Boris Johnson described Matt Hancock as “totally fucking hopeless” during the early stages of the pandemic, concerned by the health secretary’s promises on testing, text messages published by Dominic Cummings have revealed.

Jessica Elgot www.theguardian.com 

Writing on Substack, the prime minister’s former chief aide published a slew of texts and documents from emergency Cobra meetings that he said would combat what he called “lies” from Downing Street and the health secretary about the initial handling of the pandemic.

Cummings had been asked to hand over documents to a select committee inquiry into the pandemic but did not meet the committee’s deadline before Hancock gave evidence last week.

In his post, Cummings said:

• Johnson considered removing all responsibility for PPE from Hancock and putting Michael Gove in charge.
• No strategy for full lockdown was modelled until 14 March, and he published documents predicting 250,000 deaths in the first wave.
• Johnson told “rambling stories and jokes” during emergency meetings and refused to ask awkward questions from officials.
• Johnson intends to quit after the next election in order to make more money.

Cummings said Hancock had come up with a “new version of reality” that he had been responsible for pushing the increase in testing capacity, and that the health secretary had been pursuing the abandoned single-peak, herd immunity strategy until 16 March.

“Testing, like vaccines, was removed from his control in May because of his incompetence and dishonesty,” Cummings wrote on Substack.

He said Hancock told No 10 that the supply of PPE was “all under control” in the week of 23 March, which Cummings said was a false assurance and meant weeks were wasted that could have been used to source equipment.

“If No 10 is prepared to lie so deeply and widely about such vital issues of life and death last year, it cannot be trusted now either on Covid or any other crucial issue of war and peace,” he wrote.

“Hancock continues to have direct responsibility for things like dealing with variants and care homes. Having such a secretary of state in a key role is guaranteed disaster. It is urgent for public safety that he is removed.”

He said Johnson had been “encouraging ministers to give false accounts to parliament” and that the public inquiry would not sufficiently hold the prime minister to account. He said Johnson intended to quit two years after the next election in order to “make money” and move on from politics.

“So we either live with chronic dysfunction for another five years or some force intervenes,” he wrote.

WhatsApp messages published by Dominic Cummings. Photograph: https://dominiccummings.substack.com/

Cummings said he had been torn about publishing private WhatsApp messages but Hancock had challenged him at the select committee to provide evidence and suggested his account was false.

In text messages published on the blog, Cummings said Hancock had told the morning meeting on 24 March there would be 10,000 tests a day by 30 March and 100,000 a day within a month.

On 26 March, the day Johnson tested positive for Covid, Cummings texted the prime minister saying Hancock’s testing plans were in chaos and that the health secretary would not meet his 10,000 tests pledge.

According to the picture on Cummings’ blog, Johnson wrote: “Totally fucking hopeless.”

The prime minister repeated his view of Hancock’s performance in a number of other messages, according to Cummings.

Cummings said that when he returned to work on 13 April 2020 following his own Covid illness and trips to Durham and Barnard Castle, it became clear that Hancock’s promise that people would be tested before being moved from hospitals to care homes had not been implemented, and that “there was still no plan to do so”.

A similar “nightmare” was also under way with the procurement of ventilators, according to Cummings. He said a health department official told him they had been turning down machines because prices were rising. Attaching a WhatsApp purportedly from Johnson, he said the prime minister pointed the finger of blame at Hancock, saying “he has been useless”.

Whatsapp messages purportedly between Johnson and Cummings. Photograph: https://dominiccummings.substack.com/

In another series of WhatsApp messages released by Cummings, Johnson apparently told his aide on 27 April that PPE procurement was a disaster, adding: “I can’t think of anything except taking Hancock off and putting Gove on.”

Cummings said he told Johnson on 3 May: “I think we are negligently killing the most vulnerable who we are supposed to be shielding and I am extremely worried about it,” because testing was still not being properly distributed to care homes. He said the prime minister agreed Hancock’s “failures and dishonesty made him unfit for his job” but refused to take any action.

Even by the start of May, Cummings said, the government had still not adopted a “wartime mentality” and when the prime minister chaired important meetings, Johnson would ramble and tell jokes.

“As soon as things get ‘a bit embarrassing’ [he] does the whole ‘let’s take it offline’ shtick before shouting ‘forward to victory’, doing a thumbs up and pegging it out of the room before anybody can disagree.”

