Downing Street fury over 'let OAPs die' accusation: No 10 angrily denies claims that Dominic Cummings said pensioners should be sacrificed to coronavirus to protect the economy

Downing Street last night angrily denied claims that Dominic Cummings said the lives of pensioners should be sacrificed to coronavirus to help protect the economy. 

The Sunday Times claimed that Boris Johnson’s chief aide told a private engagement in February that the Government was pursuing a strategy of socalled ‘herd immunity’, despite concerns it would lead to more deaths among the elderly. 

At the time the idea was the subject of intense debate within Government, although No 10 insists it was never adopted. 

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The Sunday Times reported that those present at the private engagement claimed Mr Cummings had outlined the Government strategy as: ‘Herd immunity, protect the economy and if that means some pensioners die, too bad.’

Proponents of the idea of ‘herd immunity’ believed the epidemic should be allowed to run its course to allow the population to build up resistance to it and prevent a deadly second wave in the winter.

Mitigation would have been put in place to limit the number of deaths, but the Government would not have tried to stamp out the disease altogether. 

The idea might also have avoided the need for some of the draconian social distancing measures now wreaking havoc with the country’s economy. 

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According to the Sunday Times, Mr Cummings changed his mind at a meeting of the Government’s Scientific Advisory Group on Emergencies (Sage) on March 12. It was claimed he realised such a plan would lead to disaster after seeing what was happening in Italy – leading to what was dubbed a ‘Domoscene conversion’

The Sunday Times reported that those present at the private engagement claimed Mr Cummings had outlined the Government strategy as: ‘Herd immunity, protect the economy and if that means some pensioners die, too bad.’

But, according to the report, a few weeks later he had changed his mind as he realised the strategy would lead to a catastrophe. Downing Street vehemently denied the claims. 

A spokesman said: ‘This is a highly defamatory fabrication which was not put to No10 by the Sunday Times before publication. 

‘The article also includes a series of apparent quotes from meetings which are invented.’ 

Herd immunity is where a large proportion of the population is protected from a disease because a significant portion has become immune through either having survived an infection or been immunised. 

Such a move would allow more people to potentially remain working but would have risked leaving the most vulnerable at high risk of death and serious illness.

The term was previously used by Government scientists but No10 has denied it has ever been its approach.

It was claimed in the Sunday Times that Mr Cummings was convinced that Britain would be better able to resist a second wave of coronavirus next winter if Professor Chris Whitty, the Chief Medical Officer for England, was right that up to 80 per cent of the population became infected and the UK developed herd immunity.

According to the Sunday Times, Mr Cummings changed his mind at a meeting of the Government’s Scientific Advisory Group on Emergencies (Sage) on March 12. 

It was claimed he realised such a plan would lead to disaster after seeing what was happening in Italy – leading to what was dubbed a ‘Domoscene conversion’. 

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It was claimed in the Sunday Times that Mr Cummings was convinced that Britain would be better able to resist a second wave of coronavirus next winter if Professor Chris Whitty, the Chief Medical Officer for England, above, was right that up to 80 per cent of the population became infected and the UK developed herd immunity

A minister reportedly told the newspaper: ‘Seeing what was happening in Italy was the galvanising force across Government.’ 

By Friday March 13, Mr Cummings is said to have changed his mind completely and said the country had to be shut down.

On March 15 Health Secretary Matt Hancock insisted the Government’s overriding objective was to save lives amid the coronavirus outbreak.

‘We have a plan, based on the expertise of world-leading scientists. Herd immunity is not a part of it,’ he wrote in the Telegraph. 

While the Sunday Times reported that there was a Sage meeting of scientific advisers on March 12, those with knowledge of the situation said there was no Sage meeting on that day.