A bombshell WhatsApp shows Boris Johnson was warned Covid would “sweep world” days before he went on holiday.

The former PM took a 10-day break during the February half term in 2020 when he received no briefings on the virus. On February 6, Dominic Cummings told Mr Johnson that coronavirus was probably "out of control" and would "sweep world".

The inquiry this morning also heard that Mr Johnson failed to attend a crucial meeting of the COBRA emergency committee when the Chief Medical Officer warned coronavirus could become a pandemic. Minutes shown at the Covid Inquiry showed Professor Sir Chris Whitty raised concerns the virus could spread to the UK on January 29, 2020.

Hugo Keith KC, lead counsel, asked Mr Johnson: “The question is why were you the Prime Minister not being told directly this is a virus, which if it escapes China will result in a pandemic. There is information already that it has a very serious fatality rate and a very serious hospitalisation rate. Why was that? Basic light bulb information not brought to your attention so that you can see the true nature of this emerging crisis.”

Mr Johnson, who missed five Cobra meetings on Covid before eventually chairing his first one in March 2020, said: “I can't give you the exact reason why the detail of the Cobra was not brought to my attention.”

Minutes of the meeting on January 29, 2020 recorded: “The CMO said that the UK planning assumptions were based on the reasonable worst case scenario. There were two scenarios to be considered. The first was that the spread was confined within China, the second was that the spread was not limited to China and there would be a pandemic like scenario, with the UK impacted. The second scenario was plausible but it may take weeks to months.”