Boris Johnson called his Health Secretary Matt Hancock ‘f*****g hopeless’ leaked WhatsApp messages show
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Boris Johnson called his Health Secretary Matt Hancock “totally f—ing hopeless,” according to bombshell messages published by the prime minister’s estranged former chief adviser Dominic Cummings.
Hancock last week accused Cummings, who left Downing Street acrimoniously last year, of failing to produce evidence to support his claims that Hancock had lied frequently to the prime minister throughout the coronavirus pandemic.
Cummings told MPs that Hancock should have been sacked for dishonesty on multiple occasions, and said the former secretary Mark Sedwill had told the prime minister in mid-April that he had “lost confidence” in the health secretary.
Cummings on Wednesday said he had felt compelled to publish official documents and screenshots of WhatsApp messages between himself and the prime minister to verify those claims, saying that Downing Street and Hancock himself had “openly” lied last week to protect Hancock’s reputation.
In a blog post, Cummings alleged that Johnson had frequently been frustrated with Hancock’s performance throughout the coronavirus pandemic last year.
“Hancock gave a fictitious account to MPs last week and portrayed himself as a heroic figure who had been in agreement with the PM throughout the crisis,” Cummings said in the blog post, which was published on Substack.
In one screenshotted exchange apparently between himself and the prime minister, Cummings appeared to highlight the urgent need for the government to ramp up COVID-19 testing across the country, and criticising Hancock for missing targets he had previously set.
Johnson replied: “Totally f—ing hopeless.”
A Downing Street spokesperson said on Wednesday: “Our focus is on not examining those specific images but delivering on the public’s priority.”
“I don’t plan to get into the detail of what’s been published,” they said.
In another, later the same day, Cummings said that officials had “totally f—ed up” procurement of medical ventilators – which were needed to treat COVID-19 patients in intensive care.
Johnson replied: “It’s Hancock. He has been hopeless.”
“The PM has supported this fiction and ordered the No 10 press office to support many arguments he knows are lies,” Cummings said in the blogpost.
“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.”
Johnson’s opponents said the messages underlined the need for a rapid public inquiry into the government’s handling of the pandemic.
“This is more evidence that the Conservatives were too slow to lockdown, too slow to deliver PPE and too slow to protect our care homes,” Justin Madders MP, Labour’s Shadow Health Minister said.
“With this evidence that even the PM thinks Hancock is useless, why in the worst pandemic in our history has he left him in charge?
“Hancock and Johnson need to respond to these latest revelations and immediately start the public inquiry into their handling of the pandemic.”