Boris Johnson likened Matt Hancock’s Test and Trace plan to ‘whistling in the dark’, ex-aide Dominic Cummings has claimed.
The prime minister is said to have used the phrase – meaning to pretend everything is fine – while discussing the scheme with his former advisor.
Mr Cummings revealed the alleged conversation in a new post on his blog entitled ‘More evidence on how the PM’s and Hancock’s negligence killed people’.
In a forwarded message, which contained data on Test and Trace, Mr Cummings wrote: ‘If you skim through this you will have good idea re some of the problems/complexities…
‘As usual, my team of irregulars is having to do this cos the centre cannot do it.
‘NOT SUSTAINABLE.
‘All this should have been done weeks ago and should not need me to do it.’
He added: ‘We can’t go on like this.’
In response, Mr Johnson wrote: ‘Thanks totally agree… The whole track and trace thing feels like whistling in the dark.
‘Legions of imaginary clouseaus and no plan to hire them…Apps that don’t yet work.
‘And above all no idea how to get new cases down to a manageable level or how long it will take.
‘By which time uk may have secured double distinction of being the European country w the most fatalities and the biggest economic hit.
‘So your email is bang on… We GOTTA turn it round.’
It comes after a series of bombshell revelations from ex-aide Cummings, including a Whatsapp conversation in which the prime minister appears to call the health secretary ‘f*****g hopeless’.
While giving evidence to a select committee over the government’s handling of Covid, Mr Cummings previously said: ‘I think the Secretary of State for Health should’ve been fired for at least 15, 20 things, including lying to everybody on multiple occasions in meeting after meeting in the Cabinet room and publicly.
‘There’s no doubt at all that many senior people performed far, far disastrously below the standards which the country has a right to expect.
‘I think the Secretary of State for Health is certainly one of those people.
‘I said repeatedly to the Prime Minister that he should be fired, so did the cabinet secretary, so did many other senior people.’
Mr Hancock branded the allegations ‘unsubstantiated and untrue’.
It comes as the married health secretary is fighting for his job after the Sun published photos of him kissing his aide Gina Coladangelo at the Department of Health, breaking coronavirus restrictions in place at the time.
But he has refused calls to resign, saying: ‘I accept that I breached the social distancing guidance in these circumstances,” he said in a statement.
‘I have let people down and am very sorry.
‘I remain focused on working to get the country out of this pandemic, and would be grateful for privacy for my family.’
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