Matt Hancock denies claims he ignored Covid care home testing advice
Matt Hancock has denied claims he ignored expert advice on care home testing during the coronavirus pandemic after leaked WhatsApp messages were published by the Telegraph.
Journalist Isabel Oakeshott shared more than 100,000 messages with the newspaper after receiving them while working on Hancock’s Pandemic Diaries book, including text exchanges with Boris Johnson, Rishi Sunak and other key cabinet ministers.
In April 2020, according to the paper’s investigation, chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty advised the then-health secretary anyone going into care homes should be tested.
But leaked texts published by the newspaper appear to reveal Hancock rejected the guidance, suggesting it “muddies the waters” and introduced mandatory testing for hospital leavers.
The MP hit back at the newspaper’s story, calling it a “distorted account” that has been “spun to fit an anti-lockdown agenda”.
The messages reportedly amount to 2.3m words or the equivalent of three King James Bibles.
Hancock’s spokesman said: “It is outrageous that this distorted account of the pandemic is being pushed with partial leaks, spun to fit an anti-lockdown agenda.”
And a key part of a WhatsApp message was left out of a report by the paper, Hancock said.
“The Telegraph have doctored the messages by excluding a key line from the texts by Allan Nixon,” his spokesman said.
“Nixon says, ‘I wasn’t in testing mtg’, which changes the context of the exchange depicted in the article… By omitting this, the messages imply Matt simply overruled clinical advice.
“That is categorically untrue. He went as far as was possible, as fast as possible, to expand testing and save lives.”
Hancock has also said the “right place” for questions about the pandemic response is the official inquiry, led by former Court of Appeal judge Baroness Heather Hallett.
And the former I’m A Celebrity contestant is understood to be “considering all options” following Oakeshott’s leak of his messages.
A source close to Hancock said: “She’s broken a legal NDA. Her behaviour is outrageous.”
Writing in the Telegraph, Oakeshott said the inquiry may take “many years” before coming to any conclusions and claimed “the whole thing may become a colossal whitewash”.
She said: “That’s why I’ve decided to release this sensational cache of private communications – because we absolutely cannot wait any longer for answers.”
The Covid-19 inquiry is examining the UK’s preparedness for and response to the pandemic.