Cummings apologises as he faces MPs over Government's Covid response - The Evesham Observer

Cummings apologises as he faces MPs over Government's Covid response

Evesham Editorial 26th May, 2021   0

FORMER Downing Street svengali Dominic Cummings has used an appearance in front of a Commons select committee to apologise for his part in not tackling the threat posed by Covid-19.

The controversial former ‘assistant to the Prime Minister’ is facing questions about his time working in Number 10.

MPs are asking about key decisions taken to deal with the threat of Covid during his time in government.

During the hearing Mr Cummings claimed “senior ministers, senior officials, senior advisers like me fell disastrously short of what the public expects during a crisis like this”.




He said he was sorry for the ‘mistakes that were made’ for those who have lost loved ones during the pandemic.

Among the allegations made by Mr Cummings were there was ‘no sense of urgency’ about the pandemic until the last week of February, despite the first cases being declared in the country on January 29.


As well as claiming a number of senior people ‘were literally skiing’ in mid-February, Mr Cummings alleged the Prime Minister regarded Covid as a ‘scare story’ in mid February 2020 and claimed Mr Johnson said he would get England’s Chief Medical Officer Prof Chris Whitty to inject him with it on TV

His appearance at the committee comes almost a year to the day Mr Cummings held his extraordinary press conference where he refused to apologise for driving more than 260 miles to his parents home during lockdown.

At the time Evesham’s MP Nigel Huddleston accepted his version of events together with Worcester’s MP Robin Walker and Redditch’s MP Rachael Maclean.

Pershore’s MP Harriett Baldwin, Bromsgrove MP Sajid Javid and Wyre Forest MP Mark Garnier all called on Mr Cummings to go following nearly a week of headlines but Mr Walker, who serves as a Northern Ireland Minister in Boris Johnson’s Government, refused to join their calls.

Mr Cummings departed the Government in November in alleged power struggle with the Prime Minister’s fiancée Carrie Symonds.

He is expected to give evidence for four hours to a joint hearing of the Commons Heath and Science and Technology committees

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