Dominic Cummings says he heard Boris Johnson make ‘let bodies pile high’ remark against lockdown

Former chief aide insists prime minister made remark in October despite his denial

Dominic Cummings has said he heard Boris Johnson say he would rather see “bodies pile high” than impose another lockdown on the nation.

The former chief aide to the prime minister told the Commons Health and Social Care and Science and Technology Committees: “There’s been a few different versions of this, of these stories knocking around.

“There was a version of it in the Sunday Times, which was not accurate. But the version that the BBC reported was accurate.

“I heard that in the prime minister’s study. That was not in September though, that was immediately after he finally made the decision to do the lockdown on 31 October.”

Mr Johnson last month denied having made the remark after he was confronted by Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer during prime minister’s questions.

Cabinet minister Michael Gove also insisted he “never heard” the alleged comments.

Mr Cummings said the prime minister was not persuaded there needed to be a circuit-breaker lockdown in September and decided to just “hit and hope”.

Giving evidence to MPs as part of an inquiry into the government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, Mr Cummings also said the prime minister was not persuaded there needed to be a circuit-breaker lockdown in September and decided to just “hit and hope”.

The former chief aide said that during meetings in September, Sage scientists and England’s chief medical officer Chris Whitty and chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance had said there needed to be a two-week lockdown.

He said that despite modelling showing the NHS was going to get “smashed again”, Mr Johnson decided not to lock down.

Mr Cummings claimed he pressed Mr Johnson in September to impose a second lockdown but that the prime minister ignored his advice.

“All credible serious people in my opinion were saying essentially the same thing so I was very, very clear with him about it,” he said.

“He wasn’t taking any advice, he was just making his own decisions, he was going to ignore the advice. Cabinet wasn’t involved or asked.”

Additional reporting by PA