Now Dominic Cummings lays into Matt Hancock revealing PM text over care home deaths ‘negligence’

Dominic Cummings warned that ministerial negligence was ‘killing the most vulnerable’ in care homes at the height of the pandemic last year, he revealed today, raising more questions about the conduct of Health Secretary Matt Hancock.

As Mr Hancock was facing calls to resign or be fired today over an affair with an aide, Mr Cummings, a former adviser to Boris Johnson, dropped yet more behind-the-scenes evidence from his time in No10.

Writing on the micro-publishing website Substack he released a screenshot of a WhatsApp message from May last year in which he voiced concerns about testing people moving from NHS hospitals to care homes.

He has already accused Mr Hancock of claiming that everyone was being tested before being sent to homes – when they were not -  something that the Health Secretary has denied.

The failure to test everyone leaving NHS hospitals for care facilities has been blamed for the high rate of deaths there among mainly elderly and vulnerable residents.

In the shared Whatsapp message, Mr Cummings asks the PM to put the Department of Health’s ‘plan for using testing to suppress infections in hospitals and care homes’ over the subsequent three to six months on the agenda for a meeting the next day.

He suggested ‘these goddamn plans should already exist’, adding: ‘At the moment I think we are negligently killing the most vulnerable who we are supposed to be shielding and I am extremely worried about it.’

Unveiling the article on Twitter, Mr Cummings said it was ‘further evidence on how Hancock/PM negligence killed people’.

As Mr Hancock was facing calls to resign or be fired today over an affair with an aide, Mr Cummings, a former adviser to Boris Johnson, dropped yet more behind-the-scenes evidence from his time in No10.

Writing on the micro-publishing website Substack he released a screenshot of a WhatsApp message from May last year in which he voiced concerns about testing people moving from NHS hospitals to care homes.

Mr Hancock was facing calls to resign or be fired today over an affair with an aide and close friend from university, Gina Coladangelo

He has already accused Mr Hancock of claiming that everyone was being tested before being sent to homes – when they were not – something that the Health Secretary has denied.

Mr Cummings also released messages from the PM in which he criticised NHS Test and Trace, which at the time was struggling to work.

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Unveiling the article on Twitter, Mr Cummings said it was ‘further evidence on how Hancock/PM negligence killed people’.

Appearing in front of MPs on the health and science committees last month, Mr Cummings made a series of bombshell accusations about Mr Hancock’s time in charge at the Department of Health.

He accused him of being a serial liar, who misled the PM over testing in care homes, and who prioritised hitting a target of 100,000 tests per day rather than building a system that would work better in the long term.

Mr Hancock appeared in front of the MPs the followeing week and denied the claims. 

Mr Cummings also released messages from the PM in which he criticised NHS Test and Trace, which at the time was struggling to work.

Tory peer Baroness Harding, who has been roundly criticised for her leadership of the scheme, has now applied to run the NHS.

But in a message from April 26 last year, Mr Johnson said it was ‘like whistling in the dark … legions of imaginary clouseaus (sic) and no plan to hire them.’

Labour’s shadow health minister Justin Madders said: ‘Matt Hancock’s failures continue to stack up. This latest blog from Mr Cummings reveals the Prime Minister lacked confidence in Hancock’s handling of the crisis, and yet astoundingly Boris Johnson kept the Health Secretary in post.

‘He left care homes exposed, has admitted breaking his own Covid rules and failed to deliver Test and Trace when it was most needed. The charge sheet against Hancock continues to grow – so why hasn’t the Prime Minister had the confidence to sack him?’