Family of Derbyshire man who died after Covid battle react to Dominic Cummings’ comments

Mr Cummings, Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s former closest adviser, said Government mistakes led to thousands of extra Covid-19 deaths.

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Ian Mousley, 51, of Creswell, lost his life to the virus at Chesterfield Royal Hospital in March.

In a statement, his family said: “If it can be proven that what Mr Cummings is saying is the truth and not disparagement for being dismissed, then Mr Johnson and Matt Hancock should be taken in to account for their actions and should take full responsibility for their failures.

“Too many people became ill and lost their lives unnecessarily.”

During a scathing attack on Mr Johnson and Health Secretary Mr Hancock last Wednesday, Mr Cummings told a committee of MPs that ‘tens of thousands of people died, who didn’t need to die’ as a result of Government mistakes.

More than 42,000 of total UK deaths involving Covid-19 have happened in care homes in England and Wales, according to the Office for National Statistics.

Mr Cummings claimed Mr Hancock had assured him and the Prime Minister early in the pandemic that people ‘were going to be tested before they went back to care homes (from hospitals)’.

“We only subsequently found out that that hadn’t happened,” said Mr Cummings.

He added that subsequent Government statements about putting a shield around care homes were ‘complete nonsense’.

Mr Cummings also attacked Mr Hancock’s integrity, saying he ‘should have been fired for at least 15 to 20 things, including lying to everybody on multiple occasions in meeting after meeting in the Cabinet Room and publicly’.

Mr Johnson, when asked by journalists if tens of thousands of people had died needlessly, replied: “No, no I don’t think so.”

Mr Hancock said ‘of course’ he had committed to testing everyone returning to a care home from hospitals, but that it ‘took time’ to build the testing capacity.

He said without the capacity, ‘it wasn't possible’ to test everyone, but that was why he set his target of 100,000 tests a day – something Mr Cummings had described as ‘stupid’ and counter-productive.

Mr Hancock insisted he had been ‘straight with people in public and in private throughout’.

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