TL;DR

Boris Johnson Wanted to Sack ‘Totally Fucking Hopeless’ Health Minister During COVID Chaos

WhatsApp messages released by a vengeful former adviser show Boris Johnson wanted to replace Health Secretary Matt Hancock because of his incompetence.

U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson slammed his own health minister as “totally fucking hopeless” for his botched response to the coronavirus pandemic only minutes before finding out that he himself had been infected, according to private messages published by a vengeful former adviser. Dominic Cummings was considered the most powerful official in Downing Street but was ousted after losing a power battle with Johnson’s then-girlfriend. In a long blog post Wednesday, accompanied by WhatsApp screenshots, Cummings details the battle to get Johnson and Health Secretary Matt Hancock to take COVID-19 seriously and start mass testing to control the virus. He says that Hancock routinely lied to fellow Cabinet ministers about his department’s actions and tried to deny or shift the blame for failures.

In one WhatsApp exchange with the PM on March 26, 2020, he complains about Hancock failing to push for the same level of testing that was being done in the U.S. “Totally fucking hopeless,” Johnson replies. The screenshot then shows a series of missed calls from his boss, which Cummings said were to inform him that he’d just tested positive. The following day, quarantined in Number 1o, the prime minister discussed sacking him. Johnson ended up almost dying from the disease.