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Newscast

Covid Inquiry: Government Short Cummings?

Newscast

BBC

Politics, News

4.46.4K Ratings

🗓️ 31 October 2023

⏱️ 40 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Figures at the centre of the government decisions during the coronavirus pandemic give evidence to the UK Covid-19 inquiry. First up was Lee Cain, who was a senior aide to former Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Then it was Dominic Cummings, who was Mr Johnson’s chief adviser until he resigned in late 2020. The inquiry heard the pandemic was the wrong crisis for Boris Johnson’s skillset, the government had “no plan” to help vulnerable people in lockdown and diary entries also read out suggest Mr Johnson believed old people should get the virus to protect others. To talk us through the latest revelations, Adam is joined by Chris Mason and former Downing Street Director of Communications, Guto Harri. And, Adam meets with Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, Michelle Donelan, to look ahead to this week’s AI Safety Summit. You can join our Newscast online community here: https://tinyurl.com/newscastcommunityhere Today's Newscast was presented by Adam Fleming. It was made by Chris Gray with Alex Collins, Gemma Roper and Sam McLaren. The technical producer was Gareth Jones. The editors are Jonathan Aspinwall and Sam Bonham.

Transcript

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0:00.0

BBC sounds, music, radio, podcasts.

0:04.6

Hello, it was another big day at the inquiry

0:07.1

into how the UK handled COVID-19.

0:09.7

Dominic Cummings was appearing,

0:11.6

which meant that the lawyers had to read out lots of his emails

0:14.6

and WhatsApp's, which meant it sounded a bit like this.

0:18.0

BEEP!

0:18.5

BEEP!

0:19.3

BEEP!

0:20.5

BEEP!

0:21.5

OK, we exaggerate, it wasn't quite that sweary,

0:23.8

although as you will hear, it was pretty sweary.

0:27.0

And we will discuss what were said at the COVID inquiry

0:29.9

here on this episode of newscast.

0:31.3

Newscast!

0:32.1

Newscast from the BBC.

0:33.7

Why can't people buy a house?

0:35.5

Look at their wages!

0:36.7

There are many questions on things that are not related to maths.

0:38.6

People who say that we were partying

0:40.8

simply do not know what they are talking about.

0:43.0

The era of global warming has ended,

...

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