Heard the one about the special ‘Covid-killing’ hairdryer? Dominic Cummings’s other inquiry revelations

Many of the startling ‘second-order’ revelations in the former chief aide’s whopping 115-page witness statement to the Covid inquiry did not make the headlines. Sean O’Grady fillets the best, including one straight out of the Donald Trump playbook...

Most of the allegations made by Cummings have been incendiary, but his long witness statement is certainly worth a read (PA)

Dominic Cummings’s bravura performance at the Hallett inquiry has obviously attracted huge attention, and not just because of his potty-mouthed ways. Despite his being discredited during the “Barnard Castle” scandal (though he maintains that no rules were broken), it seems that his recollections of the official response to Covid are now being given a fair hearing.

His allegations – nothing, in truth, that he hasn’t said or hinted at before – remain incendiary, but many of the more startling “second-order” revelations in his 115-page witness statement, more of a memoir, have perhaps not enjoyed the prominence they deserve...

What was that about a hairdryer?