As well as text messages from Johnson, Cummings also published a Cobra document from early March that argued for herd immunity by September to avoid a second peak in the winter and more pressure on the NHS.

The document did not include the possibility of a full “stay at home” lockdown strategy and suggested there would be 250,000 people dead after the “optimal single peak strategy”, with herd immunity by September.

Cummings said he told Johnson on 14 March 2020 that many more than 250,000 would die. “I said the public would march up Downing Street and lynch him,” Cummings wrote.

He published whiteboard plans shown to the PM by himself and Ben Warner, a data scientist, urging a shift to a lockdown strategy on 14 March as well as mass testing and increasing NHS capacity. Cummings said that was the first time a lockdown scenario was modelled.

Hancock told MPs that a plan for suppression was published on 3 March – the contain-delay-mitigate strategy. Cummings said the document was based on the logic that the UK would not implement any suppression measures.

“Obviously this embarrassingly awful document, which will be remembered as a case study in failure for decades to come, in no sense set out what we actually did, as everybody can see,” he said. “That ‘plan’ was sending us to catastrophe so we ditched it.”

Dear Supporter

The Campaign has written to the chair of the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee asking the Committee to investigate the role of the Cabinet Office in relation to the Freedom of Information Act and the wider problem of enforcement of the Act’s timeliness requirements.

The letter states:

“We understand that a number of organisations have written to you expressing concern about the FOI clearing house’s role in light of the First-tier Tribunal’s recent decision in Cabinet Office v ICO and Jenna Corderoy. We share that concern. We also think the requirement that departments consult the clearing house about sensitive FOI requests may contribute to the unacceptable delays experienced by many FOI requesters. We documented these in our recent evidence to the Committee’s Greensill inquiry.

The Corderoy decision highlighted significant failings by the Cabinet Office. It failed to correctly describe the contents of its ‘round robin’ lists, misleading its own minister, the Information Commissioner and the tribunal by suggesting the information was more sensitive than it actually was. It took eight months instead of 20 working days to carry out the required internal review and two and a half years to identify one of the exemptions it ultimately relied on. The tribunal has responded by effectively inviting the parties to apply for the Cabinet Office to be ordered to pay their legal costs. Such failings are not new – see: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-40189828. It is a matter of concern that the Cabinet Office, which deals with its own requests so negligently, is responsible for advising other departments on their requests.

We hope the Committee will also examine the wider question of whether the Information Commissioner could do more to address the chronic delays that prevent the timely release of information. Although the ICO’s data protection role has been regularly examined by the Culture, Media and Sport Committee, its FOI role has not been subject to parliamentary scrutiny since the Justice Committee’s post legislative scrutiny of the FOI Act in 2012.”

Read the full letter here.

Katherine Gundersen

Campaign for Freedom of Information

Construction industry experts warn that an exodus of skilled EU workers is increasingly leading to serious staff shortages and therefore damage the sector and delay a range of projects, primarily as a result of Brexit as well as Covid-19.

Michiel Willems www.cityam.com

The ONS said recently that the non-British resident population declined in the year through June 2020, with the biggest decrease among citizens of EU8 countries at -135,000 people.

This groups include migrants from Poland, Estonia and Slovenia, which make up 26 per cent of the UK’s construction sector.

Jason Tema, director of property development firm Clearview Developments, said immediate government intervention is needed to avoid further staff shortages.

“Whilst the departure of EU-born construction professionals might only marginally open up job opportunities for some British workers, a drop of qualified industry staff of this scale will inevitably lead to severe staff shortages,” Tema told City A.M.

“As a result, project completions could face major delays. It’s yet another hurdle for the UK’s construction sector to overcome at a time when the industry is already behind target to build new private market as well as affordable homes,” he added.

Fewer homes

The BBC’s Housing Briefing last year estimated that the UK has built 1.2m fewer homes than it should have, and the need for more homes continues to rise.

The calculations suggest it will take a minimum of 15 years at current building rates to close the gap and that not enough of what is being built is affordable.

The Migration and Construction report, published by the Construction Industry Training Body (CITB), previously warned that recruitment agencies believe the UK’s new, point-based immigration system will lead to a 40 per cent decrease in the number of skilled construction workers coming to the UK.

