Hancock disputes `distorted´ leak over care home testing

01/03/2023

Covid families and critics accuse Matt Hancock of ‘criminal negligence’: Fury as WhatsApps ‘show he ignored Chris Whitty’s care home Covid testing advice before 43k died’ – but ex-Health Secretary insists there ‘just weren’t enough tests’

Messages were leaked by the journalist who worked on his Pandemic Diaries
Whitty said in April 2020 there should be testing for ‘all going into care homes’
Hancock claims he was told it ‘wasn’t deliverable’, and had to prioritise instead

Matt Hancock was today accused of ‘criminal negligence’ and lying about the Covid testing shambles in care homes during the earliest days of the pandemic.

Bombshell WhatsApp messages unearthed last night reveal the disgraced ex-Health Secretary rejected advice from Sir Chris Whitty, No10’s top medical adviser.

Sir Chris told Mr Hancock — who resigned from his role midway through the virus crisis after being caught having an affair — insisted there should be testing for ‘all going into care homes’.

But Mr Hancock did not follow the guidance, instead telling advisers it ‘muddies the waters’, according to leaked messages obtained by The Telegraph.

Mr Hancock today branded the claims ‘flat wrong’, with a spokesman arguing he was told during a crunch meeting that it was ‘not currently possible’ to carry out the tests at the time due to capacity issues.

Grieving relatives of Covid victims in care homes tore into the damning revelation, with one telling how she was ‘appalled’ and ‘sickened’ but ‘not surprised at all’. One campaign group said they would back ‘an immediate police investigation into criminal negligence and misconduct in public office’.

Meanwhile, social media users — including Piers Morgan and other critics of No10’s handling of the outbreak — accused him of ‘criminal negligence’.

Labour and Lib Dem MPs rounded on Mr Hancock’s claim that he put a ‘protective ring’ around the sector at the height of the pandemic, calling it a ‘sham’.

Sir Chris Whitty (left) told then health secretary Matt Hancock (right) there should be testing for ‘all going into care homes’ but this guidance was rejected, leaked messages reveal

The Telegraph’s investigation claims chief medical officer Professor Sir Chris Whitty told the then-health secretary in April 2020 there should be testing for ‘all going into care homes’

A crisis in testing and PPE turned care homes into ‘warzones’ in late March 2020, as the nation was plunged into lockdown. Pictured, a woman visiting her grandmother in isolation during the pandemic

CARE HOME DEATHS: Data from the Office for National Statistics shows there were more than 40,000 fatalities in care homes that involved Covid in the first two years of the pandemic. Nearly 18,000 of these occurred between mid-April and mid-August, before guidance was published stating that all of those going into homes from the community should be tested

Official stats show more than 43,000 care home residents died from the virus during the first two years of the unprecedented crisis.

Mr Hancock oversaw the hugely contentious policy that allowed untested hospital patients to be discharged into care homes at the height of the first wave — seen as the defining factor behind the huge death toll in the sector.

Jean Adamson, whose father died in a care home in April 2020, told Good Morning Britain: ‘I am appalled, quite frankly. Sickened. But I am not surprised. I am not surprised at all.

Ms Adamson, one of the founding members of Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice, said: ‘This just provides further evidence, confirms what we suspected and feared all along — that the then Health Secretary Matt Hancock lies his way through.

‘He was more focused on meeting his targets at the time, rather than the welfare of our most vulnerable members of society.

‘And as a result of his decisions, his inaction, tens of thousands of elderly people died in care homes.

Matt Hancock was warned it was ‘inhumane’ to impose restrictions on visiting care homes and elderly were at risk of ‘just giving up’ due to being isolated for so long, leaked messages show

The messages show Health Secretary Matt Hancock advised against any sudden changes to the visiting rules, as the government sought to improve its monthly targets

‘So I just feel absolutely sickened and disgusted by these revelations.’

