 |
LONDON — Britain’s most senior civil servant sent a damning message to Boris Johnson’s chief of staff at the height of the coronavirus pandemic, saying the then-prime minister “cannot lead” and accusing him of changing position “every day.”
In an excruciating 2020 WhatsApp message read out at the U.K.’s official COVID inquiry on Monday, Simon Case — whom Johnson brought in as Cabinet secretary and who still serves in that post — told Dominic Cummings he was “at the end of my tether.”
Case said of Johnson: “He changes strategic direction every day.”
The Cabinet secretary — who is currently on medical leave from the British government — accused the then-prime minister of veering between a “fear” of the virus returning and a “let it rip” mode in which the U.K. was “pathetic” and “needs a cold shower.”
Case added: “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.”
The message, read out by inquiry counsel Hugo Keith at public hearings on Monday, also lays into what Case called the U.K. government’s “weak team,” apparently name-checking Cabinet ministers Matt Hancock and Gavin Williamson, top health official Dido Harding, as well as Downing Street, the Cabinet Office and permanent secretaries — the most senior officials leading government departments.
He told Cummings: “A weak team (as we have got — Hancock, Williamson, Dido, No10/CO, Perm Secs), definitely cannot succeed in these circs. IT HAS TO STOP!”
Case urges Cummings’ Downing Street team: “Decide and set direction — deliver — explain. [Government] isn’t actually that hard but this guy is really making it impossible.” A separate message from Case compares Johnson’s COVID strategy to those pursued by then-U.S. President Donald Trump and his populist Brazilian counterpart Jair Bolsonaro.
The messages were read out as Martin Reynolds, Johnson’s civil service principal private secretary during the pandemic, faced a marathon grilling from inquiry counsel Keith.
Reynolds used the session to apologize for an email he had sent in late 2020 arranging a “bring your own booze” party on the grounds of 10 Downing Street, a key event in the coronavirus rule-breaching “Partygate” scandal that helped end Johnson’s government in 2021.
Reynolds, who was dubbed “Party Marty” in the press for his role in the row and quit government amid intense scrutiny of it, apologized “unreservedly” for an email sent to scores of Downing Street staff inviting them to a celebration, and said he was “totally wrong” to have done so.
