Boris Johnson and Dominic Cummings sent “disgusting and misogynistic” WhatsApps that will come out at the Covid inquiry, George Osborne has claimed.
The former Tory chancellor said he understood that there would be “staggering” messages shared at next week’s hearings – when the ex-No 10 strategist Mr Cummings is set to appear.
Mr Johnson is set to give evidence to the public inquiry next month, following the long-running saga over the release his WhatsApp messages with senior advisers and ministers.
Mr Osborne predicted that WhatsApp messages would show what a “complete nightmare” it was to work under Mr Johnson at Downing Street during the Covid crisis.
“I think we’re going to get some pretty astonishing and frankly, shocking WhatsApp messages and the like being published from that Johnson period,” he told co-host Ed Balls on their podcast Political Currency.
He said the messages “will show people just what a complete nightmare it was for many people working in 10 Downing Street and who worked at the top of government at the time, and potentially some things that are going to cause some real problems for individuals who were in charge at the time”.
Asked by Mr Balls if he knew more about the messages than he was saying, Mr Osborne said: “I’ve got to be a little bit careful here because it’s a judicial inquiry.”
He added: “But from what I understand, there are some pretty staggering things that have been said on those WhatsApp messages by not just by Boris Johnson, but key advisors like Dominic Cummings, really, pretty disgusting language and misogynistic language.
“But I think that’s all I can say because I’ve already appeared once before the Covid inquiry and I don’t want to appear again before it.”
Boris Johnson with then-senior aide Dominic Cummings at No 10 in 2019— (PA Archive)
Neither Mr Johnson nor Mr Cummings have responded to requests for comment on Mr Osborne’s claim.
Recent hearings and document releases from the Covid inquiry have revealed embarrassing details for Mr Johnson, Rishi Sunak and senior government officials.
It emerged last week that the chief scientific adviser Dame Angela McLean called Mr Sunak “Dr Death” after he launched Eat Out to Help Out – the restaurant discount scheme blamed for an increase Covid cases in the summer of 2020.
Earlier this month the inquiry shared messages by cabinet secretary Simon Case referring to Mr Johnson’s wife Carrie Johnson as the “real person in charge” during the Covid pandemic.
Messages sent in October 2020 between the head of the civil service and Mr Johnson’s then-communications head Lee Cain lay bare the rows at the heart of No 10 at the time.
Mr Case: “I was always told that Dom [Dominic Cummings] was the secret PM. How wrong they are. I look forward to telling select cttee tomorrow – ‘oh, f*** no, don’t worry about Dom, the real person in charge is Carrie’.”
The cabinet secretary later wrote: “This gov’t doesn’t have the credibility needed to be imposing stuff within only days of deciding not too [sic]. We look like a terrible, tragic joke.”
