COVID Inquiry: Head of civil service said Boris Johnson ‘can’t lead’ and made it ‘impossible’ to govern

Published

2 years ago

October 30, 2023

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The UK’s top civil servant described “being at the end of my tether” over Boris Johnson’s indecision during the pandemic and said he “cannot lead”.

WhatsApp messages shown to the COVID inquiry on Monday reveal the then prime minister’s leadership ability frustrated some of the most senior figures in government.

Politics Live: WhatsApps by aides of Boris Johnson revealed

In one particularly disparaging message from September 2020, Cabinet Secretary Simon Case said Mr Johnson “cannot lead and we cannot support him in leading with this approach”.

Mr Case, in a group that included then chief advisor Dominic Cummings, said: “I am at the end of my tether.

“He changes strategic direction every day (Monday we were all about fear of virus returning as per Europe, March etc – today we’re in ‘let it rip’ mode cos (sic) the UK is pathetic, needs a cold shower etc.)

“He cannot lead and we cannot support him in leading with this approach.

“The team captain cannot change the call on the big plays every day. The team can’t deliver anything under these circumstances.”

Mr Case goes on to admonish a “weak team”, appearing to name former health secretary Matt Hancock and former education secretary Gavin Williamson, saying we “definitely cannot succeed in these circs (sic). IT HAS TO STOP!”.

He added: “Decide and set direction – deliver – explain. Gov’t isn’t actually that hard but this guy is really making it impossible.”

Mr Cummings replied: “Totally agree, am getting lots of despairing messages from people in [meetings] with him.”

Later in the conversation, Mr Cummings said that “as always, discussions with these ministers is moronic. They cannot understand priorities”.

Mr Case replied that the government “doesn’t have the credibility needed to be imposing stuff within only days of deciding not to”.

“We look like a terrible, tragic joke,” he said.

Lee Cain, the Downing Street director of communications, responded with a trolley emoji.

The messages were read out at a hearing in which Martin Reynolds – the former principle private secretary to Mr Johnson – was called to give evidence.

Mr Reynolds admitted Mr Johnson “could blow hot and cold” on some issues.

Asked if that included the “most vital issues which his government faced”, Mr Reynolds said: “Yes, but also the most difficult choices the country was facing – both of which had very difficult consequences.”

The inquiry was also shown a number of extracts from chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance’s notebooks, including one which said Mr Johnson is “simply not consistent” on COVID.

A string of embarrassing messages have already been released to the inquiry, including how Mr Johnson described long COVID as “b*******” and that his wife, Carrie, had been described as “the real person in charge” by Mr Case.

‘Culture of chaos’

The Liberal Democrats said the messages lay bare “the culture of chaos in Number 10”.

Health and Social Care spokesperson Daisy Cooper said: “Warring factions, senior figures spinning in circles, and a complete inability to get to grips with any of the major issues facing our COVID response: bereaved families will feel sick to their stomachs hearing about this litany of failings which led to so much unnecessary suffering.

“Many will rightly be furious. Their actions have caused irreparable damage to trust in politics and put millions through unnecessary pain. It is unforgivable.”

Mr Reynolds was infamously nicknamed “Party Marty” after writing a notorious “bring your own booze” email to Downing Street staff during the first lockdown – something he said he was “deeply sorry for” at his hearing today.

The lengthy session also heard how WhatsApp messages in a Boris Johnson group chat were “set to disappear” as calls for a COVID inquiry grew, and that the former PM “did not realise” the messages he sent on the app would eventually be made public at the inquiry.

Mr Reynolds is the first of several senior Downing Street officials giving evidence to the probe this week.

Mr Cain is expected to give evidence tomorrow after today’s session ran over, followed by Mr Cummings – who is expected to dish the dirt on his old boss.

The first part of the inquiry looked at the UK’s resilience and preparedness for a pandemic while the second part, which started this month, focuses on “core decision making and political governance” and will also see Mr Johnson give evidence.

UK

Rachel Reeves hints at tax rises in autumn budget after welfare bill U-turn

Published

3 hours ago

July 5, 2025

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Rachel Reeves hints at tax rises in autumn budget after welfare bill U-turn

Rachel Reeves has hinted that taxes are likely to be raised this autumn after a major U-turn on the government’s controversial welfare bill.

Sir Keir Starmer’s Universal Credit and Personal Independent Payment Bill passed through the House of Commons on Tuesday after multiple concessions and threats of a major rebellion.

MPs ended up voting for only one part of the plan: a cut to universal credit (UC) sickness benefits for new claimants from £97 a week to £50 from 2026/7.

Initially aimed at saving £5.5bn, it now leaves the government with an estimated £5.5bn black hole – close to breaching Ms Reeves’s fiscal rules set out last year.

In an interview with The Guardian, the chancellor did not rule out tax rises later in the year, saying there were “costs” to watering down the welfare bill.

“I’m not going to [rule out tax rises], because it would be irresponsible for a chancellor to do that,” Ms Reeves told the outlet.

“We took the decisions last year to draw a line under unfunded commitments and economic mismanagement.

