Coronavirus: Downing Street confirms Dominic Cummings has listened in on meetings of scientific advisory group

Downing Street has confirmed Dominic Cummings has listened in on meetings with senior scientists advising the government on the coronavirus outbreak – but has denied claims he is part of the secretive group.

Opposition parties have said political advisers have no business attending the meetings of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) and have called for its deliberations to be opened up to wider scrutiny.

Mr Cummings, the prime minister’s chief adviser, was among 23 attendees at a key Sage meeting when a nationwide lockdown was announced on 23 March, The Guardian reported.

Ben Warner, a data scientist who worked with Mr Cummings on the Vote Leave campaign during the Brexit referendum, was also said to have been present at the meeting.

Sage, which provides scientific and technical advice to support decision makers during emergencies, has been advising the government on the coronavirus outbreak.

Sir David King, a former government chief scientific adviser, said he was “shocked” to find that there were political figures involved in Sage meetings.

He told The Guardian: “If you are giving science advice, your advice should be free of any political bias.

“That is just so critically important.”

A Number 10 spokesman confirmed in a strongly-worded statement that Mr Cummings and Dr Warner had attended or listened in to Sage meetings, but denied they had in any way affected the group’s advice.

The spokesman said: “It is not true that Mr Cummings or Dr Warner are ‘on’ or members of Sage.

“Mr Cummings and Dr Warner have attended some Sage meetings and listen to some meetings now they are all virtual.

“They do this in order to understand better the scientific debates concerning this emergency and also to understand better the limits of how science and data can help government decisions.

“Occasionally they ask questions or offer help when scientists mention problems in Whitehall.”

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The government has never released a list of Sage members or attendees, but individual members can disclose they are part of the group.

Sir Patrick Vallance, the current chief scientific adviser who chairs Sage, said in a letter to parliament earlier this month that the decision not to disclose its membership was based on advice from the Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure (CPNI).

He said that it helped safeguard the personal security of members while protecting them from “lobbying and other forms of unwanted influence which may hinder their ability to give impartial advice”.

Professor Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer for England and a member of Sage, told MPs on Friday that neither he nor Sir Patrick had any objection “in principle” to details of the membership being released.

He told the Commons Science and Technology Committee the CPNI advice was based on the fact that Sage was a sub-committee of Cobra – the government’s civil contingencies committee – and sometimes dealt with security-related issues.

Shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth said the disclosure that Mr Cummings had been attending Sage raised “significant questions” about the credibility of government decision-making.

He said: “Dominic Cummings has no place on the government’s scientific advisory group on the coronavirus.

“He is a political adviser, not a medical or scientific expert. If the public are to have confidence in the Sage, the government must make clear Dominic Cummings can no longer participate or attend.”

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said the disclosure underlined the need for a public inquiry into the government’s handling of the pandemic.

He said: “The public needs to have confidence that it is expert advice that is guiding government decisions, not dubious political advisers. The lack of transparency is an absolute outrage.

“To get to the truth and to give Boris Johnson the opportunity to answer some serious questions, it is clear that there will need to be an independent inquiry to officially review the government’s response to the pandemic.”

Richard Horton, the editor of The Lancet medical journal, tweeted: “If it is true that Dominic Cummings attended meetings of Sage, then the government led by Boris Johnson has utterly corrupted independent scientific advice.”

(c) Sky News 2020: Coronavirus: Downing Street confirms Dominic Cummings has listened in on meetings of scientific advisory group