Rishi Sunak has defended the official coronavirus inquiry as the ‘right way’ to scrutinise the handling of the pandemic after the extraordinary leak of Matt Hancock’s messages.
The Prime Minister urged people not to focus on ‘piecemeal bits of information’ after a trove of more than 100,000 WhatsApps linked to Mr Hancock’s time as health secretary were handed to the Daily Telegraph.
Mr Hancock has denied the claims against him and is reportedly considering legal action after the leak by journalist Isabel Oakeshott, who was given access to the files while co-writing the Tory former minister’s Pandemic Diaries memoir.
Among the allegations levelled at Mr Hancock include claims he failed to follow the advice of England’s Chief Medical Officer Sir Chris Whitty in April 2020, who suggested there should be testing for ‘all going into care homes’.
Mr Hancock described it at the time as ‘obviously a good, positive step’.
But the newspaper reported that the exchanges, from April 14 2020, suggested Mr Hancock ultimately rejected the guidance, telling an aide the move just ‘muddies the waters’, and introduced mandatory testing only for those coming from hospitals rather than the community.
Mr Hancock’s spokesman said claims 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.
Downing Street has insisted leaks are taken ‘seriously’ and said it was for the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) to investigate data protection issues.
At Prime Minister’s Questions, Sir Keir Starmer called for Mr Sunak to ensure the inquiry had all the support it needed ‘to report by the end of this year’.
The Labour leader added: ‘Families across the country will look at this, and the sight of politicians writing books portraying them as heroes will be an insulting and ghoulish spectacle for them.’
Mr Sunak responded: ‘Rather than comment on piecemeal bits of information, I’m sure the honourable gentleman will agree with me that the right way for these things to be looked at is the Covid inquiry.
‘There is a proper process to these things, it is an independent inquiry, it has the resources it needs, it has the powers it needs, and what we should do in this House is to let them get on and do their job.’
Health minister Helen Whately criticised the ‘very selective information’ that has been published, adding that ‘selective snippets of WhatsApp conversations give a limited and at times misleading insight’.
The Telegraph has also promised to reveal more revelations in the coming days and says it has messages from Mr Sunak as well as then-prime minister Boris Johnson.
A spokesman for Mr Hancock 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.
‘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 possible to mandate everyone going into care homes get tested.
‘He went as far as was possible, as fast as possible, to expand testing and save lives.’
Other suggestions in the Telegraph’s files are that in September 2020, during a severe backlog in testing, an adviser to Mr Hancock helped get a test sent to senior Conservative Jacob 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.’
Mr Hancock is reportedly ‘considering all options’ including a possible injunction to block further disclosures and action against Ms Oakeshott, who allies said was subject to a non-disclosure agreement (NDA).
Downing Street suggested a leak inquiry was not required because the source had been publicly identified.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: ‘Leaks regarding data protection issues are a matter for the information commissioner.
‘We take leaks seriously, we don’t comment on them.’
He said there is ‘significant public interest’ in the claims but it would not be right for the Government to ‘impose timelines’ on the Covid inquiry being carried out by Baroness Hallett.
The inquiry chair insisted it ‘will not drag on for decades’ and ‘there will be no whitewash’ at the start of Wednesday’s proceedings.
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