no-one had thought about how to produce the details on shielding, he says, the situation with care homes was the same. It was a "crisis environment of complete chaos" he says.

@sonyc A bit more damming than you thought. Cummings: PM was told people going back to care homes 'would be tested' Stringer moves on to the situation in care homes and asks why untested people were sent back in to care homes. Cummings says this was "one of the other things that we found shocking". He says when they realised in April this was the situation the PM asked "what on earth" had happened. He quotes Boris Johnson as saying 'Hancock told us in the cabinet room that people were going to be tested before they went back to care homes. What the hell happened?' Cummings said they "were told categorically in March that people would be tested" but he says despite the government rhetoric of putting a shield around care homes it "was complete nonsense" and quite the opposite happened. Graham Stringer pauses and says "that is extraordinary".

Was going to go on live tv and inject himself with COVID so we all realised that it was harmless, whilst on the day there was an urgent meeting ( 12/3 ) about COVID strategy being wrong, Trump had asked us to bomb Iraq that night, the argument about the way Carrie’s dog was being portrayed as the most important thing for the press briefing shew where his priorities laid.

Hancock was 'interfering' in testing to hit 100,000 tests a day target The government "kind of collapsed when the prime minister got ill himself," Cummings tells MPs. He says pledging to do 100,000 tests a day by the end of April "was an incredibly stupid thing to do" because he says the government had started ramping down testing capacity again. He says "Hancock was interfering" with things in government to make sure he hit the target "when the PM was on his death bed". Cummings says he and Sir Patrick Vallance had to start calling around government officials and saying "do not do what Hancock says," he says Hancock was instructing officials to hold tests back so he could hit his 100,000 target by the end of April.

I would have agreed but he has what’s app groups, emails, minutes of meetings.

Hi TJ Listening live, he has evidence for everything he is alledging Hancock did and said.

Questioning now trying to blame scientists and advisors. Accusing Cummings of not be interested in COVID but just here to settle scores.

Recap of what we have learned so far There have been some dramatic developments as Dominic Cummings continues to give evidence - here's the headlines: Dominic Cummings says the Health Secretary, Matt Hancock, should have been fired for "lying" about preparedness to deal with the virus and whether people were getting the treatment they need He says Hancock tried to blame PPE shortages on Simon Stevens, the head of NHS England, and Chancellor Rishi Sunak The prime minister was more concerned about the economic damage because he did not think the virus was "the big danger" Reports that Rishi Sunak put the breaks on a lockdown are "completely wrong" A political system that gives people a choice between Jeremy Corbyn and Boris Johnson is "terribly wrong" and creates a situation of "lions led by donkeys" There was chaotic decision making inside No 10, like "an out of control movie" He says on Friday 13 March a senior official Deputy Cabinet Secretary Helen Macnamara came to him and said, “I think we are absolutely f***ed. I think this country is heading for a disaster. I think we are going to kill thousands of people” He says Covid planning meetings were derailed by dealings with Trump, and the PM's girlfriend wanting the No 10 press office to deal with media reports over the PM's dog Cummings says the PM regarded Covid as a "scare story" and wanted to be injected on TV He says m,inisters, officials and advisers "fell disastrously short" and claims of preparedness were "completely hollow"

Rebecca Long Bailey's final question is about whether the wrong people were in the wrong jobs to deal with the pandemic. Cummings says the crisis raises profound questions about a political system that gives people a choice between Jeremy Corbyn and Boris Johnson. He says any system that gives a choice between two people like that is obviously a system that has gone "terribly wrong". There are so many people who could have done a better job than those two he says. He found himself it "completely crazy" that he himself was in such an important position because he is "not smart". It is "completely crackers" that he and Boris Johnson were in these prominent positions. It was "lions led by donkeys" with great people on the ground but the leadership let people down on the front line.

They will be getting to care homes shortly @sonyc

Cummings details lying accusations against Matt Hancock Greg Clark asks Cummings to substantiate his assertion earlier that Health Secretary has "lied" - Cummings says there are "numerous examples". He says Matt Hancock said last summer that everyone who needed treatment got the treatment they required, when "he knew that was a lie". He says Hancock had been part of a briefing from officials, where it was explained "explicitly" that during the first peak people did not get the treatment they deserved and "many people were left to die in horrific circumstances". He also claims that Mr Hancock told the cabinet, just before Cummings and the PM fell ill with Covid themselves, that "everything is fine" on getting hold of personal protective equipment. But he says when he returned from his illness, it became clear "we were completely short". He claims that Matt Hancock sought to blame the shortages on Simon Stevens, the head of NHS England, and Chancellor Rishi Sunak. Cummings says an investigation from the cabinet secretary later revealed Mr Hancock's claims to be "completely untrue" - with the cabinet secretary also saying he had lost confidence in Mr Hancock's ability to be truthful during cabinet meetings.