Just hours after Dominic Cummings’ evidence session on the Covid inquiry on Tuesday, Boris Johnson met former Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison for drinks at a Mayfair private club, 5 Hertford Street.
Johnson has been watching the hearings all along and after some of the more explosive evidence that emerged that day in the inquiry room at Dorland House, near Paddington, he may have felt in need of a tall glass of Australian red.
While Johnson’s reputation for changing his mind on big decisions is well known, the many references to him as an out-of-control shopping cart with a tendency to “wild swings” must have stung. Lee Cain, his former communications director, even admitted that his then-boss’s erratic decision-making was exhausting.
In WhatsApp messages shared with the inquiry, top British civil servant Simon Case said Johnson could not lead and was making the government “impossible”. Even Martin Reynolds, the senior official who called Johnson his “loyal Labrador”, said: “It’s fair to say the Prime Minister blew hot and cold, so to speak.”
However, allies suggested that Johnson’s tendency to change his mind depending on which adviser was last in the room was an inevitable consequence of being in charge. “He was the one person who had to constantly mediate the many competing views out there about what to do,” one said.
Johnson had used the ‘trolley’ metaphor about himself since the days of his ‘leave-v-remain’ dilemma over Brexit, according to two sources close to the former Tory leader. That is, before Cummings took action. It’s unclear whether that took the weight off the claims that “pretty much everyone” in Issue 10 referred to him as such.
One of the most indelible statements about Johnson’s leadership was Cain’s suggestion that the pandemic was the “wrong crisis” for his skills. ‘He is someone who often postpones making decisions. He often sought advice from multiple sources and changed his mind on issues. In politics that can sometimes be a great force.
“When you look at something like Covid, you need quick decisions and you need people who can stay the course and have the mind power to do that over a longer period of time and not have to figure things out all the time… I felt it was the wrong challenge was especially important to him.”
Government insiders have suggested that one of the reasons Johnson struggled with decisions at the start of the pandemic was because he did not take them seriously. Cummings told the inquiry that the then Prime Minister “didn’t mind”, and he boasted that he shook hands in a hospital against the advice of scientists.
Helen MacNamara, a former deputy cabinet secretary, told the inquiry she was concerned about Johnson’s “jovial tone” at the time. Her written witness statement adds that he was “confident” that Britain would “get through” the Covid crisis.
Johnson’s chaotic indecisiveness delayed lockdown measures, the inquiry heard. Still, according to Cummings, Johnson had claimed there was an advantage to it. “Chaos isn’t that bad,” he is said to have said. “Chaos means everyone has to look to me to see who is in charge.”
Even at the height of the pandemic, and after falling seriously ill with the disease himself, Johnson struggled with the idea of lockdown. He succumbed to media pressure. Cummings told the inquiry: “(He) kept saying I should have been the mayor of Jaws and kept the beaches open.”
In early 2020, serious questions were also raised about Johnson’s focus when he – according to Cummings – took a “crazy” ten-day holiday at his Chevening country home, despite growing concerns about the spread of the virus.
During that time, he received no emails or red box submissions regarding Covid. Reynolds, his private secretary at the time, told the inquiry he could not remember why the prime minister had been left out of the picture. Cummings claimed he was finalizing his divorce and struggling with financial problems.
Senior government officials have claimed that Johnson wanted a timeout to finish the biography of Shakespeare he was due to write before going to Number 10 and for which he had been paid a large advance, although his spokesman denied this.
Some of the most shocking evidence to emerge this week was Johnson’s dismissive attitude towards the elderly. He told aides he sympathized with the view that Britain was “pathetic” and that Covid was “just nature’s way of dealing with old people – and I’m not entirely sure I disagree with them” .
Johnson has long been known for his flexible relationship with the truth. Ultimately, it was his lies to parliament about the Partygate scandal that forced him to quit. The investigation found that he told “so many lies” during the pandemic that his sometimes truthful statements are not believed.
However, Cummings, his biggest critic, also claimed that while the finger for the government’s failures was often pointed at Johnson, this was not always his fault. Instead, the civil service and the Whitehall system should take their share of the blame, he said.
Johnson will have his own moment before the investigation’s lawyers, expected in the second week of December. His legal team listened carefully to the witnesses and studied the written statements to prepare him.
His health secretary, Matt Hancock, is due to appear the same week, while it is believed that Rishi Sunak, in deference to his position as current Prime Minister, has been identified as the final witness to the module, effectively giving him the final say. .
Johnson’s spokesman has so far declined to comment on the evidence but says he is cooperating fully with the investigation. His allies say he wants to prove those who say he was the “wrong person, at the wrong time” wrong. But as the investigation continues, it becomes increasingly clear that he will struggle to turn that story around.