At the same time, the report forecasted a decrease in the number of ‘low skilled’ construction workers working in the UK of 58 per cent.

“The government needs to reconsider the newly proposed visa process and allow construction workers a concession, given the characteristics of the sector. For example, staff are self-employed, paid under CIS and given the nature of project-based positions, the need for spoken and written English does not need to be on par with sectors that are delivering a professional service or are people-facing,” Tema continued.

“For years, thousands of temporary EU workers have shaped construction sites with the provision of their labour and the government needs to recognise and give support to that for the sector to continue to flourish,” he concluded.

The US is investigating claims that China responded to a leak at a nuclear power station that posed an “imminent radiological threat” by raising the safety limit to keep it open.

[This story coincides with: “Fire confirmed at Hinkley Point after smoke cloud seen from afar” www.somersetlive.co.uk]

Adam Sage, Paris | Didi Tang, Beijing www.thetimes.co.uk 

Instead of shutting the new generation European Pressurised Reactor (EPR) at Taishan in the southern province of Guangdong, Chinese officials increased the authorised level of radiation, EDF, the French state energy group, is said to have told Washington.

EDF, which designed the new reactors, is also involved in a joint venture with China General Nuclear Power Group to build two EPRs at Hinkley Point in Somerset.

Officials are said to have concluded that there was no severe safety threat to workers or people living near the plant. The Biden administration has decided that the incident at Taishan has yet to reach “crisis level”.

However, EDF hinted that information was being withheld by the Chinese. In a statement the French state group demanded an extraordinary meeting of the joint venture running the plant “to present all the data and the necessary decisions”.

This is the headline of the Devon Live article (see below) announcing the candidates for the Feniton and the Honiton St Michaels ward by-elections.

Unfortunately, a macho three-way “bare fist, winner takes all” fight is the way the national political parties would like to see it play out. 

But two of them are misguided to the point of deluded naivety if they really think this is the way to give the voters the choice of an alternative to the Tories. 

Repeatedly taking part in local elections, just for the sake of it, splitting the opposition vote and losing, isn’t the way, in Owl’s opinion, to increase your credibility with the electorate.

In fact, there is no natural majority support for the Tories here in East Devon local politics. Since 2019 the Tories only have just over a third of the seats in East Devon and despite having won two thirds of the Devon County seats this May, they did so on only 42% of the votes. But splitting the opposition vote will assuredly let them in.

Historically, the strong influence of religious nonconformity coupled with the independent nature of rural industries such as fishing and farming has produced a radical streak in Devon politics. For years it was the bedrock of liberalism. It could be again.

However, we live in strange times, in a fragmented political landscape, with no real prospect, under the first past the post system, that either Labour or the Liberal Democrats could win the next general election. 

The gradual emergence of alliances and coalitions in Local politics, is being chronicled on East Devon Watch. They are locally led and gaining momentum. So why do Labour and the Lib Dems insist on fielding a candidate  in every election? Where is any sign of them working together? 

This is the politics of self-indulgence, not politics for the people.

Unashamedly in this post, Owl is going to try to knock some sense into Labour and Lib Dem heads with a no-holds review of their candidates. Two are strong but two are weak no-hopers. Their parties should be smart enough to see this for themselves. If it’s any consolation to them, Owl thinks both Tory candidates are also weak. But with a split opposition they are likely to win. This would be an awful outcome for both wards.

Feniton

This ward is vacant following Cllr Susie Bond’s move to Berkshire to be closer to family and the end of virtual meetings, meaning it is no longer practical for her to carry on in the role. (How long has she been telecommuting from Berkshire?). However, she did return to vote at the annual meeting, supporting Cllr Andrew Moulding for Leader. Someone about as old and stale a member of the “Old Guard” as you can find. Inexplicable behaviour for a supposed Independent councillor.

Privately, Owl has always thought she was one of those councillors who were “really-not-very-independent-at-all-but-I probably-wouldn’t have-got-in-if-I-still-called-myself-Tory”.

This ward will be contested between Linda Baden (Labour), Alasdair Bruce (Conservatives), and Todd Olive (Liberal Democrats).

