Cummings: UK government failings led to ‘tens of thousands’ of extra Covid deaths

Dominic Cummings, former chief adviser to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, giving evidence to a joint inquiry of the Commons Health and Social Care and Science and Technology Committees on the subject of Coronavirus: lessons learnt (House of Commons/PA)

Tens of thousands of people died unnecessarily because of the UK government’s failings over coronavirus and Boris Johnson is “unfit for the job” of Prime Minister, Dominic Cummings said.

The British Prime Minister’s former adviser said Mr Johnson dismissed the pandemic as a “scare story” or the new “swine flu” in early 2020 as the global crisis loomed and then had to be persuaded to lock down in March.