Piers Morgan apologises for not going ‘much harder’ on government over coronavirus response

Former GMB host says Dominic Cummings’ testimony ‘exposes a terrifying level of incompetence and deceit led by Boris Johnson’

‘Cummings is confirming everything I feared about our government’s appalling handling of this pandemic,’ Piers Morgan says (Jonathan Brady/PA)

Piers Morgan has apologised for the way he held the government to account during the coronavirus pandemic, saying he “should have gone much much harder”.

The former Good Morning Britain host made the remarks as Dominic Cummings described the chaos in Downing Street in the days leading up to the first lockdown.

Boris Johnson's former chief adviser told MPs his boss was more concerned about the economic impact of Covid-19 than the health risk in the early stages of the pandemic.

"The prime minister's view, throughout January, February, March, was – as he said in many meetings – the real danger here is not the disease, the real danger here is the measures that we take to deal with a disease and the economic destruction that that will cause," Mr Cummings said.

"He had that view all the way through. In fact, one of the reasons why it was so rocky getting from [14 March 2020], when we suggested plan B to him, to actual lockdown was because he kept basically bouncing back to, 'We don't really know how dangerous it is, we're going to completely destroy the economy by having lockdown, maybe we shouldn't do it'."

Midway through Mr Cummings’ testimony, Mr Morgan tweeted: “Wow. Cummings is confirming everything I feared about our government’s appalling handling of this pandemic.

“His testimony is utterly devastating and exposes a terrifying level of incompetence and deceit led by Boris Johnson and Matt Hancock that cost 1,000s of lives. Heads should roll.”

He added: “A personal statement: I'd like to sincerely apologise for the way I held the government to account during this pandemic.

“It's quite clear from Cummings' shocking testimony that I should have gone much much harder. Sorry.”

In November last year, Mr Morgan accused the government of “boycotting” GMB for 201 days. He had previously accused the government of "cowardice" for not fielding members of the cabinet for questioning.

He quit the morning news programme after six years following outrage at his claim he did not believe “a word” of the Duchess of Sussex’s claims to have suffered suicidal thoughts during her time as a senior royal