Health Secretary Matt Hancock has denied claims that he lied about the COVID pandemic after a scathing attack by Dominic Cummings, saying “we have been straight with people”.

Mr Hancock said: “Allegations that were put yesterday… are serious allegations and I welcome the opportunity to come to the house to put formally on the record that these unsubstantiated allegations around honesty are not true, and that I have been straight with people in public and in private throughout.”

Boris Johnson‘s former right-hand man gave a blistering account of how the government dealt with the pandemic, with the PM and Mr Hancock taking most of the flak.

During a marathon session lasting more than seven hours on Wednesday, Mr Cummings claimed he, the cabinet secretary and other senior officials continually called for the health secretary to be sacked for “15 to 20 things”, including lying on multiple occasions.

Mr Cummings accused Mr Hancock of “criminal, disgraceful behaviour that caused serious harm”.

Among the alleged lies were, Mr Cummings said, that there was a protective shield around care homes when in fact people with COVID-19 were being sent back to care homes without being tested.

Mr Cummings said the PM “was close” to firing Mr Hancock in April 2020 “but just fundamentally wouldn’t do it”.

He added that Mr Hancock took too long to get test and trace set up and told the PM: “If we don’t fire the secretary of state and we don’t get testing into someone’s hands, we are going to kill lots of people.”

Mr Johnson’s former chief adviser also said he believes Mr Hancock used government medical advisers Sir Patrick Vallance and Prof Whitty “as shields for himself” so that if things went wrong, he could blame them and say it wasn’t his fault.

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