5 revelations you missed at the Simon Case Covid grilling

Britain’s supremely powerful Cabinet secretary — that’s the country’s top civil servant — faced a grilling Thursday from the U.K.’s official inquiry into the deadly coronavirus pandemic.

Andrew McDonald www.politico.eu

But his interrogation came, helpfully, the day after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called a snap election, diverting attention from what should have been a big moment.

POLITICO nevertheless did its patriotic duty — turning up in person for the grueling six-and-a-half-hour session to hear Case pressed on the role he played at the center of the U.K. government in Boris Johnson’s chaotic pandemic response.

Here’s what you missed.

1) Sorry about those awkward texts

The inquiry started — where else? — with an examination of Case’s very frank WhatsApp messages, which have stolen the headlines as the process unfolded, offering scathing takes on Johnson, his advisers and even the British public.

“They are very raw, in-the-moment, human expressions,” Case said — after inquisitor Hugo Keith deadpanned: “It is understood that you were a prolific user of WhatsApp.”

Case admitted he owed a few apologies for the way he had expressed himself — and said he “deeply regretted” the messages.

Some new text messages from Case in 2020 were also disclosed during Thursday’s grilling, showing that the top official once told Boris Johnson to get off WhatsApp.

2) Mistakes were made

Case got emotional as questions moved to the fall of 2020, when Covid-19 cases soared before the British government finally implemented a second national lockdown.

“We tried, at every stage, to act through the best of intentions to find the right balance to avoid these harms, but we didn’t come up with the right answer,” Case said of the day Britain entered lockdown again. “It was a very dark day.”

In Case’s written witness statement he described failings under Johnson’s government as the “worst governing ever seen.” He said he feels that responsibility for the many lives lost lies with all, including himself, who served in that period.

3) Toxic pygmies in Whitehall

Case — in newly-published WhatsApps and in his oral evidence — took aim at a toxic culture in Whitehall and its key departments.

In one freshly-revealed text to another senior official, Case summarized the situation in the critical Cabinet Office department as “Crisis + pygmies = toxic behaviors.” He said this was likely a comment on the ability of people in the Cabinet Office and in No. 10 Downing Street.

Case said he was deeply frustrated by the culture in government — in which “good people were just being smashed to pieces.”

“I felt that decision-taking was inefficient and sort of more difficult than it had to be,” Case said.

He agreed, too, with the inquiry’s line of questioning that there had been a “culture of fear” around Johnson’s then-top aide, Dominic Cummings, though he later added that Cummings’ “reputation was worse than the reality.”

4) BoJo reflections

Case — who described Boris Johnson in WhatsApps at the time as “Trump-Bolsonaro levels of mad and dangerous” and “basically feral” — had a go at smoothing over his criticism of his old boss.

In a lyrical interlude, Case said Johnson’s “style is very much wanting the debate to play out in front of him, competition for ideas and views I think is really how he made decisions.”

But Case added that he hadn’t understood at the time how the former PM was opposed to lockdown “at quite a deep ideological level,” which led to struggles as he considered whether to plunge a Britain once again ravaged by Covid-19 back into lockdown in the fall of 2020.

In far more diplomatic language than he used in his WhatsApps, Case said he found Johnson’s habit of making U-turns “incredibly frustrating.”

“That was really difficult [for me] as a sort of technocrat, as the gearbox trying to connect the prime minister’s system,” he added.

5) What about Sunak?

The inquiry also revealed that Case had privately told Johnson in summer 2020 to stop always agreeing with his chancellor, Rishi Sunak — now Britain’s prime minister.

As Britain’s top finance minister, Sunak tended to back quicker exits from lockdown than the medical experts who had the PM’s ear.

According to the inquiry’s lawyers, Case sent Johnson a message amid discussions of meetings between Sunak and Johnson that read: “It can’t always be you agreeing with Rishi.”

Inquiry lawyer Hugo Keith put it to Case that he was concerned Johnson kept being bounced into a change of policy by meetings with Sunak.

Case insisted he was simply telling the PM to do the balancing-act job of a prime minister, while Sunak carried out his role in promoting the economy.

Still in place for 2,500 households

23/05/2024 www.southwestwater.co.uk 

“We’re working around the clock to resolve the situation for the 2,500 households impacted across the Hillhead supply area.

“Our number one priority is the health and safety of our customers. Yesterday (22 May) over 40 South West Water crews began delivering bottled water to properties across the boil water notice area.  

