Boris Johnson hits back Dominic Cummings’ claims – follow live

Explosive revelations by Dominic Cummings about how the govenrment responded to the coronavirus pandemic feature on the front of many of Thursday’s papers.

The former aide’s marathon seven-hour session of evidence to MPs provided plenty of incendiary claims, with some calling it a “rain of fire” and others a “Domshell”, writes Samuel Osborne.

Conservative MP Dehenna Davison (Bishop Auckland) had a Barnard Castle eye test in the background during Cabinet Office questions.

Via @richard_kaputt of PA:

Our political commentator John Rentoul answers 10 of your key question on the Cummings saga.

Responding to Dominic Cummings’ claim that he was not a fit person to be leading the country, Boris Johnson has just said: “I think it’s important for us to focus on what really matters to the people of this country.

“I think, if I may say so, that some of the commentary I have heard doesn’t bear any relation to reality.

“What people want us to get on with is delivering the road map and trying – cautiously – to take our country forward through what has been one of the most difficult periods that I think anybody can remember.”

Asked whether the public cared about the allegations made by Dominic Cummings, Boris Johnson’s spokesman said: “I think the public want the Government to deliver on their priorities – supporting the NHS, creating more jobs, supporting the economy as we come out of the pandemic.

“That’s what we are focused on.”

Rob Merrick has the full story:

Matt Hancock has denied allegations that he repeatedly lied to colleagues and the public during the course of the government’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic, write Jon Stone and Andrew Woodcock.

Former Downing Street chief of staff Dominic Cummings had told MPs on Wednesday that the health secretary had nearly been sacked by the prime minister for his conduct.

Answering an urgent question from Labour on the issue in the House of Commons on Thursday, Mr Hancock said he rejected the allegations “around honesty” – though he did not specifically address others.

Appearing on Sky News this morning, Boris Johnson said his government was focused on saving lives throughout the pandemic.

He said: “At every stage we’ve been governed by a determination to protect life and save lives and to ensure our NHS is not overwhelmed.”

Labour MP Barbara Keeley has pressed Matt Hancock on one of Dominic Cummings’ key claims from yesterday, regarding care home testing.

She asked: “Did he know that the discharge process did not require testing and did he sign off this policy, which led to thousands of avoidable deaths of vulnerable people and many deaths of care staff?”

The health secretary replied: “The challenge is we had to build testing capacity, and at that time of course I was focused on protecting people in care homes and in building that testing capacity so that we had the daily tests to be able to ensure that availability was more widespread.”

Cummings told MPs yesterday that it would be better for everyone if he stayed away from politics now, having given his testimony in parliament.

But how long will the former Vote Leave supremo stay true to his word?

There were no immediate signs of life on his Twitter account late this morning.

At the top of his page remains a pinned post showing a whiteboard, depicting what he claims was the government’s early pandemic planning.

Matt Hancock has refuted claims made by Dominic Cummings yesterday in his explosive testimony to the Commons.

But which ones, exactly? There were multiple allegations in yesterday’s session. Interestingly, Hancock did not specifically mention Cummings in his answer to MPs.

He said today: “These allegations that were put yesterday – and repeated by (shadow health secretary Jon Ashworth) – are serious allegations and I welcome the opportunity to come to the house to put formally on the record that these unsubstantiated allegations around honesty are not true.”

Is that the end of the matter, and is Hancock now safe?

Boris Johnson hasn’t exactly come out fighting for his health secretary and has instead put ministers onto the airwaves to do his bidding.

Throughout this pandemic, there have been repeated briefings by No 10 insiders to the media that Hancock will become the “fall guy” for the government’s handling of the pandemic.

You wouldn’t bet against the PM throwing Hancock under the bus when it becomes politically expedient to do so. Yesterday, No 10 failed to deny that the PM considered firing Hancock.

And the health secretary is still facing questions over his comments that a “protective ring” was thrown around the care home sector at the outset of the pandemic.

Matt Hancock tells Commons all he was ever focused on was protecting life.

He said: “That is the job of the health secretary in a pandemic.

“Every day since I began working on the response to this pandemic last January, I’ve got up each morning and asked: ‘What must I do to protect life?’

He added: “We’ve taken an approach of openness, transparency and explanation of both what we know and of what we don’t know.”