Boris Johnson's former chief aide has shared a WhatsApp message in which the prime minister appears to call Health Secretary Matt Hancock's efforts "totally f****** hopeless".
Dominic Cummings, who has been engaged in a weeks-long feud with Downing Street, published a lengthy blogpost that he claimed showed details of how "Number10/Hancock have repeatedly lied about the failures last year".
Amid his more than 7,000 words, Mr Cummings also included a series of screenshots from what he said were his WhatsApp exchanges while working in Downing Street during the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic last year.
In one exchange, which Mr Cummings said was part of late-night messages on 26 March 2020, he and Mr Johnson are shown to be discussing actions from "MH" in boosting the UK's COVID testing capacity.
The screenshot shows a reply, purportedly from the prime minister, stating: "Totally f****** hopeless".
Mr Cummings added, shortly after receiving that message from the prime minister, he had a series of missed calls from Mr Johnson who was calling to say he'd tested positive for coronavirus.
In another exchange, said to be from 27 April last year, Mr Johnson is said to have openly wondered about taking responsibility for procuring Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) away from Mr Hancock and giving it to Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove.
The prime minister is claimed to have written: "On ppe it's a disaster. I can't think of anything except taking Hancock off and putting Gove on."
Mr Cummings, who left his role as Mr Johnson's chief adviser last November amid a Number 10 power struggle, last month gave seven hours of evidence to MPs on the government's response to the COVID crisis.
He used that appearance to claim Mr Hancock should have been sacked for "15 to 20 things" including "lying" to people "on multiple occasions".
In how own evidence to MPs on the government's COVID response, Mr Hancock last week said it was "telling that no evidence has been provided" about some of the claims Mr Cummings made.
And now, in what he said was his response to Mr Hancock's testimony, Mr Cummings has described his latest blogpost as being designed to include "just a few things to support what I told MPs and show that No10/Hancock have repeatedly lied about the failures last year".
Among his explosive claims was his depiction of contrasting styles in the handling of key COVID meetings between Mr Johnson and Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, who deputised for the prime minister after Mr Johnson fell seriously ill with COVID.
The prime minister's former adviser wrote that meetings under Mr Raab were "less pleasant for everybody but much more productive".
"Raab can chair meetings properly instead of telling rambling stories and jokes," Mr Cummings added.
"He let good officials actually question people so we started to get to the truth.
"Unlike the PM who as soon as things get 'a bit embarrassing' does the whole 'let's take it offline' shtick before shouting 'forward to victory', doing a thumbs-up and pegging it out of the room before anybody can disagree."
Mr Cummmings also claimed Mr Johnson has a "clear plan" to leave Downing Street "at the latest a couple of years after the next election", which is scheduled for 2024.
"He wants to make money and have fun not 'go on and on'," Mr Cummings wrote.
At the end of his blogpost, Mr Cummings listed a "few simple questions" to ask Mr Johnson.
This included asking why the prime minister kept Mr Hancock in post "given his failures on testing, care homes and PPE" and "how many more people died as a result of your failure to remove him?".
Mr Cummings also wrote: "Why is No10 lying, including to Parliament, about the fact that the original plan was 'herd immunity by September' and had to be abandoned?"
And he also suggested Mr Johnson be asked whether he now agrees "with Hancock that there was no shortage of PPE or do you agree with yourself in April 2020 that PPE supply was 'a disaster' that required moving Hancock?".
Labour's deputy leader Angela Rayner branded the accusations from Mr Cummings as "absolutely damning".
She said a promised public inquiry into the government's handling of the COVID crisis "can't wait" until next year, adding: "We can't allow history to be rewritten. In order to get to the truth that public inquiry must begin now.
"Any minister who has been found to have broken the ministerial code and lied should and must resign."
Mr Johnson declined the opportunity to comment on Mr Cummings's claims when asked about them during Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday afternoon.
Tariffs will be scrapped immediately on imported beef and lamb from Australia, triggering accusations that the trade deal struck by Boris Johnson will send UK farmers “to the wall”.
The small print of the first major post-Brexit agreement – revealed by Canberra, as the UK government tried to keep it under wraps – revealed a pledge to protect farmers for 15 years has been dropped.
