NICOLA Sturgeon has responded to reports that Boris Johnson told aides that he no longer believed “all this NHS overwhelmed stuff” as coronavirus cases increased ahead of England’s second lockdown last autumn.

Dominic Cummings shared WhatsApps with the BBC that he says shows the Prime Minister didn’t want to bring in tougher rules because “the people who are dying are essentially all over 80”.

The former chief adviser to Johnson and Vote Leave boss provided the comments in his first broadcast interview with BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg.

The adviser, who left Downing Street during a bitter row in November, shared a series of messages from October 15 that appear to be from Johnson to aides.

“I must say I have been slightly rocked by some of the data on covid fatalities. The median age is 82 – 81 for men 85 for women. That is above life expectancy. So get COVID and live longer. Hardly anyone under 60 goes into hospital (4 per cent ) and of those virtually all survive. And I no longer buy all this nhs overwhelmed stuff. Folks I think we may need to recalibrate,” they read.

“There are max 3 m in this country aged over 80.

“It shows we don’t go for nation wide lockdown.”

Cummings said in the interview that Johnson’s attitude at the time was a “weird mix of, er, partly it’s all nonsense and lockdowns don’t work anyway and partly well this is terrible but the people who are dying are essentially all over 80 and we can’t kill the economy just because of people dying over 80”.

He also alleged that Johnson was too beholden to lockdown-opposing Tories and elements of the media which convinced him the first lockdown was a mistake.

Cummings claimed the Prime Minister referred to the Telegraph, which previously employed him as a journalist, as “my real boss”.

Scotland’s First Minister was asked at her Covid-19 briefing this afternoon whether the alleged comments are a resignation matter.

She told viewers: “Firstly nobody, nobody, and certainly nobody in a position like mine or Boris Johnson’s should be glib or complacent about human life. Whether that’s the human life of a child, a young adult or an older adult. Human life is human life.

“And as decision makers I think it has been a heavy responsibility on all of our shoulders to try to take decisions that we recognise cannot save everybody from this virus but minimises the impact of it, taking account of the impact of the restrictions that are in place as well, but to minimise the human impact of this. I think any leader who doesn’t take that seriously should be asking themselves questions about whether they are fit for office. But I don’t know what Boris Johnson’s comments there were so I’m not going to go further.

“I think you don’t need me to say that last autumn Boris Johnson appeared to be reluctant to impose new restrictions, now nobody wants to be imposing restrictions, but it’s important I think that we all take the decisions that require to be taken. But I’ve been a critic of Dominic Cummings in the past when he’s said certain things so I’m not going to suddenly now decide that he speaks gospel on everything, I would be a bit sceptical about some of what he is saying and I probably should leave it there.”

Cummings has repeatedly accused the Prime Minister of being too slow in imposing the second lockdown, which came into force on November 5.

A Number 10 spokeswoman responded: “Since the start of the pandemic, the Prime Minister has taken the necessary action to protect lives and livelihoods, guided by the best scientific advice.

“The Government he leads has delivered the fastest vaccination rollout in Europe, saved millions of jobs through the furlough scheme and prevented the NHS from being overwhelmed through three national lockdowns.

“The Government is entirely focused on emerging cautiously from the pandemic and building back better.”