A former high aide who has accused ex-Prime Minister Boris Johnson of being unfit for workplace is scheduled to testify Tuesday at Britain’s public inquiry into the COVID-19 pandemic
ByThe Related Press
October 31, 2023, 6:38 AM
LONDON — A former high aide who has accused ex-Prime Minister Boris Johnson of being unfit for workplace is scheduled to testify Tuesday at Britain’s public inquiry into the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dominic Cummings, who was the prime minister’s chief adviser in the course of the first months of the pandemic in 2020, follows different aides who’ve painted an image of Johnson as a pacesetter who was distracted and indecisive in the course of the nation’s greatest peacetime disaster.
On Monday, former principal non-public secretary Martin Reynolds acknowledged there had been a “systemic failure” to arrange for the pandemic and mentioned Johnson blew ”cold and hot” on key points and hesitated to make necessary selections.
One other ex-aide, Imran Shafi, alleged that Johnson had requested at a gathering earlier than lockdown was imposed in March 2020, why the financial system was being destroyed “for individuals who will die anyway quickly.”
Cummings has additionally claimed Johnson was reluctant to impose lockdowns as a result of he mentioned the virus was primarily killing the aged.
Johnson is because of testify on the inquiry later within the yr.
Cummings, a self-styled political disruptor, was employed by Johnson after serving to to mastermind the victorious “depart” marketing campaign in Britain’s 2016 European Union membership referendum. He went to work in Downing Avenue when Johnson grew to become prime minister in 2019, filling a loosely outlined however highly effective position that noticed him dubbed “Boris’s mind.”
In Could 2020 it was revealed that Cummings had pushed 250 miles (400 km) throughout England to his mother and father’ home whereas the nation was underneath a “stay-at-home” order and whereas he was unwell with coronavirus. Cummings made a later journey to a scenic city 30 miles (50 km) away.
On the time Johnson resisted calls to fireside him, however Cummings left his job in November 2020 and has fired broadsides at Johnson ever since on social media and his weblog.
The U.Okay. has one of many highest COVID-19 dying tolls in Europe, with the virus recorded as a reason for dying for some 227,000 folks.
Johnson agreed in late 2021 to carry a public inquiry after heavy stress from bereaved households. The probe, led by retired decide Heather Hallett, is predicted to take three years to finish.