Dominic Cummings to give evidence to MPs on mistakes made in UK’s pandemic response

Dominic Cummings has agreed to help MPs find out what in his words “went wrong and why” as the UK’s response to Covid-19 led to the highest death toll in Europe.

The ousted chief-of-staff to Boris Johnson will give evidence to a Commons committee for a second time in May – this time on the handling of the pandemic when he was at No 10.

The appearance comes after Mr Cummings urged Parliament to carry out an “urgent and very, very hard look in this building into what went wrong and why”.

The call came as he blamed the “smoking ruin” of the department of health for PPE shortages, calling its response to coronavirus an “absolute total disaster”.

Mr Cummings’ decision to appear before a joint inquiry by the Commons health and science committees is likely to provoke nervousness in Downing Street, after his dramatic pre-Christmas departure.

It comes as Mr Johnson continues to refuse to stage the independent inquiry he promised last summer – triggering the start of legal action by bereaved families.

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Jeremy Hunt and Greg Clark, the Conservative chairs of the committees, said the former aide could provide insight as they examine “the lessons that can be drawn from the handling of the pandemic”.

“How government and its agencies dealt with and responded to early intelligence about Covid-19 is critical to our investigations,” the pair said.

“We welcome the opportunity to question the prime minister’s former chief adviser Dominic Cummings about decisions that were taken at the heart of government.”

In his first evidence session on Wednesday, the former Vote Leave chief hinted strongly at a desire to open up on the crucial decisions made as lockdowns were imposed, lifted – then imposed again.

However, he was accused of settling scores by claiming partial responsibility for the successful vaccinations programme, something fiercely disputed by Matt Hancock’s allies.

More than 126,000 people have died in the UK with Covid-19, more than six times the benchmark of 20,000 which was once described as “a good result” by Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer.

Mr Johnson has said he takes responsibility for all decisions taken – and has on occasion referred to mistakes – but also called the UK’s response a “success” after recovering from coronavirus himself.

Mr Cummings will appear on Wednesday 26 May, as the joint committee examines issues including lockdown timings, social distancing rules, the plight of care homes, the disproportionate impact on ethnic minorities and the strongly-criticised test-and-trace programme.

In evidence on Wednesday, he said the health department “had an absolute total disaster in terms of buying – how it buys, how it procures, how it deals with science and technology”, adding: “It’s why we had to take the vaccine process out.”