DOMINIC Cummings has launched an extraordinary attack on Boris Johnson claiming People died unnecessarily because of Government failings during the coronavirus pandemic.

The prime minister’s former aide said that said he was sorry that ministers, officials and advisers had fallen “disastrously short” of the standards the public should expect in a crisis.

Boris Johnson’s former aide said: “The truth is that senior ministers, senior officials, senior advisers like me fell disastrously short of the standards that the public has a right to expect of its government in a crisis like this.

“When the public needed us most the government failed.

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“I would like to say to all the families of those who died unnecessarily how sorry I am for the mistakes that were made and for my own mistakes at that.”

Mr Cummings told MPs the government “didn’t act like it (Covid) was the most important thing in February, never mind in January”, adding the Government was not on a “war footing” and that “lots of key people were literally skiing” in February.

He also claimed Boris Johnson considered the coronavirus outbreak as a “scare story” in the early stages and missed key meetings as the virus spread across the globe.

Mr Cummings also claimed the prime minister described the virus as “the new swine flu” while giving evidence to the Commons health and science committees.

Giving evidence to the Commons Health and Social Care and Science and Technology Committees, Mr Cummings said: “In February the prime minister regarded this as just a scare story, he described it as the new swine flu.”

When asked if he had told the prime minister it was not, Mr Cummings added: “Certainly, but the view of various officials inside Number 10 was if we have the Prime Minister chairing Cobra meetings and he just tells everyone ‘it’s swine flu, don’t worry about it, I’m going to get Chris Whitty to inject me live on TV with coronavirus so everyone realises it’s nothing to be frightened of’, that would not help actually serious panic.”

Dominic Cummings said “many institutions” failed early on in the coronavirus crisis.

The former chief aide to the prime minister told the Commons committee: “When it started, in January, I did think in part of my mind, ‘Oh my goodness, is this it? Is this what people have been warning about all this time?’

“However, at the time the PHE (Public Health England) here and the WHO (World Health Organisation) and CDC, generally speaking, organisations across the western world were not ringing great alarm bells about it then.

“I think it is in retrospect completely obvious that many, many institutions failed on this early question.”

South Wales Argus: Dominic Cummings giving evidence. (PA)Dominic Cummings giving evidence. (PA)

Earlier on Wednesday morning Cabinet minister Grant Shapps dismissed Mr Cummings’ evidence as a “sideshow”.

He said the focus on Mr Cummings as “Westminster bubble stuff” and “I do find this obsession about one single adviser a bit odd”.

Asked whether Mr Cummings is a liar, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps told BBC Breakfast: “I will leave it to others to judge how reliable a witness that former adviser happens to be.”

Asked whether Mr Cummings was a “trusted adviser”, Mr Shapps said: “He was certainly an adviser of the government. It’s for others to decide the trusted part of it.”