Cummings says key government officials were ‘literally skiing’ as Covid crisis loomed last February

‘It wasn’t until the last week of February that there was again any sense of urgency’

Dominic Cummings has claimed key officials in government were “literally skiing” in the middle of February, as he described the lack of “urgency” at No 10.

Giving evidence to MPs, Boris Johnson’s former senior adviser described government pandemic plans as “hollow” as the crisis loomed, suggesting the government was not acting on a war footing “in any way shape or form”.

Mr Cummings also said nations including Britain “completely failed” to see warnings about the virus in January 2020, as it emerged in China.

“This is really important point to register,” he told a Commons joint committee. “The government itself and No 10 was not operating on a war footing in February in any way shape or form”.

“Lots of key people were literally skiing in the middle of February. It wasn’t until the last week of February that there was again any sense of urgency in terms of No 10 and Cabinet Office”.

The former chief aide added that “many institutions” failed early on in the coronavirus crisis, saying: “When it started, in January, I did think in part of my mind, ‘Oh my goodness, is this it? Is this what people have been warning about all this time?’

“However, at the time the PHE (Public Health England) here and the WHO (World Health Organisation) and CDC, generally speaking, organisations across the western world were not ringing great alarm bells about it then.

“I think it is in retrospect completely obvious that many, many institutions failed on this early question.”

Mr Cummings also used his appearance on Wednesday to apologise for the government’s failures during the crisis, adding in a statement opening the session: “The truth is that senior ministers, senior officials, senior advisers like me fell disastrously short of the standards that the public has a right to expect of its government in a crisis like this. When the public needed us most the government failed.

“I would like to say to all the families of those who died unnecessarily how sorry I am for the mistakes that were made and for my own mistakes at that.”