Dominic Cummings: The Interview trailer released by BBC

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Dominic Cummings, once Boris Johnson’s most trusted aide, has unleashed swathes of accusations at the Prime Minister since his fall from grace last November. Now, he has sat down with the BBC’s political editor, Laura Kuenssberg, for a one-to-one on his version of events during his time in Number 10.

What time will the interview air?

Dominic Cummings: The Interview will air at 7pm on Tuesday, July 20, on BBC Two.

You can also watch it on BBC iPlayer and listen on BBC Sounds.

You can also follow us at Express.co.uk for live updates and commentary as the interview unfolds.

What can we expect?

We’ve already seen a few snippets from the pre-recorded interview with a few shocking claims.

Essentially, he will say that Boris Johnson put politics before people’s lives in his handling of the pandemic.

Mr Cummings will say the PM was reluctant to tighten Covid restrictions as cases rose last autumn because he thought people dying from it were “essentially all over 80”.

He will say Mr Johnson messaged him to say: “I no longer buy all this NHS overwhelmed stuff.”

Mr Johnson wanted to let Covid “wash through the country” rather than destroy the economy, Mr Cummings will say.

A raft of damning WhatsApp messages will accompany the testimony.

In a WhatsApp message sent on 15 October, shared with the BBC, Mr Johnson appears to have described himself as “slightly rocked by some of the data on Covid fatalities”.

The “median age” for those dying was between 81 and 82 for men and 85 for women, the prime minister allegedly wrote, adding: “That is above life expectancy. So get Covid and Live longer.

“Hardly anyone under 60 goes into hospital… and of those virtually all survive. And I no longer buy all this NHS overwhelmed stuff. Folks I think we may need to recalibrate… There are max 3m in this country aged over 80.”

He reportedly went on to write: “It shows we don’t go for nationwide lockdown.”

Mr Cummings will also say that, near the start of the pandemic last year, Mr Johnson had wanted to keep his weekly face-to-face meetings with the Queen going – but he had to warn his boss that she might die if she caught coronavirus.

And he will defend his controversial decision to drive to his parents’ farm in County Durham after the first lockdown started.

However, he admitted he had not “come clean” about all the reasons behind it, including “security concerns” around his family home in London.

Mr Cummings was repeatedly challenged by Ms Kuenssberg throughout the interview to back up his version of events.

He says many of his claims will be corroborated if there is a public inquiry.

In response, Downing Street said the Prime Minister had taken the “necessary action to protect lives and livelihoods, guided by the best scientific advice” throughout the pandemic.

And the government had prevented the NHS “from being overwhelmed through three national lockdowns”, a spokesperson added.

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