Correction, April 24, 2021 – Yahoo News

The Telegraph

Sorting through the shrapnel: what Dominic Cummings’ grenade-ridden riposte means

In a blog posted on Friday evening, Dominic Cummings, Boris Johnson’s former de facto chief of staff, fired off an extraordinary salvo in response to a Downing Street briefing that he was the source of a series of leaks that had seriously undermined the Prime Minister. And then he lobbed in a grenade. Or two. The blog begins with “The Prime Minister’s new Director of Communications Jack Doyle, at the PM’s request, has made a number of false accusations to the media” and then helpfully lists, one after the other, a series of counter-claims that further threaten Mr Johnson’s position. If Downing Street thought briefing against Cummings had been a good idea, they may be less inclined to think so now. The Dyson text messages What Cummings wrote: I do have some WhatsApp messages between the PM/Dyson forwarded to me by the PM. I have not found the ones that were leaked to Laura Kuenssberg on my phone nor am I aware of being sent them last year. I was not directly or indirectly a/the source for the BBC/Kuenssberg story on the PM/Dyson texts. Yesterday some No10 officials told me that No10 would make this accusation and told me what they believe actually happened — that Dyson’s office emailed a number of officials, including HMT officials, and included screenshots of the PM/Dyson texts, and that this correspondence, from roughly a year ago, was passed to the BBC. I do not know if this is correct. Officials told me yesterday that I was not copied in on this correspondence and I do not remember it (I no longer have access to my official email so cannot check this). I am happy to meet with the Cabinet Secretary and for him to search my phone for Dyson messages. If the PM did send them to me, as he is claiming, then he will be able to show the Cabinet Secretary on his own phone when they were sent to me. It will therefore be easy to establish at least if I was ever sent these messages. I am also happy to publish or give to the Cabinet Secretary the PM/Dyson messages that I do have, which concerned ventilators, bureaucracy and Covid policy — not tax issues. Cummings has been accused of releasing text messages between Mr Johnson and Sir James Dyson, the businessman, seeking changes on tax rules over a plan to design and build ventilators at the peak of the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. Sir James never benefitted or intended to personally benefit from the tax change. Cummings admits to possessing WhatsApp messages forwarded to him by Mr Johnson, but says these are not the same as the text messages leaked to Laura Kuenssberg, the BBC’s political editor. Cummings suggests a huge rift inside Downing Street with “some No10 officials” informing him in advance of the briefing that he was the source of the leak. Under this separate version of events, Cummings hints at an even wider conspiracy with “Dyson’s office” emailing “a number of officials” across Government including the Treasury. The blog suggests a cabal of Number 10 officials still loyal to Cummings that “told me yesterday” that Cummings was “not copied in”. That would indicate they have checked their emails, not found Cummings on the email chain, and then told him. Cummings goes on to make it clear he no longer has access to his “official” emails, although that would not rule out his having forwarded emails to a private account. Cummings then lays down a challenge to the Prime Minister. He says he will meet Simon Case, the Cabinet Secretary, and allow him to root through his phone. But here’s the sting. If Mr Johnson is so sure that Cummings is the leaker, why doesn’t the Prime Minister hand his phone to the Cabinet Secretary and in doing so disclose all the text messages he did have with Sir James Dyson. This is clever stuff from Cummings, attempting to push the Prime Minister into a corner. Then there’s the final sting. Cummings does have messages between the Prime Minister and Sir James, he reveals. And those – about Covid, ventilators and bureaucracy – he is happy to hand over to Mr Case. Or potentially worse still for the Prime Minister, make them public. Tax issues, Cummings is saying, is not all that Mr Johnson discussed with Sir James and he’s prepared to go public with those messages too.