London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Sep 18, 2025

Boris Johnson calls Matt Hancock hopeless in texts revealed by Dominic Cummings

Boris Johnson calls Matt Hancock hopeless in texts revealed by Dominic Cummings

Dominic Cummings has published expletive-laden messages, apparently from Boris Johnson, in which the PM calls the health secretary "hopeless".

It is the latest salvo in a bitter war of words between Mr Cummings, the PM's former top aide, and Matt Hancock over the handling of the pandemic.

Downing Street did not deny the authenticity of the messages.

But the PM's official spokesman insisted Mr Johnson has full confidence in the health secretary.

In a 7,000-word blog, Mr Cummings accused Mr Hancock of trying to rewrite history during a select committee hearing last week which was examining how the government has managed various aspects of the crisis.

He also took aim at Mr Johnson, claiming he had "lied about failures" during the government's initial response to the pandemic.

"If No 10 is prepared to lie so deeply and widely about such vital issues of life and death last year, it cannot be trusted now either on Covid or any other crucial issue of war and peace," Mr Cummings wrote.

Mr Cummings told MPs three weeks ago that the health secretary had lied to the prime minister about testing hospital patients before they were released into care homes at the start of the pandemic - something firmly denied by Mr Hancock.

A source close to Mr Hancock said: "The health secretary answered many of Mr Cummings' claims at a lengthy session in front of MPs.

"Mr Cummings has still failed to provide evidence to substantiate his claims.

"The health secretary continues to work with the prime minister on the vaccine programme and getting us out of this pandemic as quickly as possible."

Mr Cummings, who was forced out of Downing Street last year, claims the version of events given to the committee by Mr Hancock was "fiction".

The former aide appears to have kept WhatsApp messages from his time in government and selected six to share with readers of his blog.

One of them appears to show an exchange between Mr Johnson and Mr Cummings on 27 March last year.

Mr Cummings highlights the ramping up of testing capacity in the US and criticises Mr Hancock for saying he was "sceptical" about meeting a target.

Mr Johnson purportedly responds: "Totally [expletive] hopeless."


Mr Cummings also published another private message about the struggle to procure ventilators for Covid-19 patients.

"It's Hancock. He has been hopeless," a contact appearing to be Mr Johnson replies on 27 March last year.

In another message, on 27 April last year, the prime minister appears to call the situation around personal protective equipment (PPE) "a disaster" and alludes to diverting some responsibilities to Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove.

"I can't think of anything except taking Hancock off and putting Gove on," Mr Johnson apparently adds.

Mr Johnson's official spokesman said he was "not going to be drawn on these claims", adding that the prime minister has "worked very closely with the health secretary and continues to do so".


Labour's shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth told Mr Hancock in a Commons debate that he had been "forever branded Hopeless Hancock by his own leader".

The party's deputy leader Angela Rayner said a public inquiry into the pandemic promised for next spring was now needed "as quickly as possible".

Mr Cummings suggests in his blog that any inquiry would not "start for years" as it was "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'," writes Mr Cummings.

But with the Conservatives riding high in the opinion polls, there is no incentive for the party's MPs to move against Mr Johnson, despite the "systemic incompetence" surrounding him, he adds.

Downing Street rejected the claim that Mr Johnson planned to stand down after the next election, saying: "The PM has actually been asked this before and said it's utter nonsense, so that still stands."


Let's start with a quick political quiz.

Q: Who has the safest job in cabinet?

A: Matt Hancock

Q: Why?

A: Because Dominic Cummings wants him sacked.

Boris Johnson's spokesman said the PM had full confidence in the health secretary.

He could say little else - as he won't be sacking him at the urging of a disgruntled former aide.

If he did, that would suggest that Dominic Cummings was right, about what he thinks were failures over PPE, ventilators and testing, early in the pandemic.

And if Mr Hancock goes now, Labour would ask why he wasn't dismissed sooner.

Mr Cummings makes serious allegations about the handling of the Covid crisis.

But by continually suggesting that Matt Hancock is the very personification of government errors, he may be making it a little too easy for his detractors to portray his interventions as a grudge match.

And by denouncing not just the Department of Health and Social Care but the Cabinet Office too, you get the impression that Mr Cummings felt that very few people could come up to his standards.

Mr Cummings's own credibility, of course, still remains dented due to last year's lockdown drive to Durham.

But his latest dossier does raise questions of ministers well ahead of the formal inquiry, and provides ammunition to an opposition which has questioned the pace at which the government moved.

Giving evidence to MPs last week, Mr Hancock said he had seen no evidence to suggest any medical staff had died because of a lack of PPE.

In his blog, Mr Cummings accuses the health secretary of trying to blame NHS England chief executive Sir Simon Stevens, Chancellor Rishi Sunak and the Cabinet Office for last April's "PPE disaster".

"The lack of PPE killed NHS and care home staff in March-May," he writes.

He claims Number 10 and Mr Hancock had "repeatedly lied about the failures last year" and accuses them of now trying to "rewrite history", with the prime minister "encouraging ministers to give false accounts to Parliament".

Mr Cummings goes on to criticise Mr Johnson's management style.

In one section he contrasts Mr Johnson's approach with that of Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, who stood in for the PM when he was in hospital with coronavirus.

He said meetings with Mr Raab at the helm were "less pleasant for everybody but much more productive". He said this was because Mr Raab "can chair meetings properly instead of telling rambling stories and jokes".

