DOMINIC Cummings has described meetings with the Scottish Government and other devolved administrations during the pandemic as a "performance".
The former adviser to Boris Johnson when he was prime minister also criticised the press conferences given by devolved leaders following Cobra meetings at the UK Covid Inquiry in London.
Asked if he was "not keen" that devolved leaders attended Cobra meetings, Cummings told the pandemic probe: "No, that's not... they're different issues.
"If you're having meetings that actually figure out the truth, then meetings like that have to be conducted in a very different way.
"They can't be one of these things with 50 people on a video conference with the DAs.
"Those DA meetings were not meetings to try to figure out the truth about hard issues.
"They were meetings as part of the kind of performance, and coordination, and constitutional function.
"My concern was that even at this late stage in the crisis a lot of people in the Cabinet Office were still concerned with maintaining the Potemkin aspects rather than getting to the heart of things.
"We couldn't get to the heart of things in that room."
Messages from the former aide also revealed he believed Cobra meetings were "hopeless decision making entities" and "actively cause problems for comms".
Cummings later denied trying to “run down” the Cobra system.
A WhatsApp message was sent from Cummings to Johnson about the Cobra system, which said: “You need to chair daily meetings in the Cabinet room – not Cobra – on this from tomorrow. I’m going to tell the system this.
“Not with the DAs (devolved administrations) on the f****** phone all the time either so people can’t tell you the truth.”
After showing Cummings the message, Counsel to the Inquiry Hugo Keith KC then said: “You did run down the Cobra system, Mr Cummings.
“You thought that if the Cobra system continued, people either wouldn’t tell the truth or the devolved administrations would brief the media or leak to the media thereafter.”
Cummings replied: “I certainly thought that the Cobra meetings we had with the PM were very Potemkin, they were extremely scripted – and then having had these pointless things, we then had all sorts of people running straight out and yabbering to the media about what’s been said in a completely undisciplined way, which then undermined public confidence in things and caused a lot of trouble.
“But with respect I wouldn’t say this is running down the Cobra system… what I would say is it was clearly unable to cope with the scale of the crisis and that a different system needed to be created.”
Cummings said he wanted then chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Michael Gove (above) rather than Johnson to deal with the devolved administrations (DAs) in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Setting out why he did not want Johnson in Cobra-style briefings, Cummings said: “If you are having meetings to actually figure out the truth then meetings like that have to be conducted in a very different way.
“They can’t be one of these things with 50 people on a video conference with the DAs.”
He added that “I thought Gove would handle it 10 times better” and it was an “obvious way of divvying up responsibilities”.
Asked if he did not want Johnson to be involved in meetings with the DAs, Cummings said: “I thought it preferable to have the prime minister actually focused on the impending catastrophe that we faced on that day. Generally speaking, him talking to the DAs did not advance any cause.”
Pressed on whether the DAs had a right to be able to confer with the prime minister, Cummings said: “They did, and they did confer, but generally speaking it was better for them to confer either with officials or with Michael Gove than with the PM.”
