Boris Johnson's former chief adviser Dominic Cummings plans to blame the UK prime minister personally for tens of thousands of deaths during the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, The Times has cited unnamed sources as saying.
The sources claimed that Cummings is preparing so-called "kompromat", a dossier of evidence due to be delivered to MPs in late May and which will allegedly prove that Johnson's intransigence significantly added to the catastrophic death toll of the second wave.
"Dominic has copies of everything and knows where all the bodies are buried. He was pushing the prime minister hard to lock down sooner in the autumn and he has lots of evidence that shows that his [Johnson's] decision to delay led to devastating consequences", one of the sources argued.
The accusations also include Johnson ostensibly making an obscene remark, saying that he ruled out any more "f****** lockdowns" regardless of the "bodies" in front of what are said to have been "shocked" political and civil service advisers. Downing Street rejected the allegations as "another lie".
Cummings is due to give his "kompromat" to lawmakers on 26 May, which will come as part of an investigation by the health and science select committees into the government's handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
The sources said London fears that during the 26 May gathering, Cummings may also reveal details about the prime minister's life with his fiancée Carrie Symonds. Previous media reports argued that Johnson was secretly trying to set up a charity that would cover the costs of the refurbishment of his official residence, supervised by Symonds. According to the reports, the prime minister was particularly alarmed by the cost of the "gold wall coverings" chosen by his fiancée.
Carrie Symonds Reportedly Accuses Cummings of Launching Campaign to Undermine Her
The Sun has, meanwhile, quoted unnamed Symonds' friends as saying that she is sure it is Cummings who is behind a campaign to undermine her image.
"He [Cummings] should pick on someone his own size who is able to fight back. He's an obsessed bully. He should leave her alone", one of her pals said.
They added that all this has been "really unpleasant for her" and that she "had to put up with all these anonymous slurs while not being able to speak out herself".
"It was Carrie who put Boris up to hitting back. She's had enough and thinks Dom should pick on people able to defend themselves", the pal pointed out, according to the newspaper.
The developments come after Johnson denied the significance of a leak scandal concerning Cummings to the UK public, following the release of text messages dating back to March 2020, in which the UK PM assured billionaire tech boss James Dyson that his employees would not have to pay extra taxes if they came to Britain to make ventilators during the COVID-19 pandemic.
He spoke after Cummings denied making public the Johnson-Dyson text messages as well as the details of the second coronavirus lockdown in England before it was announced.
In his 1,000-word blog post, Johnson's former aide wrote that he "was not directly or indirectly a/the source for the BBC/Kuenssberg story on the PM/Dyson texts" and that he was "happy to meet with the Cabinet Secretary and for him to search my phone for Dyson messages".
