27 May 2021

Covid-19: Thousands died needlessly in UK - Dominic Cummings

From Morning Report, 6:48 am on 27 May 2021

To the UK, where the Prime Minister's former aide, Dominic Cummings has said thousands of people died needlessly as a result of government incompetence in the handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

In startling testimony to MPs in parliament, Cummings said Prime Minister Boris Johnson initially dismissed Covid-19 as a "scare story".

Cummings said the UK had been catastrophically slow to lock down and he was particularly critical of Health Secretary Matt Hancock, who he said had lied on multiple occasions and should have been fired.

UK correspondent Vincent McAviney spoke to Susie Ferguson.