In May, we witnessed Dominic Cummings – the disgruntled former chief advisor to Boris Johnson – make a series of explosive claims about serious mistakes by the government in its response to the covid-19 pandemic.

During seven hours of political theatre worthy of a Shakespearean tragedy, the ex-advisor bombarded the government with highly charged accusations of ineptitude (termed “Domshells” by one media commentator) which – according to Cummings – led to the needless deaths of thousands of people during the early stages of the pandemic.