DOMINIC Cummings has alleged that former prime minister Boris Johnson said the British state had "totally failed" during the Covid pandemic.
According to the ex-adviser, he also asked asked scientists if it was possible to kill Covid by blowing a hairdryer up your nose after watching a YouTube video suggesting this.
The then-PM shared the clip on a WhatsApp group including health experts and senior No 10 officials.
In a written statement to the ongoing UK Covid Inquiry, Cummings accused Johnson of spreading misinformation during the pandemic.
In his statement, the former No 10 adviser said: “A low point was when he (Johnson) circulated a video of a guy blowing a special hair dryer up his nose ‘to kill Covid’ and asked the CSA (Chief Scientific Adviser) and CMO (Chief Medical Officer) what they thought,” the former No 10 adviser wrote.
Pink Panther comparisons
Cummings also said that Johnson complained to officials that he felt like he was Inspector Clouseau in The Pink Panther.
The former adviser said: “He repeatedly said versions of a Clouseau analogy: ‘The British state has totally failed, it’s been a humiliating disaster, the government machine isn’t a Rolls Royce, I feel like Clouseau in The Pink Panther in that scene where he pulls the brake and it comes off in his hand, then pulls off the steering wheel and chucks it out the window – that’s what being PM has felt like in this crisis’.
“Unfortunately his approach was the worst of all words – he would depress everybody with his Clouseau analogy, by implication offend officials, many of whom had made tremendous efforts in public service, but then swerve real action to solve the problems.
“This encouraged despair, anger and leaks from all sides to pressure ‘the trolley’.”
Shakespeare book
Cummings (below) also said the ex-PM took a fortnight long holiday in February 2020, as the pandemic was about to hit.
He said Johnson wanted to work on a book he was writing about William Shakespeare.
“He was extremely distracted. He had a divorce to finalise and was grappling with financial problems from that plus his girlfriend’s spending plans for the No 10 flat.
“An ex-girlfriend was making accusations about him in the media. His current girlfriend wanted to finalise the announcement of their engagement.
“He said he wanted to work on his Shakespeare book.”
Johnson signed a book deal in 2015 to write Shakespeare: The Riddle of Genius but it has never been published.
On the cover of his 115-page witness statement, Cummings included a quote from War and Peace.
“Nothing was ready for the war which everybody expected,” it read.
