Dominic Cummings, who served as Boris Johnson's most senior adviser at the height of the coronavirus pandemic has apologized publicly for the UK government's response to the crisis, which he has said fell "disastrously short" of what the public should expect.
Cummings, who quit his post in Downing Street last November, told a parliamentary committee on Wednesday that "when the public needed us most the government failed."
To date, more than 127,000 British citizens have died within 28 days of a positive COVID-19 test.
Cummings, in his testimony, said he had personally heard Johnson say that he would rather see "bodies pile high" than impose more lockdowns on the public. Downing Street has repeatedly denied that any such comment was made.
Particular attention is being paid to his description of the events leading to the second lockdown on November 5.
According to him, in order to show the Prime Minister how serious situation was, a meeting was held on September 21 involving the Prime Minister and other officials, at which they pretended it was the end of October. They presented what the data would look like based on current modeling.
He said the evidence that the National Health Service "was going to get smashed" again did not persuade Johnson.
He said he would like to see an inquiry sooner rather than later, because "tens of thousands of people died who didn't need to die."
SOURCE: CNN
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