Dominic Cummings has published a WhatsApp exchange in which Boris Johnson appeared to describe Health Secretary Matt Hancock’s performance as “totally f*****g hopeless”.

The Prime Minister’s former aide, who has blamed Mr Hancock for failings during the Covid response, published a screenshot apparently showing a WhatsApp exchange between himself and the Prime Minister.

Alongside the image of the apparent WhatsApp exchange with Boris Johnson, the Prime Minster’s former chief aide Dominic Cummings tweeted: “Evidence on the covid disaster: as the PM said himself, Hancock’s performance on testing, procurement, PPE, care homes etc was ‘totally f***ing hopeless’, & his account to MPs was fiction.”

According to the messages published on March 3 last year, the controversial former aide highlighted the US’s ramping up of testing capacity and criticised Mr Hancock for saying he was “sceptical” about meeting a target.

The message had numerous typos and read: “US has gone from 2200 tests a fortnight ago to 27,000 a week ago to 100k yesterday. This is what we said we shd do. Instead we are still stuck on about 5-7K and MH saying today he’s ‘sceptical’ about getting to 10k by Monday which he said wd ‘definitely’ happen on Tuesday. This means tens of 1000s of NHS staff arent at work over next critical 3 weeks — apart from my earlier point re testign being integral to escape plan…”

The Prime Minister purportedly responded: “Totally f****** hopeless.”

Mr Cummings, who left Downing Street in November during a bitter power struggle in No 10, has targeted much of his criticism since leaving at the Health Secretary.

In a blog post exceeding 7,000-words, Mr Cummings also published another private message about the struggles to procure ventilators for Covid-19 patients.

“It’s Hancock. He has been hopeless,” a contact appearing to be Mr Johnson replied on March 27 last year.

In another message, on April 27 last year, the Prime Minister appeared to call the situation around personal protective equipment (PPE) “a disaster” and alluded to diverting some responsibilities to Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove.

“I can’t think of anything except taking Hancock off and putting Gove on,” Mr Johnson apparently added.

Mr Cummings set out questions he believed Boris Johnson should be asked about the Government’s handling of the pandemic.

He wrote: “Given his failures on testing, care homes and PPE why did you keep in post a Secretary of State you described yourself as ‘totally f*****g hopeless’ and how many more people died as a result of your failure to remove him?

“Why is No10 lying, including to Parliament, about the fact that the original plan was “herd immunity by September” and had to be abandoned?

“When did Patrick Vallance brief you on NHS data showing that the death rate at the first April peak was much higher than before/after the peak and do you now agree with Hancock that every patient got the treatment they needed?

“Do you now agree with Hancock that there was no shortage of PPE or do you agree with yourself in April 2020 that PPE supply was ‘a disaster’ that required moving Hancock?

“How many people died in care homes because of what you called the ‘disaster’ on PPE and what you called Hancock’s ‘totally f*****g hopeless’ performance on testing in March?

“When will the SoS come to the House and correct his many false statements to MPs?”