James O'Brien moved to tears by grieving father's response to Cummings' claims
27 May 2021, 13:56 | Updated: 22 September 2021, 11:05
James O'Brien moved by grieving father's message
James O'Brien was moved to tears by this grieving father's response to Dominic Cummings giving evidence, which he watched repeatedly for nine hours.
Grieving father John lost his daughter Susan to Covid in March 2020 and told James: "One thing that came out of yesterday more than anything else was the absolute need for an inquiry now. Not in a year's time, now.
"One thing we all know in our hearts: that the lunatics are running the asylum at the moment."
James agreed, telling him that grieving families "are reduced to a vengeful, vendetta-driven, former senior adviser giving vitriolic testimony to a select committee to get answers to the most profound and the most powerful questions of your life.
"You're reduced to tuning into a pantomime like that rather than having a full and frank independent inquiry."
John told James he kept rewinding to listen to what Dominic Cummings said time and time again "because I wanted to be sure what he said, I wanted to understand what he said."
Read more: Dominic Cummings: The key quotes from Boris Johnson's ex-adviser
James O'Brien left in tears at bereaved father's call
Watch the full interview above.
"Nine hours is nothing - I desperately needed the answers and for me, he gave me the answers yesterday," John said, "and the simple answer is by Johnson's actions, his refusal to accept the seriousness of the pandemic...and it's as simple as that.
"Using the word vaccination does not wipe away all those people that are dead, but that's what they're trying to do every time they open their mouth it's vaccination, vaccination, vaccination."
James, extremely moved by John's message, said, "I bet you were a brilliant dad."
"She was 56 years old, she was a bundle of fun. I called her Little Chief and she called me Big Chief," he said of his beloved daughter, "she was just the loveliest person in the world and she didn't deserve it.
"None of these people deserved it. At a time of crisis when we desperately needed a really serious politician in charge of Downing Street, we sadly finished up with a charlatan and a narcissist and a liar and that's why my daughter is dead.
"I feel for all of these families, every single family, my heart goes out to them and when I see it every day and people turn round and say it's only nine dead today. That's somebody's loved one - it's not only two, it's not only nine, it's not only one. It's somebody's loved one that's died.
"People are in pain and people should remember that the next time they go to put their cross in a box in a polling station because this man isn't fit to run the country, end of story."
Read more: Matt Hancock brands Dominic Cummings' allegations as 'unsubstantiated and untrue'
