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Matt Hancock will face MPs in the Commons on Thursday morning over allegations made by Dominic Cummings that he lied to colleagues and performed “disastrously” during the Covid crisis.
The health secretary will answer an urgent question around 10.30am after a scathing attack by Mr Cummings – who argued the Cabinet minister should have been sacked on dozens of occasions.
The health secretary said he had not seen the former Downing Street senior adviser’s full seven-hour evidence session – since he was busy “saving lives” by dealing with the vaccination rollout.
Speaking outside his home Mr Hancock said: “I haven’t seen this performance today in full, and instead I’ve been dealing with getting the vaccination rollout going, especially to over-30s, and saving lives.”
MPs will question Mr Hancock on a series of incendiary claims made by Mr Cummings. He said the health secretary should have been fired for “at least 15 to 20 things” – including “repeated lying” about PPE, care homes and herd immunity.
The former No 10 official accused Mr Hancock of “criminal, disgraceful behaviour” by distracting officials from building a proper test and trace system in pursuit of his own 100,000 tests per day pledge.
Mr Cummings also claimed Boris Johnson was furious to find that untested hospital patients had been sent back into care homes – despite Mr Hancock’s alleged promises to the contrary.
The ex-adviser claimed the prime minister was only persuaded to keep Hancock in his role “because he’s the person you fire when the inquiry comes along”.
A spokesman for Mr Hancock said “we absolutely reject” the criticisms made by Mr Cummings, and Downing Street said the health secretary continued to have the confidence of the PM.
Hancock should have been fired for at ‘least 15-20 things’, Cummings says
One of the allegations made by Mr Cummings was that “the problem in this crisis was very much lions led by donkeys over and over again”.
Asked how he felt about being called a donkey, communities secretary Robert Jenrick told BBC Breakfast on Thursday morning: “Well I don’t think that’s a fair assessment of what happened.”
Mr Hancock is also due to lead a government press conference on coronavirus later on Thursday.
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