DOMINIC Cummings has posted alleged WhatsApp messages from the Prime Minister describing his own Health Secretary as “totally f****** hopeless”.

On his blog, the former chief adviser revealed what he claims are private texts between himself and Boris Johnson about Matt Hancock’s work during the initial months of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Cummings posted the screenshots, embedded below, in which he claims Johnson used explicit language to criticise Hancock's approach to ramping up Covid testing capacity. *Warning for explicit language*

On March 27 last year, the controversial former aide highlighted the US’s ramping up of testing capacity and criticised Hancock for saying he was “sceptical” about meeting a target.

The Prime Minister purportedly responded: “Totally f****** hopeless.”

Alongside the image of the apparent WhatsApp exchange, Cummings tweeted: “Evidence on the covid disaster: as the PM said himself, Hancock’s performance on testing, procurement, PPE, care homes etc was ‘totally f***ing hopeless’, & his account to MPs was fiction.”

Cummings also published another private message about the struggles to procure ventilators for Covid-19 patients. “It’s Hancock. He has been hopeless,” a contact appearing to be Johnson replied on March 27.

In another message, on April 27 last year, the Prime Minister appeared to call the situation around personal protective equipment (PPE) “a disaster” and alluded to diverting some responsibilities to Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove.

“I can’t think of anything except taking Hancock off and putting Gove on,” Johnson apparently added.

In his long blog post, Cummings, who left Number 10 in November, set out questions he believed Johnson should be asked about the Government’s handling of the pandemic.

The National: Dominic Cummings (Yui Mok/PA)

He wrote: “Given his failures on testing, care homes and PPE why did you keep in post a Secretary of State you described yourself as ‘totally f**king hopeless’ and how many more people died as a result of your failure to remove him?

“Why is No10 lying, including to Parliament, about the fact that the original plan was “herd immunity by September” and had to be abandoned?

“When did Patrick Vallance brief you on NHS data showing that the death rate at the first April peak was much higher than before/after the peak and do you now agree with Hancock that every patient got the treatment they needed?

“Do you now agree with Hancock that there was no shortage of PPE or do you agree with yourself in April 2020 that PPE supply was ‘a disaster’ that required moving Hancock?

“How many people died in care homes because of what you called the ‘disaster’ on PPE and what you called Hancock’s ‘totally f**king hopeless’ performance on testing in March?

“When will the SoS come to the House and correct his many false statements to MPs?”

The messages are Cummings’s first attempt to publish supporting evidence since his select committee appearance, where he accused the Health Secretary of lying, failing on care homes and “criminal, disgraceful behaviour” on testing.

Hancock has denied the Brexit campaigner’s allegations and said last week it was “telling” that he was yet to provide the joint Health and Social Care Committee and Science and Technology Committee with written evidence.

When he appeared before the same committee last week, Hancock said he had seen no evidence to suggest any medics died because of a lack of PPE.

But Cummings said in his blog post that the Health Secretary sought to blame NHS England chief executive Sir Simon Stevens, Chancellor Rishi Sunak and the Cabinet Office for a “PPE disaster” in April last year.

Cummings alleged: “The lack of PPE killed NHS and care home staff in March-May.”

He said the initial post shows that “No10/Hancock have repeatedly lied about the failures last year” and accused them of now trying to “rewrite history”.

Cummings accused the Prime Minister of now publicly supporting the “fiction” that he was in agreement with the Health Secretary throughout the pandemic.

But his former chief aide says that the “hopeless” messages show otherwise, as do his moves to hand responsibility for vaccines to Dame Kate Bingham, testing to Baroness Harding, and PPE to Lord Deighton.

The former aide published the details on Substack, a platform that allows people to charge for newsletters. He has said he plans to charge subscribers for insider information on subjects other than the pandemic.

The National:

Downing Street did not dispute the authenticity of the messages, or most of the claims made by Johnson’s former chief aide, but insisted the Prime Minister has full confidence in Hancock.

“Our focus is not examining those specific images but delivering on the public’s priorities," a spokesperson said.

“I don’t plan to get into the detail of what’s been published.”

Asked if the Prime Minister called Hancock hopeless, the spokesman said: “I’m not planning to engage with every allegation put forward, the Prime Minister worked very closely with the health and care secretary throughout and continues to do so.”