As we've been reporting, many of the texts from Dominic Cummings contain extremely strong language - the inquiry's lawyer Hugo Keith KC describes it as "revolting".

He asks Cummings if this language contributed to a lack of effectiveness on the part of the ministers.

But Cummings says he thinks he was "reflecting a widespread view amongst competent people at the centre of power".

Hugo Keith KC puts it to Cummings that he had "trenchant" views about government and its structure.

He quotes from Cummings' statement that cabinet was largely "irrelevant" to policy or execution in 2020 - it was seen by everyone in No 10 as "not a place for serious discussion", the statement says.

Keith asks whether important decisions began being made elsewhere.

In response, Cummings says decisions have, for a long time, been made outside of cabinet, because "serious conversations" are hard to have with dozens of people around one table.

Three years on from his resignation as chief adviser to Boris Johnson - which he spent on the front lines of the government’s pandemic response - Dominic Cummings is now appearing at the Covid inquiry.

Cummings first worked with Johnson on the 2016 Vote Leave campaign. He is also credited with the creation of the "Get Brexit done" campaign message that helped Johnson win a large majority in the 2019 general election.

Cummings became more of a public figure in 2020 and was forced into holding his own news conference at Downing Street following controversy over him making a trip to the north of England when non-essential travel was banned at the height of the coronavirus lockdown.

He had a notoriously difficult relationship with Conservative MPs and quit No 10 in November 2020. He has since become one of Johnson's fiercest critics.

A brief warning about the live stream from the inquiry - you may hear very strong language from time to time as evidence is read out.

We have no control over this and there is no warning before this happens during live proceedings. We'll take care to warn you in our text coverage before including any strong language.

Image source, UK Covid Inquiry

We're now hearing from Dominic Cummings, Boris Johnson's former senior adviser who worked on the 2019 general election campaign and Vote Leave campaign.

We're also hearing from a different lawyer too - Hugo Keith KC.

They're running through Cummings' career and how he came to hold his job at No 10.

Image source, Covid inquiry

Pete Weatherby KC represents Bereaved Families for Justice UK, and takes over questioning Lee Cain now.

He references a part of Cain's statement, where he writes about how the PM was becoming concerned about the impact of Covid on the economy, the impact on the government, and the right-wing media.

Cain is asked if Johnson was prioritising the opinion of the media over advisers and public opinion.

Cain says, "I think he was unsure", and that it's more complex than Weatherby suggests. He continues that this was a part of his "oscillation of concerns" over changing policies.

We're hearing from Anthony Metzer KC now, who is representing long Covid groups. He's continuing to question Lee Cain.

Metzer asks if there was a discussion in No 10 about making public the risks of long-term impacts of Covid-19.

Cain says that the knowledge of recovery was "minimal" and they were "quite unclear" on it. He doesn't recall any specific campaigns on it.

He says he is not sure where the full responsibility lies in communicating the risks of long Covid and says "with the size and scale of government, it is indeed possible" it fell through the cracks, but he adds that the government made a central messaging service in a bid to ensure this didn't happen.

The inquiry's lawyer shows some entries from Sir Patrick Vallance’s diaries from 2020.

In the first, Vallance says Boris Johnson is “obsessed with older people accepting their fate and letting the young get on with life and the economy going”.

Another entry says: “He says his party ‘thinks the whole thing is pathetic and Covid is just nature’s way of dealing with old people – and I am not entirely sure I disagree with them’.”

A third entry, from December 2020, reads: "Chief whip says 'I think we should let the old people get it and protect others’. PM says ‘a lot of my backbenchers think that and I must say I agree with them’."

Cain says the PM was concerned about society as a whole, but some of the language is not “what I would have used”.

So far, Boris Johnson's spokesman has declined to comment on the evidence given at these hearings, but says he's "co-operating fully" with the inquiry.

Image source, Covid inquiry

A screengrab of a WhatsApp exchange between Cain and Johnson in October 2020 is shown to the inquiry.

In it, Johnson questions the government's policy and says he is "rocked" by some of the data on Covid fatalities. He says: "I no longer buy all this NHS overwhelmed stuff", adding, "I think we may need to recalibrate" and not implement a nationwide lockdown.

Cain in response says it is "not politically viable yet to change course".

The inquiry lawyer now delves into the language used in these texts more deeply, describing it as "rude", "dismissive" and "aggressive".

Andrew O'Connor KC asks: "You will hear evidence of a so-called 'macho' culture in Downing Street at the time - is this a fair reflection of the culture?"

Cain again goes back to the issue of a lack of diversity in Boris Johnson's senior team: "There was a lack of diversity - and that was the same in gender, in socioeconomic, and ethnic minority.

"If you lack that diversity within a team, you create problems in decision-making and policy development and culture."

