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On the 12 March 2020 at 8am, Mr Cummings texted: \u201cWe got big problems coming.<\/p>\n
\u201c[Cabinet Office] is terrifyingly s\u2014t, no plans, totally behind pace, me and Warners and lee\/slacky are having to drive and direct,<\/p>\n
\u201cMark [Sedwill] is out to lunch \u2014 hasn\u2019t a scooby what\u2019s going on nd his own officials know he doesn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe must announce TODAY \u2014 not next week \u2014 \u2018if feel ill with cold\/flu stay home\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome [Cabinet Office] want delay cos haven\u2019t done the work and don\u2019t weekends.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe must force the pace today. We are looking at 100-500 thousand deaths between optimistic \/ pessimistic scenarios.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Three hours later he told Mr Johnson he needs to \u201cchair daily meetings in the Cabinet room \u2014 not COBRA \u2014 on this from tomorrow. I\u2019m going to tell the system this\u201d.<\/p>\n
He added that meetings were not to have the devolved authorities – Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland – on the \u201cf***ing phone all the time\u201d.<\/p>\n
Mr Johnson\u2019s witness statement to the inquiry said he often left Michael Gove to chair the four-nation COBRA meetings, partly because he did not want to provoke the SNP as a \u201ctarget of nationalist ire\u201d.<\/p>\n
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It said: \u201cI am afraid I was conscious that I tended to be a particular target of nationalist ire. Rather than provoking the SNP, I wanted to mollify and gain consent. I believed Michael would do a good job.\u201d<\/p>\n
The second phase of the Covid Inquiry began last week, though Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak\u2019s appearances before the probe won\u2019t take place until November.<\/p>\n
It was reported the pair\u2019s appearances were pushed back in order to avoid disrupting party conference season.<\/p>\n