“Bottled water stations in Broadsands, Freshwater Quarry and Churston remain open between 7am and 9pm every day. On Tuesday (21 May), a drop-in centre opened in Brixham, which is open to customers with questions regarding compensation and support available to affected households.

“Our community van is back in Kingswear today from 12-5:30pm, you can find us parked up on Brixham road off the B3205. The team will be able to help with any queries or concerns you have following the boil water notice.

“Our operations teams are working tirelessly to eliminate any traces of cryptosporidium, and we are continuing to flush and clean the system. We will not lift the boil water notice for those affected until we and our public health partners are absolutely satisfied it is safe to do so.

“Separately, investigations into the damaged air valve installation on private land, which we believe to be the cause, are ongoing.

“We are hugely grateful to our customers for their kind support to our teams that are out trying to fix the issue and support our customers in the local area as quickly as possible.”

A government inspector has given the go-ahead for a new development of student flats in the heart of Exeter which city councillors said the community did not want or need.

Guy Henderson, local democracy reporter www.radioexe.co.uk

Developers trying to build four three-storey units on the site of the former Maximum Motors workshop in Howell Road have won their appeal against the city council’s decision last September to say no.

There will be bedrooms for 26 students in the purpose-built blocks.

Councillors said when they made their decision that the city did not want more purpose-built student accommodation, and desperately needed homes for local families instead.

They said the increase in student housing to cope with the growth and popularity of Exeter University had led to an ‘imbalance of population’ and went against local planning policies.

But the inspector decided that it would not create an over-concentration of student flats which would change the character of the neighbourhood.

There are already more than 300 beds in four other purpose-built blocks within 250 metres of the Howell Road site.

At the time it was first considered, one objector pleaded with councillors: “If you have any regard at all for residents living in the centre of Exeter, you will turn down this application.”

Another wrote: “I cannot object strongly enough to this suggestion and this constant focus on purpose-built student accommodation rather than social and general needs.”

The inspector decided the new blocks could be properly integrated into the urban area.

An application by the developer for costs against the city council was refused.

The Prime Minister thanked the hi-vis jacket-wearing men for their “important” questions without declaring that they were local Conservative Councillors Ross Hills and Ben Hall-Evans

Adam Bienkov bylinetimes.com 

Rishi Sunak has been accused of faking support for the Conservative party, after taking two questions from supposedly ordinary members of the public, who turned out to be Conservative Councillors.

Broadcasters on Thursday morning carried footage of an individual wearing a hi-vis jacket, asking the Prime Minister a question about his Rwanda scheme, during an event at a warehouse in Derbyshire.

The man told Sunak that “the biggest issue is going to be immigration over this election campaign” before asking him whether “your Rwanda plan is going to see results and stop the small boats coming.”

The Prime Minister thanked the man for his “important question.”

However, neither Sunak, nor broadcasters informed viewers that the man asking the question was actually Conservative Leicestershire County Councillor Ross Hills.

Hills confirmed to Byline Times that he had been the individual asking the question.

“That was me yes,” he told this paper, before confirming that he had been asked to appear at the event.

Asked whether the Conservative party had asked him to ask Sunak the specific question about Rwanda, he insisted that he had to get to work and ended the call.

Hills lists his job online as being a “part time dentist” alongside his job as a councillor.

This paper later identified a second hi-vis jacket-wearing individual asking Sunak a question at the event about the economy as local Erewash Conservative Councillor Ben Hall-Evans.

Hall-Evans, who lists his profession online as a ‘Functional Consultant’, told Sunak that “You’ve talked a lot about the economy, specific to everybody, the cost of living crisis… What’s been done and what sets you apart for the future to benefit that pound in the pocket.”

Sunak replied that this was a “good place to start” without revealing to viewers who the man was.

A Labour spokesperson said it showed that Rishi Sunak was “running scared” of the electorate.

“Rishi Sunak spent months dodging the verdict of voters and even now, he’s still running scared.

“The reality is that 14 years of Tory chaos have cost the country dearly and have left working people worse off.”

The Conservative party was contacted for comment.

The row comes after Byline Times revealed that the Conservative party had staged a fake “protest” against Labour’s Deputy Leader Angela Rayner.

This paper identified one of the protesters as local Conservative Councillor for Yarm, John Coulson.

Coulson admitted to this paper to taking part in the protest, alongside other local Conservative councillors.