Questions about Matt Hancock’s credibility aren’t going away

It was always likely that the evidence given by Dominic Cummings to the health and science joint select committee inquiry yesterday would have quite an impact. Cummings certainly has a flair for communication and a revolutionary zeal.

On top of that, he has scores to settle when it comes to the Prime Minister’s conduct and his treatment of his former chief advisor. Interestingly though, one of the main targets of Cummings’s ire yesterday was Health Secretary Matt Hancock. Asked by Labour MP Rosie Cooper to rate the performance of the Health Secretary and the department, Cummings went for the jugular: ‘I think the Secretary of State should have been fired for at least 15 to 20 things, including lying to everybody on multiple occasions in meeting after meeting in the cabinet room and publicly.’

Cummings accused Hancock of lying about the former NHS chief Simon Stevens and Chancellor Rishi Sunak blocking PPE procurement; of lying about people being discharged from hospitals to care homes without a Covid test; and of lying about everyone being able to get the treatment they needed in the first wave.