“So we’ll never have to do something like that again. But there are costs to what happened.”

Meanwhile, The Times reported that, ahead of the Commons vote on the welfare bill, Ms Reeves told cabinet ministers the decision to offer concessions would mean taxes would have to be raised.

The outlet reported that the chancellor said the tax rises would be smaller than those announced in the 2024 budget, but that she is expected to have to raise tens of billions more.

It comes after Ms Reeves said she was “totally” up to continuing as chancellor after appearing tearful at Prime Minister’s Questions.

Criticising Sir Keir for the U-turns on benefit reform during PMQs, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said the chancellor looked “absolutely miserable”, and questioned whether she would remain in post until the next election.

Sir Keir did not explicitly say that she would, and Ms Badenoch interjected to say: “How awful for the chancellor that he couldn’t confirm that she would stay in place.”

In her first comments after the incident, Ms Reeves said she was having a “tough day” before adding: “People saw I was upset, but that was yesterday.

“Today’s a new day and I’m just cracking on with the job.”

Sir Keir also told Sky News’ political editor Beth Rigby on Thursday that he “didn’t appreciate” that Ms Reeves was crying in the Commons.

“In PMQs, it is bang, bang, bang,” he said. “That’s what it was yesterday.

“And therefore, I was probably the last to appreciate anything else going on in the chamber, and that’s just a straightforward human explanation, common sense explanation.”

UK

Diogo Jota and Andre Silva’s funeral in pictures

Published

4 hours ago

July 5, 2025

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Diogo Jota and Andre Silva's funeral in pictures

The family and friends of Diogo Jota and his brother Andre Silva have been joined by Liverpool stars past and present and other Portuguese players at the pair’s funeral near Porto.

The Liverpool forward, 28, and his brother died in a car crash in Spain on Thursday.

Pictures below show the funeral at the Igreja Matriz de Gondomar church in the town of Gondomar near Porto. Click here for our liveblog coverage of the day’s events.

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Miguell Rocha played with Jota for around ten years with Gondomar Sport Clube in Portugal.

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The former captain was seen wiping away tears as he read messages and laid his tribute down.

UK

How Britain’s most notorious gangster turned up at a charity lunch to fact-check a retired detective’s talk

Published

9 hours ago

July 5, 2025

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How Britain's most notorious gangster turned up at a charity lunch to fact-check a retired detective's talk

Britain’s most notorious gangster and the detective who pursued him have been involved in a bizarre confrontation…at a charity lunch.

Former Detective Superintendent Ian Brown was at a Kent golf club and about to give a talk on the infamous £26m Brink’s-Mat gold robbery when he was summoned from the stage by officials.

Mr Brown, who appeared on the award-winning Sky News StoryCast podcast The Hunt For The Brink’s-Mat Gold in 2019, said: “I go outside and they say ‘he’s here’ and I say ‘who’s here’ and they say that table over there in the corner, that’s Kenny Noye with a baseball cap pulled down over his head.”

Noye stabbed to death an undercover policeman during the Brink’s-Mat investigation, but was acquitted of murder, though he was jailed for handling the stolen gold.

After his release, he used a knife again in the M25 road-rage murder of motorist Stephen Cameron.

“They said what are we going to do?” said Mr Brown.

“I said are you serving food? Well, just use plastic knives.”

Although Mr Brown had not personally arrested Noye over Brink’s-Mat he had identified him as a suspect months after the robbery.

Years later he met him during an ill-fated TV interview in which he quizzed him about his role in the robbery.

He said: “He told me everything I wanted to know except the truth. He still insists he had nothing to do with it.”

The interview was never broadcast after the prison authorities threatened to send Noye back to jail for a breach of his parole.

Mr Brown, 86, said: “I went over to him and said ‘thanks for coming, nice of you to pop in’, but I don’t believe you’ve turned up with your sons and grandkids to listen to me telling how you killed a police officer.

“And he said ‘I want to make sure you don’t say I’ve been dealing drugs’ and I said ‘I’ve never said that Kenny’.”

The retired detective told Noye he wasn’t going to change his presentation just because he was there.

“He said ‘mate, I wouldn’t expect you to and I’ll come up [on stage] if you want me to’.

“Can you think how he’s turned up with his family to listen to somebody talking about you killing the police? Now, you put logic on that.”

The bizarre story emerged when I rang Mr Brown after I’d been told about the meeting.

I also wanted to ask him about the recent BBC hit drama series The Gold which retold the story of the Brink’s-Mat heist at Heathrow Airport in 1983.

“It was an absolute shambles, far too much dramatic licence and the real story was so much better,” said the ex-detective, whose job had been to follow the trail of the 6,800 gold bars to the US and the Caribbean.

He said he chatted to one of the show’s writers for a long time in a phone call but then heard no more.

“They invented people, changed a bit here and there and made it politically correct in so many ways. I’m just very sad that that is what people will believe.

“And I couldn’t work out who my character was supposed to be. I could have been one of the female cops.”

He also criticised the portrayal of Noye, now 78, as a likeable jack-the-lad character when the truth about the double killer with a volatile temper was quite different.