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Updated June 21st, 2021 at 20:04 IST

UK health minister responds to reports about Boris Johnson calling him 'totally useless'

Hancock stressed in his televised remarks that UK’s vaccination campaign has been a huge success as he made comment on UK PM's remarks on him.

Reported by: Zaini Majeed
Hancock
IMAGE: AP | Image:self
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UK’s health Secretary on Sunday responded to the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s scathing attack calling him “totally hopeless” in the declassified texts published by Johnson’s ex-political advisor Dominic Cummings, last week. Speaking to BBC Breakfast on June 20, Hancock said that the UK’s PM may have been “stressed” at the time, adding that the verbal attack felt like “an ancient history.” Hancock stressed in his televised remarks that UK’s vaccination campaign has been a huge success and that the PM’s comments made during the early time of the coronavirus peak were governed by the stress to control the pandemic’s devastating impact. 

“At times of stress, people say all sorts of things in private,” Hancock in a TV statement that aired Sunday. He added that they had both been working “very strongly” together “ every single day” on the UK’s vaccination strategy to save lives and pull the country out of the health crisis. He attributed the success of the vaccine program to Johnson working with him closely, and being a massive supporter while he led the campaign throughout. The delivery of the program has been absolutely fantastic, Hancock told the network, as he added that the two were now focused on dealing with the backlog, and working on social care. 

UK PM's ex-advisor calls him 'gaffe machine' 

Earlier last week, UK PM's ex-adviser Dominic Cummings released a 7,000-word essay, that revealed that the UK’s PM had inappropriately lashed out at his health secretary and had also wanted to move out of office after the next election to “have fun and make money,” the UK broadcasters stated, citing the report. Alleging that the Johnson was down with “chronic dysfunction” and making wide-ranging promises to combat what he described UK PM’s “lies”,  his former chief aide published documents and texts from the emergency Cobra meetings held at the Downing Street at the time of initial COIVD-19 breakout in the UK.

In the report, Cummings claimed Johnson considered firing Hancock and replacing his position with [Michael] Gove on”. He also slammed the UK PM saying that no strategy as such was in place to tackle the coronavirus spread until 14 March when as many as  250,000 deaths were projected from the respiratory ailment. Cummings called UK PM a ‘gaffe machine’ saying that he cracked “rambling stories and jokes” while the UK reeled under the coronavirus. He called ministers “drone-babblers” who were "clueless about policy and government".

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Published June 21st, 2021 at 20:04 IST

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