Nick Eardley
Political correspondent

We often report on some of the tensions behind the scenes in government.

But some of the language being used in the exchanges in No 10 is jaw-dropping.

We won't repeat it here - but Dominic Cummings is remarkably dismissive of senior ministers who were involved in the response to the pandemic.

The inquiry lawyer shows a text from Cain which says "Hancock has got to go. Joker." Cummings replied: "Yep. And liar."

The questions then move on to a WhatsApp exchange between Cain, Cummings and Johnson in August 2020. In it, Cummings say a reshuffle is needed and they need to "get people in line".

Johnson says he agrees.

Cummings urges Johnson to "read the riot act" and warns that his authority as PM will be "severely weakened" if he continues with the same approach.

He uses lots of expletives to make his point clear.

Andrew O'Connor KC asks if things were as bad as Cummings made it seem.

Cain says it was a stressful time, saying "the challenges that we were dealing with were greater than probably any since 1945".

He adds that the government has a "huge" problem with leaking, and did especially during Covid.

Cain is shown a series of WhatsApp message exchanges between him, Dominic Cummings and Simon Case - the UK's top civil servant - which detail their frustrations with ministers over the implementation of measures to suppress the virus, including the "rule of six".

Cain tells the inquiry that Boris Johnson did not want to implement any harder measures, but most of his advisers knew doing so later was inevitable.

He says there were inevitably going to be mistakes in the early stages of the pandemic, but errors were being repeated in this later period, with the government moving too late to control the spread of Covid.

"There is a real frustration that we weren't gripping things and putting in the lessons we had learned," he says.

Image source, Covid Inquiry

The inquiry's lawyer is showing another document about summer 2020, describing a "tension" between some officials who wanted to take a slow, cautious approach and others who wanted lockdown to end more quickly.

Boris Johnson was "torn", Cain says, between scientific evidence and public opinion on one hand, and media opinion and the Tory Party "pushing him in the other direction".

The "eat out to help out" scheme, which aimed to help the struggling hospitality sector, and the "back to work" policies were part of Johnson's messaging direction, lawyer Andrew O'Connor KC highlights.

Cain insists that, as he is now, he was critical of these policies at the time: "We [were] indicating to people, 'Covid's over, go back out, get to work, crowd yourself onto trains, go to restaurants and enjoy pizzas with friends and family'."

The inquiry lawyer is now showing a transcript of a note Sir Patrick Vallance - one of the government's chief Covid advisers - made in September 2020.

It relates to the issue of providing funding to people on low wages to make it financially viable for them to isolate.

Cain says it's not an issue he fully remembers and isn't sure of the reasons why the chancellor - then Rishi Sunak - blocked it at the time.

There was "generous" furlough pay, Cain adds, defending the scheme.

Following a short break, the evidence session has resumed, with inquiry lawyer Andrew O'Connor KC continuing to question Lee Cain, Boris Johnson's former communications director.

The government's campaign for people to stay at home during the pandemic is still being discussed.

Cain is asked if this advice created a risk for victims of domestic abuse, and if he believes enough was done or said - including by the PM and then-Home Secretary Priti Patel - to protect those people.

Johnson's former aide says the issue was raised by media, and the government "tried to do a lot in the daily press conferences" to address those questions.

He also says it's unfair to criticise Johnson on this issue - and it would have depended on whether he was briefed on it. Looking back, there were a "range of issues" the government could have gone into more detail on, he says. We did the best we could, he adds.

The inquiry is just back from a short break - you can watch every moment by pressing the Play icon at the top of this page.

If you can't see the icon, refresh your browser or reload this page on the BBC News app.

Andrew O'Connor KC next moves on to the issue of press conferences.

The inquiry lawyer says Anne Longfield - the children's commissioner of England at the time - constantly asked Boris Johnson and others to hold a press conference "especially for children".

O'Connor asks Cain if he was aware of this lobbying - and why such a briefing was never held. Cain, who was Johnson's director of communications, says he doesn't remember it specifically, but says it's a good idea.

There were probably lots of things No 10 should have done, he tells the inquiry, but adds he doesn't remember the PM mentioning the idea.

Nick Eardley
Political correspondent

There was often tension between the UK government and the devolved governments during the pandemic.

I remember well some of the pushback when ministers in London decided to replace the "Stay at home" message with a "Stay alert" one.

We've just seen emails showing the Scottish government, led by Nicola Sturgeon, asked the UK government not to run the new campaign in Scotland.

But the message from Boris Johnson's private office shows the UK government decided to go ahead.

A few moments ago, Boris Johnson's former aide Lee Cain told the inquiry that his boss was someone who would often delay making decisions and change his mind on issues.

Covid was the ''wrong challenge'' for him, he says.

Watch what he said in the short clip below: