Downing Street has remained tight-lipped on the bombshell evidence published by Dominic Cummings.
Asked by reporters this afternoon, the Prime Minsiter’s official spokesman said he would not comment on “every allegation” made by Mr Johnson’s former closest advisor in a series of blog posts today.
Among the claims made by the ex-aide include that the Prime Minister described his health secretary Matt Hancock as f****** hopeless” and that he plans to step down at the next election to ‘make money and have fun’.
No.10 insisted the PM has full confidence in Mr Hancock when probed on the messages this afternoon, but would not confirm whether they believed the exchanges were indeed from Mr Johnson or whether they were considering taking legal action against the former aide.
They Also would not comment on whether they had security concerns about the release of the information, other than to say there was a protocol for former advisors to follow.
On the claims that Mr Johnson was planning to leave government at the next election, No.10 referred to previous comments made by the Prime Minister that it was “utter nonsense”.
In a 7000-word blog post, Mr Cummings said it showed that “No10/Hancock have repeatedly lied about the failures last year” and accused them of now trying to “rewrite history”.
It Is the latest in an ongoing row between Mr Cummings and the Government, following his departure form No.10 in November, reportedly over a row with Mr Johnson’s then fiancée Carrie Symonds.
READ MORE: Dominic Cummings: Key evidence from ex-aide's bombshell testimony
Mr Cummings was then fingered by Downing Street for leaking confidential information about the timings of a second lockdown, which sparked an angry denial from the former aide.
Last month, he attended a Commons committee where he made a series of allegations about Mr Hancock, including that he had repeatedly lied to the public and to Government ministers throughout the pandemic, and said Boris Johnson had treated coronavirus as a “scare story” initially.
He said he would provide evidence to back up his claims, made during seven hours of testimony to MPs, and the latest blog post appears to be his attempt to do just that.
Mr Cummings today accused the Prime Minister of now perpetuating the “fiction” that he has been in agreement with the Health Secretary throughout the pandemic, claiming that key responsibilities were removed from Mr Hancock and considered for reassignment to Michael Gove due to his incompetence.
These include PPE and testing roll outs.
In one exchange on March 3 last year, Mr Cummings highlighted the US’s rapid increase of testing capacity and criticised Mr Hancock for saying he was “sceptical” about meeting a new UK target having earlier said it would “definitely” be met.
The Prime Minister apparently responded: “Totally f****** hopeless.”
Mr Cummings published another exchange about the struggle to get ventilators, saying officials were turning down equipment because of price hikes.
“It’s Hancock. He has been hopeless,” replied the contact, appearing to be Mr Johnson, on March 27 2020.
In a separate message, the Prime Minister appeared to call the situation around personal protective equipment (PPE) “a disaster”.
Mr Cummings has also said he is willing to work for free to support people who are campaigning for an immediate public inquiry, arguing that the current plans to hold an inquiry next year are not good enough.
He said: “ Hancock continues to have direct responsibility for things like dealing with variants and care homes. Having such a Secretary of State in a key role is guaranteed disaster. It is urgent for public safety that he is removed
“The public inquiry cannot fix this.
“It will not start for years and it is designed to punt the tricky parts until after this PM has gone — unlike other PMs, this one has a clear plan to leave at the latest a couple of years after the next election, he wants to make money and have fun not ‘go on and on’.
“So we either live with chronic dysfunction for another ~5 years or some force intervenes.”
Mr Cummings also continued to attack Mr Hancock, saying he was “creating a new version of reality in which the government really did ‘throw a protective ring’ around care homes.”
He added: “The reality: covid patients were sent untested from hospital to care homes and Hancock neglected care homes and testing throughout April partly because Hancock was trying to focus effort on his press conference at the end of April claiming success for his announcement on 2/4.
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