A leaked cache of more than 100,000 WhatsApp messages apparently reveals that Matt Hancock refused advice to screen all patients entering English nursing homes for coronavirus at the beginning of the outbreak.
The former health secretary was informed there should be testing for “everyone moving into care homes,” according to a Daily Telegraph inquiry into the chief medical officer Professor Sir Chris Whitty.
However, it appears from the released communications that he ignored the advice, telling an assistant that it would only “muddie the waters,” and instituted required testing for patients coming from hospitals.
Mr Hancock also expressed concerns that expanding care home testing could ‘get in the way’ of the target of 100,000 daily coronavirus tests he was desperate to hit, the investigation said.
The MP vehemently denies the ‘distorted account’, with a spokesman alleging the messages leaked by journalist Isabel Oakeshott after she worked on his Pandemic Diaries memoir have been ‘spun to fit an anti-lockdown agenda’.
He said the claims against the former health secretary are ‘flat wrong’, and insisted Mr Hancock was told during a crunch meeting it was ‘not currently possible’ to carry out the tests at the time due to capacity issues.
Conservative peer Lord Bethell, who was at the health department with Mr Hancock during the pandemic, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that ‘we wanted to test everyone who went into social care’.
But he said Mr Hancock ‘changed his view because there was an operational meeting to talk about how you were actually going to test people and how many actual tests we had’.
He added: ‘The reality was there was a very, very limited number of those tests…
‘The thing that held us back was not a dispute about the clinical advice. It was simply the operational ability to deliver tests.’
In a statement, a spokesman for the former health secretary said: ‘These stolen messages have been doctored to create a false story that Matt rejected clinical advice on care home testing. This is flat wrong.
‘On April 14 Matt received a response to his request for advice from the Chief Medical Officer’s (sic) that testing was needed for people going into care homes, which he enthusiastically accepted.
‘Later that day he convened an operational meeting on delivering testing for care homes where he was advised it was not currently possible to test everyone entering care homes, which he also accepted.
‘Matt concluded that the testing of people leaving hospital for care homes should be prioritised because of the higher risks of transmission, as it wasn’t no possible to mandate everyone going into care homes got tested.’
The spokesman said in an earlier statement: ‘Having not been approached in advance by the Telegraph, we have reviewed the messages overnight.
‘The Telegraph intentionally excluded reference to a meeting with the testing team from the WhatsApp.
‘This is critical, because Matt was supportive of Chris Whitty’s advice, held a meeting on its deliverability, told it wasn’t deliverable, and insisted on testing all those who came from hospitals.
‘The Telegraph have been informed that their headline is wrong, and Matt is considering all options available to him.
‘This major error by Isabel Oakeshott and the Telegraph shows why the proper place for analysis like this is the Inquiry, not a partial, agenda-driven leak of confidential documents.’
The ‘lockdown files’ investigation also contains:
– Claims that officials couriered Jacob Rees-Mogg a Covid test for one of his children while there was a shortage.
– Mr Hancock telling former chancellor George Osborne, then editor of the Evening Standard, ‘I WANT TO HIT MY TARGET!’ as he pushed for favourable front-page coverage.
Ms Oakeshott, who has described lockdowns as an ‘unmitigated disaster’, said she was releasing the messages because it would take ‘many years’ before the end of the official Covid inquiry, which she claimed could be a ‘colossal whitewash’.
‘That’s why I’ve decided to release this sensational cache of private communications – because we absolutely cannot wait any longer for answers,’ she said.
In one message, Mr Hancock said Sir Chris had finished a review and recommended ‘testing of all going into care homes, and segregation whilst awaiting result’.
Mr Hancock described it as ‘obviously a good positive step’.
However, the investigation said he later responded to an aide: ‘Tell me if I’m wrong but I would rather leave it out and just commit to test & isolate ALL going into care from hospital. I do not think the community commitment adds anything and it muddies the waters.’
The spokesman for Mr Hancock said ‘the Telegraph story is wrong’, arguing that ‘instead of spinning and leaks we need the full, comprehensive inquiry’.
‘It is outrageous that this distorted account of the pandemic is being pushed with partial leaks, spun to fit an anti-lockdown agenda, which would have cost hundreds of thousands of lives if followed. What the messages do show is a lot of people working hard to save lives,’ the spokesman said.
‘Those who argue there shouldn’t have been a lockdown ignore the fact that half-a-million people would have died had we not locked down.
‘And for those saying we should never lock down again, imagine if a disease killed half those infected, and half the population were going to get infected – as is happening right now with avian flu in birds. If that disease were in humans, of course we’d want to lockdown.’
He continued: ‘The story spun on care homes is completely wrong. What the messages show is that Mr Hancock pushed for testing of those going into care homes when that testing was available.
‘The full documents have already all been made available to the inquiry, which is the proper place for an objective assessment, so true lessons can be learned.’
In September 2020, during a severe backlog in testing, messages suggest an adviser to Mr Hancock helped get a test sent to senior Conservative Mr Rees-Mogg’s home.
The aide messaged Mr Hancock to say the lab had ‘lost’ the original test for one of the then Commons leader’s children, ‘so we’ve got a courier going to their family home tonight’.
He added: ‘Jacob’s spad (special adviser) is aware and has helped line it all up, but you might want to text Jacob.’
The investigation says Mr Rees-Mogg was due to appear in the Commons on September 10 and brief MPs on the following week’s agenda but was self-isolating while waiting for his child’s result.
It adds that he was reportedly back at work four days later after it came back negative.
Commenting on the claim, Liberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper said: ‘This is yet more evidence that it’s one rule for Conservative ministers and another for everyone else.
‘The Covid inquiry must look into reports Conservative ministers were able to get priority access to tests at a time of national shortage.’
As he battled to meet his own target of 100,000 coronavirus tests per day, the investigation shows Mr Hancock texted his former boss Mr Osborne to ‘call in a favour’.
Mr Hancock said he has thousands of spare testing slots which is ‘obvs good news about spread of virus’ but ‘hard for my target’ as he asked for front page coverage.
Mr Osborne responded: ‘Yes – of course – all you need to do tomorrow is give some exclusive words to the Standard and I’ll tell the team to splash it.’
The then health secretary later added: ‘I WANT TO HIT MY TARGET!’