Inside my feud with Dominic Cummings: Matt Hancock on how Boris’s ex-adviser only has one setting…

Matt Hancock‘s feud with then No10 adviser Dominic Cummings is recounted in extraordinary detail in his pandemic diaries.

In April 2020, describing speculation about whether, as Health Secretary, he would hit his target of 100,000 tests by May 1, Mr Hancock writes: ‘Cummings is itching for me to fail.’

That same month, he says he was subject to an ‘ambush’ by Mr Cummings over his performance.

He writes in his diaries, being serialised on The Mail+ and in the Daily Mail and The Mail on Sunday: ‘I switched on Zoom to find the PM at Chequers flanked by Cummings and about a dozen other advisers. 

Matt Hancock’s feud with then No10 adviser Dominic Cummings (pictured) is recounted in extraordinary detail in his pandemic diaries

In April 2020, describing speculation about whether, as Health Secretary, he would hit his target of 100,000 tests by May 1, Mr Hancock writes: ‘Cummings is itching for me to fail.’

‘Rishi [Sunak] was there, looking sheepish. I realised instantly what was going on: an attempted ambush.

‘Boris opened with some gentle warm-ups, then Cummings started the shelling, subjecting me to a barrage of questions about my department’s response: on PPE, testing, NHS capacity, ventilators… Every so often, one of the others would pile in. Most questions seemed to be based on inaccurate media reports.

‘It was utterly exhausting… when they finally ran out of ammunition, I pressed ‘Leave Meeting’, sat back in my chair, checked my body for shrapnel wounds and saw that I was broadly intact.’

When the news emerged the following month that Mr Cummings had broken lockdown rules to drive from London to Durham, Mr Hancock says that he feels ‘uneasy’ when Downing Street asks him to offer Mr Cummings his support via the media.

‘Despite all the reassurances, it feels off. In the end, I issued a supportive tweet, saying he was right to find childcare for his toddler when both he and his wife were getting ill. 

‘George Osborne messaged me this evening warning me not to stick my neck out for Cummings again. Lay low, was his advice.’

Mr Hancock, fielding messages from friends questioning why Mr Johnson is defending Mr Cummings, writes: ‘The answer is that he rules through fear and intimidation, squashing those who dare to challenge him or get in his way.’

When Mr Cummings famously defends his position at a press conference in the Downing Street garden, Mr Hancock describes him as ‘looking like a sulky teenager who’d been sent outside to do his work for disrupting the class’.

He writes: ‘I found myself feeling strangely sorry for Boris. Cummings only has one setting – divide and destroy – and now the boss is having to say some pretty stupid things as he machetes his way through the resulting mess.’

Matt Hancock’s book sale royalties will be donated to NHS Charities and good causes relating to dyslexia.