London, UK - The former aide of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has savagely attacked how the government handled the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in Britain.

Dominic Cummings was chief adviser to Johnson from July 2019 to November 2020, and gave him advice on how to handle the coronavirus outbreak when it struck Britain in March last year.

At times, he was seen as the second most powerful man in the country after Johnson.

He had been called to give evidence before parliament into how the government handled the outbreak and subsequent British lockdowns.

During his questioning, Cummings made a series of serious claims against the government, including that Johnson initially described the outbreak as "the new swine flu" and dismissed it as a "scare story," while also saying Health Secretary Matt Hancock should have been sacked for "lying to everybody in multiple occasions in meeting after meeting in the cabinet room and publicly."

He also claimed Johnson told cabinet members he was going to get England's chief medical officer to "inject him on live TV with coronavirus" to show people it was nothing to be concerned about.

Describing when the government tried to hold meetings initially over how to handle the outbreak last March, Cummings said: "We got completely derailed because the national security people came in and said '[former US President Donald] Trump wants us to join the bombing campaign in the Middle East tonight and we need to start having meetings about that' ... so everything to do with [Johnson's cabinet meeting] on Covid that day was completely disrupted."

Britons were later told to start social distancing on March 16, 2020, and the four nations went into lockdown on March 23, 2020.

Cummings also claimed that prior to April 2020, no border policy was in place due to advice Johnson was receiving that stated closing the borders would make no sense in curbing the spread of the virus.

"As of today, look at the whole thing with variants, we still don't have a proper border policy, in my opinion," he said.

During the questioning, Cummings also apologized for his "failings" during the coronavirus pandemic, including not taking action sooner and for a journey he undertook while England was in lockdown.

He faced severe criticism last year after it was revealed he drove over 260 miles from his home in London to his parents' house in Durham during the first wave of the pandemic in April, despite a strict stay at home order being in force across England.

In a press conference last May, he admitted that he and his wife were suffering with coronavirus at the time and said he undertook the journey to test his eyesight and see if it was affected by the virus.

Cummings' decision to leave London and subsequently not face any action from Johnson for it dampened the nation's trust in the government and undermined further rules implemented for citizens.

During the weekly prime minister's questions event in the House of Commons on Wednesday, held in the middle of Cummings' questioning, opposition leader Keir Starmer accused Johnson of being "complacent" over the threat of the coronavirus as a result of Cummings' claims.

"I don't think anybody could accuse this government of being complacent over the threat of this virus," Johnson said.

"We have worked flat-out to minimize loss of life, to protect the [National Health Service] ... we have got on with the job, protecting people of this country from one of the worst pandemics in living memory."

In a briefing with journalists, a spokesperson for Johnson refuted the claims against the coronavirus border policy and declined to comment on the claims over sacking Hancock in April last year and that Johnson wanted to get infected with coronavirus on live TV.