DOMINIC Cummings has painted a picture of chaos within government as the coronavirus pandemic hit the UK last year.

Boris Johnson’s former aide was giving evidence to the Commons health and science committees with No 10 braced for explosive claims about the prime minister’s handling of the pandemic.

Matt Hancock should have been fired

South Wales Argus: Dominic Cummings accused Matt Hancock of lying. (PA)Dominic Cummings accused Matt Hancock of lying. (PA)

Rosie Cooper said the public will be disturbed by the revelations portraying a “pick n’ mix’ attitude to science as the global health crisis unfolded last year.

She asked Mr Cummings how he would rate the handling of the pandemic.

He replied: "There were many brilliant people at junior and middle levels who were terribly let down by the senior leadership.

"The secretary of state for health should have been fired for at least 15/20 things including lying to everybody multiple occasions in meeting after meeting in the Cabinet Room and publicly."

Dominic Cummings said one of Matt Hancock’s lies was that everybody got the treatment they deserved in the first peak when “many people were left to die in horrific circumstances”.

Asked to provide evidence of the health secretary’s lying, the former chief aide to the prime minister told the Commons committee: “There are numerous examples. I mean in the summer he said that everybody who needed treatment got the treatment that they required.

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“He knew that that was a lie because he had been briefed by the chief scientific adviser and the chief medical officer himself about the first peak, and we were told explicitly people did not get the treatment they deserved, many people were left to die in horrific circumstances.”

Warning to Boris Johnson

South Wales Argus: Boris Johnson was warned of "big problems coming", Cummings claims. (PA)Boris Johnson was warned of "big problems coming", Cummings claims. (PA)

Describing a message he sent to the prime minister on March 12, he said: "We've got big problems coming... totally behind the pace. We must announce today if you feel ill with cold or flu stay home. We must force the pace. We're looking at 100 to 500,000 deaths...

"That's how the day started off. Today's going to be all about Covid." Everything was disrupted because Trump wanted to bomb the Middle East.

"Then to add it sounds surreal it couldn't possibly be true, the Times ran a huge story about the PM, his girlfriend and his dog. His girlfriend was going compleley crackers about that.

"In the end we had the meeting on Covid, and we decided to push ahead with household quarantine pretty quickly. Fortunately the attorney general persuaded the PM not to go ahead with the bombing campaign.

"At 9pm that night I sat down with Ben Warner and Mark Warner they hit the panic button with me. We're heading for total catastrophe - we need Plan B."

'I think we're absolutely ******'

South Wales Argus: Dominc Cummings giving evidence on Wednesday. (PA)Dominc Cummings giving evidence on Wednesday. (PA)

Cummings claimed Ben Warner, a data scientist, told Patrick Vallance: “I am also concerned”.

Warner warned that graphs showed the country was "going to completely smash through the capacity of the NHS."

Speaking about the whiteboard that has been posted on Twitter, Cummings said: "At this point, we're thinking what we do on this. Helen McNamara, the second most powerful official in the country walked into the office.

"She says I've just been speaking to Mark Sweeney who said: 'I've been told for years there's been a whole plan for this. There is no plan - we're in trouble."

He described how She said: "I've come through here to tell you all ‘I think we are absolutely *****’. I think this country's heading for disaster. We're going to kill thousands of people."

He replied: "I think you're right. I think it is a disaster. I will speak to the PM tomorrow."

Wealth before health

South Wales Argus: Dominic Cummings holds up a document whilst giving evidence. (PA)Dominic Cummings holds up a document whilst giving evidence. (PA)

Dominic Cummings said that Boris Johnson and other senior Whitehall figures believed in early March last year that the economic effects of coronavirus were worse than the disease.

He told the Commons committee: “At this time, not just the Prime Minister but many other people thought that the real danger is not the health danger but the overaction to it and the economy.

“The prime minister said all the way through February and through the first half of March the real danger here isn’t this new swine flu thing, it’s that the reaction to it is going to cripple the economy.

“To be fair to the prime minister, although I think he was completely wrong, lots of other senior people in Whitehall had the same view, that the real danger was the economic one.”