After several days of compromising accusations against Boris Johnson by his former right-hand man, the controversial Dominic Cummings , the British government on Monday denied a shocking sentence attributed to the prime minister against a second lockdown last fall.
“No more shitty lockdowns, let the bodies pile up by the thousands,” the tabloid Daily Mail said Monday during a meeting in late October.
The newspaper, which did not specify its source, also assured that Cummings had kept audio recordings and a written record of important meetings, before having to leave Downing Street in November 2020. The prime minister’s office has denied this sentence by denouncing a “new lie”.
“It is not true”
And Defense Minister Ben Wallace told the channel on Sky News: “It is not true, it has been categorically denied by practically everyone.”
Ten days before a key municipal and regional election for the Conservatives, these claims add to a political lobbying scandal in the government and a controversy over financing the renovation of Johnson’s apartment, according to Cummings with money from donations to the Conservative Party. .
The leader of the Scottish independentistas in London, Ian Blackford, asked the president to explain himself to Parliament and launched on Twitter that if those comments were “true” Johnson should resign.
Faced with the increase in coronavirus cases in the autumn, the prime minister finally decided to impose a second four-week confinement in November – and subsequently a third of almost four months earlier this year – after a spike in infections attributed to a variant of the virus. much more contagious coronavirus. Covid-19 has killed more than 127,000 people in the UK, more than in any other country in Europe.
Poised by the press as a source of recent leaks, Cummings, Johnson’s former senior adviser and brain of the 2016 pro-Brexit campaign, had responded on his blog Friday by lashing out at the prime minister and questioning his integrity.
On Monday, the highest British official, Simon Case, who according to the press is about to affirm that the investigation into the leaks did not exonerate Cummings, despite his denials, is due to appear before the deputies.