Covid exams fiasco left Boris in ‘a homicidal mood’

Then-PM ‘wanted to fire Sir Gavin’ over results chaos

- By Hanna Geissler Health Editor

BORIS Johnson was “homicidal” over the 2020 summer exams fiasco, the Covid inquiry heard yesterday.

The Department for Education performed a U-turn after an algorithm that was meant to prevent grade inflation led to 40% of predicted results being downgraded, causing an outcry.

A WhatsApp message from the then-Prime Minister, shown to the inquiry, indicated that he had considered firing his Education Secretary Sir Gavin Williamson. The message to his chief adviser Dominic Cummings complained his break in Scotland was interrupted and he was at Chequers “in a thoroughly homicidal mood”.

Mr Johnson wrote: “We need a plan for the Department for Education. We need a permanent secretary and we need better ministers and quite frankly we need an agenda of reform. We can’t go on like this. I am thinking of going into No10 and firing people.”