British
Prime Minister Boris Johnson was against implementing a lockdown during Autumn
last year, when COVID-19 cases were surging through the United Kingdom, as he
thought all those dying were “essentially all over 80”, his former chief advisor
Dominic Cummings has revealed.

In a
first-ever one-on-one interview in his political career, with The BBC, Cummings
claimed Johnson also told him “I no longer buy all this NHS overwhelmed stuff”
and that he would rather have the virus “wash through the country” rather than let
it ravage the economy.

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Downing
Street responded to the claims by saying the Prime Minister has always been “guided
by the best scientific advice” and that he has taken the “necessary action to
protect lives and livelihoods” throughout the course of the pandemic.

A
spokesperson also said that the government took steps to ensure the NHS was
never overwhelmed through the three national lockdowns.

Cummings
also said that at the start of the pandemic last year, Johnson wanted to continue
his weekly face-to-face meetings with the Queen and that he had to warn her
that she might die if she contracted the virus.

Cummins also
defended his controversial decision to drive to his parents’ farm in Durham
after the start of the first lockdown and admitted he had not “come clean”
about the reasons, including “security concerns” around his London house.

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 The United Kingdom witnessed an explosion of
cases in autumn after a dip in the summer as the government debated over
whether the country needed tougher restrictions or not. Cummings said that the
chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance and chief medical officer Professor
Chris Whitty advised implementing tougher restrictions from mid-September.

Both
have declined requests for comments on the matter.

However, Johnson
said “no, no, no, no, no, I’m not doing it,” Cummings alleged, adding the Prime
Minister had “parts of the Tory party screaming” not to increase restrictions
and “always referred” to the Daily Telegraph as “my real boss”. Johnson has
previously written a coloumn for the British daily.

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As daily
COVID fatalities topped 100 in the UK, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer had on October
13 called for a “circuit-breaker” lockdown for a few weeks, but the government
decided against it.

In a WhatsApp
message from two days later, seen by The BBC, Johnson said that the “median age”
for people dying from COVID was 81 or 82 for men and 85 for women, adding “That
is above life expectancy. So get COVID and live longer”.

“Hardly
anyone under 60 goes into hospital… and of those virtually all survive. And I
no longer buy all this NHS overwhelmed stuff. Folks I think we may need to
recalibrate… There are max 3m in this country aged over 80,” he allegedly
wrote, adding, “It shows we don’t go for nationwide lockdown.”

Johnson
announced a four-week lockdown in England on October 31, saying it was needed
to protect the NHS.