The final messages that Boris Johnson sent to Dominic Cummings in the days after his former chief adviser left Downing Street in the height of the pandemic have been revealed.
Then prime minister Mr Johnson said Number 10 was plagued with a "disgusting orgy of narcissim" and rubbished claims that his now wife Carrie was "secretly forging lockdown policy" in November 2020.
He urged Mr Cummings to work with him to "sterilise the whole thing", adding, "but if you really refuse then that's up to you".
There appeared to be no response at the time from Mr Cummings, but when asked about the messages at the Covid-19 Inquiry in London on Tuesday, Mr Cummings said there "certainly" was a "disgusting orgy of narcissim".
In his final message to Mr Cummings on November 15, 2020, Mr Johnson said: "You speak of briefings from team Carrie.
"She hasn't briefed anyone and my instructions to all were to shut the f*** up. How is any of us supposed to know where these briefings come from?
"Look at the claims made on behalf of allies of Lee (Cain) and Dom, that I'm out in six months, that I can't take decisions, that Carrie is secretly forging lockdown policy, and about a billion equally demented claims.
"Are you responsible for all that crap? No. Then look at it from my point of view. This is a totally disgusting orgy of narcissism by a government that should be solving a national crisis.
"We must end this. That's why I wanted to talk and see what we can jointly do to sterilise the whole thing. But if you really refuse, then that's up to you."
Mr Cummings had left Downing Street two days earlier.
On Tuesday, asked if he agreed there was an "orgy of narcissism" in Government, Mr Cummings told the Covid-19 Inquiry: "Certainly there was."
The messages showed that Mr Cummings blocked his former boss on WhatsApp in March 2021, shortly before he appeared in front of a commitee of MPs for the first time since leaving Downing Street.
Mr Cummings provided evidence to the inquiry for several hours on Tuesday, after Mr Johnson's then director of communications Lee Cain also gave evidence.
Messages from Boris Johnson about Mr Cummings' trip to Barnard Castle during the lockdown, which threw the ex-aide under public scrutiny, were also revealed.
Mr Johnson sent a message to his aides in July 2021 which said: "Cummings a total and utter liar. He never told me he had gone to Durham during lockdown.
"I only discovered when the stories started to come out about Barnard Castle etc. I believed Mary Wakefield when she wrote a piece in spec giving impression they had been in London the whole time.
"He later claimed that he had told me but that my brain was so fogged by Covid that I didn't register. It's not true, I would have noted it.
"He never told me. I then tried my very best to defend him."
On Wednesday the inquiry will hear from Helen MacNamara, who was head of the propriety and ethics team in the Cabinet Office in 2020.
On Tuesday a message from Mr Cummings about Ms MacNamara was also revealed, in which he said "that woman must be out of our hair", adding "we cannot keep dealing with this horrific meltdown of the British state while dodging stilettos from that ****."
