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Boris Johnson viewed plans for a testing and tracing system as a hiss in the dark last April, according to posts from his former adviser Dominic Cummings.
Mr Cummings also said he warned Mr Johnson last year that Matt Hancock was unfit for the post during his latest attack on the pressured Health Secretary.
It comes as Mr Hancock has been called on to resign, after admitting to breaking government rules on social distancing when images emerged of him kissing a close associate in his Whitehall office.
Mr Cummings used his latest newsletter to step up his sustained criticism of how the government operated during the coronavirus crisis.
He said in the newsletter that he wanted to highlight how amazing the disorder testing was and why nursing homes were neglected at the start of the pandemic.
Many shouted at me that Hancock was not acting in care homes and made no sense at the Cabinet table as thousands died in care homes, he wrote.
Mr Cummings included a note he wrote to the Prime Minister on April 26 last year, in which he called for a detailed plan on the test and traceability system and how that would involve enforcement .
At the time, the government was under pressure to meet the goal of performing 100,000 tests per day, which was suggested as the amount needed for an effective system.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock (Aaron Chown / PA)
Mr Cummings said he sent the note to the Prime Minister with a message that read: All of this should have been done weeks ago and shouldn’t need me to do it. We can’t go on like this.
He said Mr Johnson replied: Thank you very much agree.
The whole track and trace gives the impression of whistling in the dark.
Legions of imaginary clouseau and no plans to hire them.
Applications that are not yet working.
And most importantly no idea how to reduce new cases to a manageable level or how long it will take.
At that point, the UK may have achieved the double distinction of being the European country with the most deaths and the biggest economic blow (sic).
The story continues
Mr Cummings, who left his post at Downing Street last year amid a power struggle at No. 10, said he had on several occasions raised concerns with the PM about the secretary at health.
He wrote: On May 7th I told the Prime Minister that Hancock was not fit for this job and that staying put was killing god knows how many.
The Prime Minister agreed that Hancocks’ failures were a disaster, but refused to fire him.
Dominic Cummings left his post last year (Yui Mok / PA)
His latest comments come as Labor has said the post of health secretary has become hopelessly untenable and called for his dismissal if he is not ready to step down voluntarily.
Shadow Minister of Health Justin Madders said: Matt Hancocks’ failures continue to pile up.
This latest blog post by Mr Cummings reveals that the Prime Minister lacked confidence in Hancock’s handling of the crisis, and yet, surprisingly, Boris Johnson kept the Health Secretary in office.
He left care homes exposed, admitted to breaking his own Covid rules, and failed to provide Test and Trace when it was needed most. The indictment against Hancock continues to lengthen, so why did the Prime Minister not have the confidence to fire him?
Mr Hancock said he was truly sorry he let people down after The Sun posted a CCTV image of him kissing Gina Coladangelo in his Department of Health and Welfare (DHSC) office.
The newspaper reported that the Health Secretary was having an extramarital affair with Ms Coladangelo, whom he had known from their years together at the University of Oxford and whom he appointed to the department last year.
Mr Cummings’ latest criticism came after he called his former ally Mr Johnson a blundering machine and posted text messages in the early stages of the pandemic in which the PM sharply criticized Mr Hancock.
Mr Cummings posted a WhatsApp screenshot in which the Prime Minister described the Health Secretary as utterly desperate in an exchange about coronavirus testing.
In another post about the difficulties in obtaining ventilators, Mr Johnson replied: This is Hancock. He was desperate.
Appearing on BBC Breakfast on Monday, Mr Hancock admitted that people say all kinds of things in private when under pressure, but insisted that he and Mr Johnson work very closely together.
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