Instead, Australian farmers will effectively be handed tariff-free access from day one, up to a “cap” on sales that is 60 times the current level of imported beef.
The detail was revealed as experts warned the overall economic boost from the deal would be “close to zero” – and the government admitted the average household would be just £1.20 a year better off.
The National Farmers Union demanded ministers come clean on exactly what has been agreed, “to ensure our high standards of production are not undermined by the terms of this deal”.
And Emily Thornberry, Labour’s shadow trade secretary, said: “No other country in the world would accept such a terrible deal for its farming industry, and neither should we.
“With this deal, and the precedent it sets for New Zealand, America, Canada and Brazil, the government will send thousands of farmers to the wall, undermine our standards of animal welfare and environmental protection, and threaten the conservation of our countryside.”
MPs are demanding the power to scrutinise the deal immediately, but ministers – as The Independent revealed – plan to deny full access until the autumn, when critics fear it will be too late.
Neil Parish, the Conservative chair of the Commons environment committee, said that “would make a mockery of the commitments made”, when a watchdog was promised last year.
The prime minister, shaking hands in Downing Street with Scott Morrison, his Australian counterpart, insisted it was “a good deal that will benefit British farmers and British consumers as well”.
It contained “the strongest possible provisions for animal welfare”, the prime minister argued, telling journalists: “We had to negotiate very hard.”
However, when the deal was mooted last month, it was anticipated that tariffs and quotas would not be fully removed on meat imports for 15 years – to calm the protests of worried farming groups.
But the full details, released by Australia but suppressed in London, showed that:
* Tariffs on beef will only kick in, from day one, when imports rise above 35,000 tonnes – more than 60 times the level of sales to the UK in 2020.
* Tariffs will only be levied on imports of lamb above 25,000 tonnes – around three times last year’s sales.
Currently, Australian beef exporters pay a 12 per cent tariff, with variable surcharges of between £1.40 and £2.50 a kilo, and face an annual quota of 3,761 tonnes.
Labour also argued the UK would leap immediately from the 27th to the 6th most popular destination for Australian beef, if the full quota was taken up, and to third place for lamb.
Tariff-free beef imports will be allowed to reach 110,000 tonnes by the tenth year and sheep meat imports 75,000 tonnes.
“While Australia is getting everything it wanted and more, we are getting next to nothing in return, with a miniscule 0.025 per cent increase in UK growth the most optimistic projection,” Ms Thornberry added.
Trade experts backed that verdict on the economic benefits of the deal, John Ferguson, at the Economist Intelligence Unit, calling it “incredibly small”.
“This is simply due to the fact that Australia is a long way away from the UK and distance really matters to the amount that two countries trade with each other,” he said.
Dr Peter Holmes, of the UK Trade Policy Observatory at the University of Sussex, said: “The total direct net effect of the trade deal will be close to zero, so the key questions are what provisions it makes for standards and what precedents it sets.”
The UK government said the “agreement in principle”, to be published in the coming days, would:
* Eliminate tariffs on all UK goods going to Australia – although they are typically only around 5 per cent.
* Save British households £34m a year as tariff cuts make Australian imports cheaper – which works out as £1.20 per household.
* Make Britons under the age of 35, instead of under 30, eligible for working holiday visas – and free them from a compulsory rural work, in a second year in Australia.
* Scrap export tariffs for car manufacturing, Scotch whisky, confectionery, biscuits and ceramics.
Downing Street has been asked to confirm the tariff-free deal for beef and lamb imports and respond to the criticism that farmers have been let down.
Liz Truss, the trade secretary, admitted to a “zero-tariff quota that increases over time”, but argued there were safeguards to prevent “import surges”.
She also said MPs would eventually be able to oppose the deal, although there will be no specific vote, but there would be no detailed scrutiny until after it has been agreed in full, which is not expected to happen until the autumn
Angus MacNeil, chair of the Commons international trade committee, condemned the delay, saying: “The trade negotiation team must come to a public hearing of the committee.
“This is too important for a ‘pig in a poke’ deal – we don’t want the UK to agree to something that hasn’t been scrutinised.”
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