Alasdair Bruce (brother of Fiona) stood against East Devon Alliance Paul Hayward for Yarty, in the Tory rout of 2019 and lost by a substantial margin. Not exactly a strong candidate.

Todd Olive came a close second to the Tories in this May’s by-election for the district council seat formerly held by Kathy Mclauchlan (Independent Whimple and Rockbeare), where he received 44% of the vote and is learning how to campaign fast.

Against these, Linda Baden looks to be a candidate in name only with simply no chance of success.

Honiton St Michaels

This ward is vacant after Cllr Luke Jeffery, Lib Dem, stepped down to focus on his University course.

The ward will be contested between Jake Bonetta (Labour), Jules Hoyles (Liberal Democrats) and Jenny Brown (Conservatives).

Here the picture Owl sees is very different.

Jenny Brown is the wife of Cllr. Colin Brown (current leader of EDDC Tory group). She has been a previous councillor but was rejected by Seaton voters in 2015. Owl places her in the mould or supporter of former EDDC councillor Sarah Randall-Johnson (SRJ) who, when leader of EEDC, was defeated by Claire Wright in 2011. A defeat that started the decline in Tory fortunes in EDDC.

SRJ’s style of abrasive Conservatism is amply chronicled in the EDW archive. See how she ignored a motion to debate hospital bed closures in 2017 – a Tory hardline policy we are living to regret.

Tory husband and wife teams aren’t new in EDDC. Sasha Swire outrageously described one pair as “toilet seats”, demonstrating that there is often little love lost between fellow Tories. 

The Conservatives look to be scraping the barrel in choosing Jenny Brown. She isn’t the candidate for the testing times of the post-covid years.

Jake Bonetta came a close second in the May 2021 County Council elections for the Feniton and Honiton Division with 38% of the vote. In this contest he is fighting directly on his home patch. He was born and bred in Honiton and has taken an active part in Honiton Forward which, amongst other things, seek better governance in Honiton Town Council.The “goings on” there are also well recorded in EDW.

An “impressive head on young shoulders”, Owl believes he is the sort of young blood local government needs more of. The 2019 election did see a welcome change in this direction amongst newly elected councillors, long may this trend continue.

Jules Hoyles was the spoiler candidate in the Axminster County election gaining 5% of the vote and could reprise the same role.

Spoiler alert on another race for second place with potentially dire consequences

Here is another example of just how potentially dangerous this tit-for-tat competition for second place can be.

Owl understands that Labour is putting up a candidate for the Upper Culm Valley Mid Devon District by-election, again splitting the vote. The Lib Dems currently hold Mid Devon, but if Conservatives win this seat, they take back Mid Devon. 

Owl hopes for the best but fears the worst. 

Main parties in three-way fight for two East Devon by-elections

Daniel Clark www.devonlive.com

The candidates for a pair of by-elections being held in East Devon have been announced – with both being a three-way fight between the Conservatives, Labour and the Liberal Democrats.

Vacancies on the council have arisen in the Feniton and the Honiton St Michaels ward, with polls taking place on Thursday, July 8.

One of the Honiton St Michaels seats became available after Cllr Luke Jeffery stepped down to focus on his University course, while the Feniton seat is vacant following Cllr Susie Bond having moved to Berkshire to be closer to family and the end of virtual meetings, plus the allowing of by-elections again, meaning it is no longer practical for her to carry on in the role.

The list of candidates nominated in both seats have now been announced, with the Conservatives, Labour and the Liberal Democrats all fielding a candidate in both wards.

In Feniton, the seat, which was held by an Independent, will be contested between Linda Baden (Labour), Alasdair Bruce (Conservatives), and Todd Olive (Liberal Democrats).

In Honiton St Michaels, which was held by the Liberal Democrats, the seat will be contested between Jake Bonetta (Labour), Jules Hoyles (Liberal Democrats) and Jenny Brown (Conservatives).

The by-elections will both take place on Thursday, July 8, with anyone wishing to vote needing to be registered by Tuesday, June 22.

Following the two resignations, the composition of East Devon District Council consists of Conservatives (21), East Devon Alliance (13), Independents (12), Liberal Democrats (7), Cranbrook Voice (3), and Green Party (2), with two seats vacant.

The council is currently run by a coalition of the East Devon Alliance, Liberal Democrats, Greens, and some of the Independents.