The senior civil servant about whom Dominic Cummings wrote “violent and misogynistic” messages has said Boris Johnson let the country down by not tackling the “toxic” culture he presided over.
Helen MacNamara, who was one of the country’s highest ranking female officials, told the UK Covid-19 Inquiry on Wednesday that sexism in No 10 damaged the response to the pandemic.
The public hearing was shown messages on Tuesday by Mr Cummings to the then-prime minister describing the then-deputy cabinet secretary as a “c***” who “must be out of our hair”.
Giving evidence on Wednesday, Ms MacNamara said the messages were “horrible to read”, but that in many ways she was not surprised by them considering the “toxic culture” that reigned.
“The way in which it was considered appropriate to describe what should happen to me, yes, as a woman, but, yes, as a civil servant, it is disappointing to me that the prime minister didn’t pick him up on some of that violent and misogynistic language,” she said.
Inquiry counsel Andrew O’Connor KC said Mr Johnson was a participant in not just that WhatsApp group but “plenty of others where this sort of language, this sort of abuse, was used”.
Asked about Mr Johnson’s failure to stop the language, Ms MacNamara said: “It is just miles away from what is right or proper or decent, or what the country deserves.”
