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Boris Johnson\u2019s former right-hand civil servant forced the BBC to apologise for his language this morning while giving evidence to the official Covid Inquiry.<\/p>\n
Martin Reynolds, who served as Mr Johnson\u2019s Principle Private Secretary (PPS) throughout most of the pandemic, was explaining to the inquiry why Number 10 had appeared distracted by internal divisions in the lead-up to Covid.<\/p>\n
Hugo Keith KC asked Mr Reynolds whether Number 10, as a relatively new administration following the General Election, had been unable to cope with \u201ca crisis of this magnitude\u201d.<\/p>\n
Mr Johnson\u2019s PPS said the dynamics of January and February 2020 had shifted compared to those seen before the General Election.<\/p>\n
He appeared to throw Dominic Cummings under the bus, accusing him of causing distractions with different priorities to those of the Prime Minister.<\/p>\n
Mr Reynolds said Mr Cummings had created a \u201cdivergent internal politics\u201d as his agenda was \u201cquite different\u201d to the Prime Minister\u2019s.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cThe other dynamic, I would say during this period, was a sort of unease with some of the messaging and actions taking place.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was during this period that we were talking about the appointment of various \u2018weirdos and misfits\u2019 and bringing in very different people into Downing Street.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had the case of Mr Sabisky who you remember was an advisor brought in who had unusual views on eugenics, and after three days he resigned.<\/p>\n
Mr Reynolds also said there had been \u201cunease in the civil service around the so-called \u2018s*** list\u2019 of people who were thought to be at risk in what was perceived to be a much more muscular approach to the civil service.\u201d<\/p>\n
At this point, BBC news presenter Lukwesa Burak was forced to cut Mr Reynolds\u2019s testimony off and apologise to viewers for his language.<\/p>\n
Ms Burak told viewers: \u201cWe just want to apologise if you have been following this, there was some language there – he did apologise beforehand – making reference to a term that was used and included as part of this inquiry.<\/p>\n
Some twenty minutes later the BBC apologised again for the bad language broadcast during their live coverage.<\/p>\n
Ms Burak said: \u201cWe\u2019ve been following things very closely and if you\u2019ve been following the proceedings I just want to point out two incidences when language was used.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously with the nature of this broadcast, it\u2019s not something we can pick up in time, if you did catch that I do want to apologise.\u201d<\/p>\n