He went on to say that "as soon as things get 'a bit embarrassing' [Boris Johnson] does the whole 'let's take it offline' shtick before shouting 'forward to victory', doing a thumbs-up and pegging it out of the room before anybody can disagree".

Downing Street said it was "not going to engage" with this claim.

Mr Cummings published the alleged leaks on Substack, an online platform that allows people to charge for newsletters.

He has said he plans to charge subscribers for insider information on subjects other than the pandemic.


Mr Hancock was asked by a reporter whether he was "hopeless" - he responded with "I don't think so"

"Tens of thousands of people died who didn't need to die", Dominic Cummings told MPs

Five things Health Secretary Matt Hancock told MPs


Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
US Tech Giants Pledge Billions to UK AI Infrastructure Following Starmer's Call
Saudi Arabia cracks down on music ‘lounges’ after conservative backlash
DeepMind and OpenAI Achieve Gold at ‘Coding Olympics’ in AI Milestone
SEC Allows Public Companies to Block Investors from Class-Action Lawsuits
Saudi Arabia Signs ‘Strategic Mutual Defence’ Pact with Pakistan, Marking First Arab State to Gain Indirect Access to Nuclear Strike Capabilities in the Region
Federal Reserve Cuts Rates by Quarter Point and Signals More to Come
Effective and Impressive Generation Z Protest: Images from the Riots in Nepal
European manufacturers against ban on polluting cars: "The industry may collapse"
Sam Altman sells the 'Wedding Estate' in Hawaii for 49 million dollars
Trump: Cancel quarterly company reports and settle for reporting once every six months
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
US Launches New Pilot Program to Accelerate eVTOL Air Taxi Deployment
Christian Brueckner Released from German Prison after Serving Unrelated Sentence
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
Hong Kong Industry Group Calls for HK$20 Billion Support Fund to Ease Property Market Stress
Joe Biden’s Post-Presidency Speaking Fees Face Weak Demand amid Corporate Reluctance
Charlie Kirk's murder will break the left's hateful cancel tactics
Kash Patel erupts at ‘buffoon’ Sen. Adam Schiff over Russiagate: ‘You are the biggest fraud’
Homeland Security says Emmy speech ‘fanning the flames of hatred’ after Einbinder’s ‘F— ICE’ remark
Charlie Kirk’s Alleged Assassin Tyler Robinson Faces Death Penalty as Charges Formally Announced
Actor, director, environmentalist Robert Redford dies at 89
The conservative right spreads westward: a huge achievement for 'Alternative for Germany' in local elections
JD Vance Says There Is “No Unity” with Those Who Celebrate Charlie Kirk’s Killing, and he is right!
Trump sues the 'New York Times' for an astronomical sum of 15 billion dollars
Florida Hospital Welcomes Its Largest-Ever Baby: Annan, Nearly Fourteen Pounds at Birth
U.S. and Britain Poised to Finalize Over $10 Billion in High-Tech, Nuclear and Defense Deals During Trump State Visit
China Finds Nvidia Violated Antitrust Laws in Mellanox Deal, Deepens Trade Tensions with US
US Air Force Begins Modifications on Qatar-Donated Jet Amid Plans to Use It as Air Force One
Pope Leo Warns of Societal Crisis Over Mega-CEO Pay, Citing Tesla’s Proposed Trillion-Dollar Package
Poland Green-Lights NATO Deployment in Response to Major Russian Drone Incursion
Elon Musk Retakes Lead as World’s Richest After Brief Ellison Surge
U.S. and China Agree on Framework to Shift TikTok to American Ownership
London Daily Podcast: London Massive Pro Democracy Rally, Musk Support, UK Economic Data and Premier League Results Mark Eventful Weekend
This Week in AI: Meta’s Superintelligence Push, xAI’s Ten Billion-Dollar Raise, Genesis AI’s Robotics Ambitions, Microsoft Restructuring, Amazon’s Million-Robot Milestone, and Google’s AlphaGenome Update
Le Pen Tightens the Pressure on Macron as France Edges Toward Political Breakdown
Musk calls for new UK government at huge pro-democracy rally in London, but Britons have been brainwashed to obey instead of fighting for their human rights
Elon Musk responds to post calling for the murder of Erika Kirk, widow of Charlie Kirk: 'Either we fight back or they will kill us'
Czech Republic signs €1.34 billion contract for Leopard 2A8 main battle tanks with delivery from 2028
USA: Office Depot Employees Refused to Print Poster in Memory of Charlie Kirk – and Were Fired
Proposed U.S. Bill Would Allow Civil Suits Against Judges Who Release Repeat Violent Offenders
Penske Media Sues Google Over “AI Overviews,” Claiming It Uses Journalism Without Consent and Destroys Traffic
Indian Student Engineers Propose “Project REBIRTH” to Protect Aircraft from Crashes Using AI, Airbags and Smart Materials
French Debt Downgrade Piles Pressure on Macron’s New Prime Minister
US and UK Near Tech, Nuclear and Whisky Deals Ahead of Trump Trip
One in Three Europeans Now Uses TikTok, According to the Chinese Tech Giant
Could AI Nursing Robots Help Healthcare Staffing Shortages?
NATO Deploys ‘Eastern Sentry’ After Russian Drones Violate Polish Airspace
Anesthesiologist Left Operation Mid-Surgery to Have Sex with Nurse
Tens of Thousands of Young Chinese Get Up Every Morning and Go to Work Where They Do Nothing
×