Last week, more than 100,000 WhatsApp messages from former Health Secretary Matt Hancock were leaked to the Daily Telegraph by journalist Isabel Oakeshott, who co-authored Hancock’s memoir the Pandemic Diaries.
The leaks have reignited public concern over the government’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic. The latest exchanges to be revealed from the leak appear to show the UK’s top civil servant, Cabinet Secretary Simon Case, describing Boris Johnson as a “nationally distrusted figure” in a conversation with Hancock about testing capability. Hancock responded by writing, “The PM is completely right on this. Delegate delegate delegate.”
Case expressed concern about getting people to isolate and suggested that trusted local figures, rather than the prime minister, should encourage isolation measures. Hancock replied that the lorries could not roll until late the following week, adding that the isolation rules could be fixed by then.
The leaked messages also show Hancock criticising vaccines tsar Dame Kate Bingham, with exchanges from October 2020 showing him describing her as “totally unreliable” and claiming that she had a “wacky way of expressing” her views.
Hancock’s criticism of Bingham followed her comments in an interview with the Financial Times where she claimed that vaccinating everyone in the UK was “not going to happen” and that the country needed to “vaccinate everyone at risk”.
The leaked messages also revealed exchanges between Hancock and Chief Medical Officer Professor Sir Chris Whitty in November 2020. Hancock asked Whitty if the 14-day isolation period was “too long all this time”.
Whitty responded that the modelling suggested five days was “pretty well as good” and that adherence was likely to be good. Hancock expressed amazement and suggested a seven-day period, but Whitty replied that the benefits flatten out after five days.
A spokesperson for former Prime Minister Johnson declined to comment on the leaks, stating that the public inquiry provides the right process for these issues to be examined. Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Hancock has condemned the leaks as a “massive betrayal” designed to support an “anti-lockdown agenda”.
A spokesperson for Dame Kate Bingham said that the WhatsApps suggested Hancock was not aware of the published and agreed government vaccine procurement policy, did not read the reports by and about the work of the Vaccine Taskforce, and did not understand the difference between complex biological manufacturing and PPE procurement.
»Isabel Oakeshott leaks Matt Hancock WhatsApp messages«
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