The British Minister of Health on Thursday defended his action to fight the coronavirus pandemic, deeming "
groundless
" the serious accusations of incompetence launched the day before by Dominic Cummings, the former adviser to Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
Read also: Brexit mastermind Dominic Cummings leaves his post as advisor to the Prime Minister
On Wednesday, during a seven-hour hearing before a parliamentary committee, Dominic Cummings attacked the government's handling of the pandemic which has left nearly 128,000 dead in the United Kingdom, the most bereaved country in Europe. He particularly attacked the Minister of Health, Matt Hancock, accusing him of having "
lied on numerous occasions, meeting after meeting
", but also "
publicly
". He felt that Matt Hancock was incompetent and should have been "
fired
".
These accusations are "
false
" and "
unfounded
", reacted the Minister of Health, responding Thursday to questions from the opposition in the House of Commons.
“
I've always been frank with people in public and private,
” said Matt Hancock.
According to him, the government had adopted “
an open, transparent approach, explaining both what we know and what we don't know.
"
Read also: United Kingdom: a former adviser curls the management of the Covid by Boris Johnson
Dominic Cummings, 49, mastermind of the victorious Brexit campaign in 2016 and architect of Boris Johnson's brilliant victory in the December 2019 legislative elections, was also ruthless towards the Prime Minister, deemed "
unfit
".
According to his ex-adviser, the conservative leader ignored the advice of scientists and was slow to appreciate the gravity of the situation.
"
Tens of thousands
" of deaths could have been avoided, Dominic Cummings denounced Wednesday, an assertion that made the headlines of several dailies Thursday.
The head of government, who is visiting a hospital on Thursday morning, is expected to respond to the attack while the Minister of Health will speak again at a press conference in the late afternoon.
Six months after his departure amid internal strife, Dominic Cummings accused the government of failing to protect residents of nursing homes from the epidemic by allowing them to return to these facilities after hospitalization, without undergoing screening for Covid-19, thus spreading the virus.
He also ruled that the Minister of Health had failed to acquire enough masks and protective equipment and to set up an effective Covid-19 screening program.
“
Hearing Dominic Cummings yesterday confirm that the government has failed to protect the most vulnerable is truly shocking,
” opposition Labor MP Angela Rayner told the BBC on Thursday.
She demanded that the opening of the public inquiry into the management of the pandemic by the government, scheduled for 2022, be brought forward. Interviewed on the Sky News channel Thursday, the Minister in charge of Housing, Robert Jenrick, defended the action of the Minister of Health, judging that he had worked "
extremely hard
" in an "
unprecedented situation
". Mr. Jenrick, however, recognized that "
with hindsight, we could have done better to protect people in retirement homes
."
