Controversy continues to surround Dominic Cummings after he broke the rules of lockdown to go on a jolly to Barnard Castle and now more people are climbing out of the woodwork to give their opinions on him.

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The latest is some dude called Lebby Eyres (what?), who wrote in The Telegraph back in 2019 about the time that they attended Exeter College at Oxford to study history back in 1991. Here’s what he had to say (quoted from The Daily Star):

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I can’t compute that the strangely mesmerising guy I used to see schlepping up and down Staircase Nine in Exeter College, Oxford, in a shiny baseball jacket, is now effectively running the country.

That jacket has gone, replaced by a Barbour gilet and a Vote Leave tote, but his intense glare remains unchanged, as does his love of a t-shirt.”

He described how a fellow history student helped draw Cummings “out of his shell, and introduced him to our friendship group”.

The group of friends, who called themselves the “wastrels”, used to debate long into the night, taking as their motto the Hunter S Thompson quote: “There were no rules, sleep was unknown and fear was out of the question.”

They would often play games such as backgammon, chess and Risk late into the night while drinking whisky.

But, Eyres went on, Cummings was able to stay out of trouble with college authorities, and even helped rescue a friend once who became trapped in the railings of Oxford’s Botanical Gardens after a late-night boozing session.

Some at Exeter even believed he was being tapped up to be a spy by one of the college’s professors who was a recruiter for MI6.

Eyres said Cummings “was viewed with a little more suspicion” by many of the women in the college because of his behaviour.

He didn’t date many women at university, which Eyres put down to his “James Bond villain air of menace,” although he said Cummings was attracted to “upper-crust brunette beauties, which was duly reciprocated”.

Well, ‘The Wastrels’ certainly sound like a group of bores don’t they? Not really sure what else I expected from Cummings’ youth to be honest, but funny to see it come straight from someone who was there I suppose. Even if their name is something weird like Leppy.

For more of the same, check out the best memes about Cummings’ trip to Durham. Some A+ stuff in there.