War of words erupts over Covid Whatsapp messages

An extraordinary war of words has erupted over events at the centre of government during the Covid pandemic after a leak of more than 100,000 of Matt Hancock’s Whatsapp messages.

As he fought for his political reputation, the health secretary’s spokesperson claimed messages had been “doctored” and “spun to fit an anti-lockdown agenda”.

It was “flat wrong” Mr Hancock had rejected advice to test all residents going into English care homes, he added.

The government was also accused of hiding behind the official inquiry after it stonewalled questions over the delivery of a Covid test to a cabinet minister’s home.

Downing Street did concede there was “significant public interest” in claims officials had couriered the test, designed for one of his children.

The prime minister is now under pressure to fast-track the official inquiry into how Covid was handled, to provide proper answers to all those affected.

It came as:

-English schoolchildren had to wear masks because ministers did not want a row with Nicola Sturgeon, reports suggested

-Messages show a health minister said there was no “robust rationale” for including children in the controversial ‘rule of six’ but it remained in place anyway

-Boris Johnson was privately dismissive of his govermment’s own shielding policy, according to the leak

-George Osborne warned Mr Hancock: “No one thinks testing is going well Matt.”

-The Telegraph, which obtained the leak, maintains that the texts were published in full. Sources said they were “baffled” by the suggestion that the messages were doctored.

Former Tory health secretary Stephen Dorrell said the inquiry into how Covid was handled should now be fast-tracked. He said: “The big question for Rishi Sunak is, do we need to speed the process up? And the answer is, yes we do. The government has it in its power to fast track it, if it means changing the terms of reference.”

He also accused former prime minister Boris Johnson of a “political choice” to delay the inquiry so “the conclusion lands on the other side of an election”.

“If we don’t want everything dragged out though messages, item by item, the public inquiry is the proper place for ministers to explain their actions,” he said.

Tory MP Peter Bone also suggested the inquiry should “report earlier”.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer also asked Mr Sunak to provide the inquiry with the resources that would allow it to report by the end of the year as he blasted the “ghoulish spectacle” of Tory ministers parading themselves as Covid heroes.

The government insists the inquiry is independent and it has no say on its timeline. However, a probe into former cabinet minister Nadhim Zahawi was completed soon after Tory MPs urged the prime minister to fast-track it.

Labour also hit out at the government and said No 10 was “more than capable of answering questions now” about the Rees-Mogg test.

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman refused to be drawn on specific claims made in the wake of the leak, saying: “On all these issues clearly there is significant public interest, that’s why we have established an independent public inquiry that will look to establish the facts.

“It’s not for me to look at individual claims put out.”

Downing Street also insisted that leaks were taken “very seriously” but declined to open an inquiry into Matt Hancock’s messages, suggesting it was a matter for the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

No 10 also said that discussing government policy over WhatsApp was “part and parcel of modern government” but added that the “requirement is that substantive decisions are communicated to the Cabinet Office”.

But Labour said that “to hide behind the inquiry at this stage seems bizarre” adding “the government is more than capable of answering those questions now”.

In September 2020, during a severe backlog in testing, messages suggest an adviser to Mr Hancock helped get a test sent to Mr Rees-Mogg’s address.

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”.

That same month there was a backlog of 185,000 Covid tests waiting to be processed across the UK. The rules in place at the time also meant people had to isolate until they received a negative test.

Only a few days before the test was couriered to Mr Rees-Mogg, Sarah Marsh, director of testing at NHS Test and Trace, had issued her “heartfelt apologies to anyone who cannot get a Covid test at present” .

Liberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper said the claims were “yet more evidence that it’s one rule for Conservative ministers and another for everyone else”.

Mr Hancock has strenuously denied the claims over care homes.

Mr Hancock’s spokesman said a report claiming he rejected clinical advice on care home testing was “flat wrong” because he was told it was “not currently possible” to carry out the tests.

He added: “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.”

Last night a spokesman for the ICO said: “At this stage we do not see this as a matter for the ICO but there are questions around the conditions on which departing members of government retain and subsequently use official information which need to be considered by organisations such as the Cabinet Office.

Mr Dorrell said the inquiry was about “learning lessons and it is about taking responsibility. This is about those families who lost people, who are entitled to have some answers. A public inquiry shouldn’t be a witch hunt, but ministers should be held to account for the decisions they made.”

On Mr Hancock, he added:“Matt Hancock’s defence may be right – it seems reasonable to be told by Chris Whitty everyone in care homes needs to have a test, but to have discussions with officials who say, it won’t work because we haven’t got enough tests. That’s life as a minister. There was no perfect solution available.”

“But there is a bigger question. He had talked [in May 2020] about a protective ring around care homes. We need to know why he was saying that, when people on the ground were saying that were people discharged from hospitals into care homes without tests.”

A source close to Boris Johnson said the claims about the timing of the inquiry were “completely untrue”. “Boris Johnson did not determine the precise timing of the Covid inquiry and in any case the matter is not political. There was a substantial government process to establish the inquiry.”