Foreign
THE British government has dismissed comments made by a former chief aide to the prime minister ahead of his appearance in front of lawmakers on Wednesday.
Dominic Cummings was chief adviser to Prime Minister Boris Johnson from July 2019 to November 2020 and gave him advice on how to handle the Coronavirus outbreak when it struck Britain in March 2020.
At times he was seen as the second most powerful man in the country after Johnson.
Cummings has been called to give evidence into how the government handled the outbreak and subsequent British lockdowns.
It is not part of the official government inquiry, which is being held next spring, and instead is taking place so that lessons can be learned for the future.
Ahead of his appearance, Cummings has been increasingly critical of the government’s actions, especially over the decision to not enforce a lockdown in September in spite of the rising number of cases.
But Transport Secretary, Grant Shapps dismissed Cummings ahead of his appearance and questioned his criticism over the lack of lockdown in the autumn.
“We had not just one more lockdown, we had two, we had the November lockdown and then the January lockdown, which we’re still coming out of,’’ Shapps told the BBC.
“I’ll leave it to others to decide the reliability of the witness.
“Personally I encourage people to tune into the transport select committee, you’ll get far more useful information about something which will impact people’s lives today, in the future,’’ he added.(dpa/NAN)
– May 26, 2021 @ 12:35 GMT
Tags: British Govt. dismisses ex-aide’s comments ahead of questioning