She added: ‘We have always been seeking the truth and so desperate for lessons to be learned to prevent further loss of life and that’s what we’ve always been focused on.

‘However, whilst these untruths are being peddled, we can’t even hope to learn lessons because there has been this lack of transparency from the very outset.

‘My father, among tens of thousands of other care home residents, were lambs to the slaughter.

‘And Matt Hancock has really treated us with contempt. He had this foray into the Jungle, bleating on about forgiveness and wanting to make things right.

‘But this man is yet to actually show a heartfelt apology.

‘It’s all about him and his image that he’s trying to rehabilitate. But he’s shown no compassion and treated us with the utmost disrespect.’

In response to the leaked messages, Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting said: ‘The claim that the Government threw a “protective ring” around care homes during Covid has proven to be a sham.

‘They ignored the Chief Medical Officer and people died.

‘How many lives could have been saved?’

Labour has been granted an urgent question in the Commons over care home testing, party whips said.

Liberal Democrat Health and Social Care Spokesperson Daisy Cooper said: ‘These messages lay bare the chaos at the heart of the Government during the pandemic, and the mistakes that led to countless lives being needlessly lost.

‘Matt Hancock’s claims to have thrown a protective ring around our care homes could not be further from the truth.

‘It’s almost a year ago that a court ruled that the government unlawfully discharged people from hospitals into care homes without testing.

‘But bereaved families are still no closer to having justice and the truth. They deserve answers through the official Covid inquiry, so we can learn lessons and save lives.’

Pointing to the Telegraph investigation, which will run for days, Piers Morgan said: ‘So Hancock blatantly lied, as I’ve always believed.

‘He didn’t put a ring around care homes like he claimed, he ignored expert advice and turned them into death traps. This is criminal negligence.’

The Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group said: ‘We’d back an immediate police investigation into criminal negligence and misconduct in public office.

‘If there’s enough evidence, he needs to face charges.’

MailOnline has not seen the full WhatsApp exchanges, leaked to The Telegraph, so cannot confirm the context.

But the messages suggest Mr Hancock rejected guidance from Sir Chris, telling an aide it just ‘muddies the waters’ if all care home admissions are tested for Covid, and introduced mandatory testing only for those coming from hospitals.

Mr Hancock expressed concerns that expanding care home testing could ‘get in the way’ of his own target of 100,000 daily coronavirus tests by the end of April 2020, which he was desperate to hit, the investigation said.

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.

In one message on April 14, 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’

Discussing Mr Hancock’s messages on Good Morning Britain, Jean Adamson (pictured), whose father died in a care home in April 2020, said: ‘I am appalled, quite frankly. Sickened. But I am not surprised. I am not surprised at all’

Isabel 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 on April 14, 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.’

Official guidance, which was published on April 15, set out that all those discharged from hospitals into care homes would be tested — but the Government would ‘move to’ testing those going into care from the community.

However, it was not until August 14 that the document was updated to require care home admissions from the community to be tested.

In the first two years of the pandemic, care homes in England logged 43,256 deaths involving Covid. Nearly 18,000 of these were logged between mid-April and mid-August — before homes were instructed to test all new admissions.

Mr Hancock told the Health and Social Care Committee in June 2021 that ‘sadly the biggest route of Covid into care homes is through the community’.

And in his pandemic diaries, serialised by the Daily Mail in December, Hancock claimed hospital discharges were not to blame, and instead pointed the finger at infections being ‘brought in from the wider community, mainly by staff’.

A spokesman for Mr Hancock said the former health secretary is ‘considering all options’ in response to the leak, with a source close to him saying: ‘She’s broken a legal NDA (non-disclosure agreement). Her behaviour is outrageous.’

The spokesman said: ‘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.’

Mr Hancock last night delivered a speech at The NFT Gallery in Mayfair, London, during a fundraising event for CARE International UK’s humanitarian appeal for Ukraine

Matt Hancock and Boris Johnson, then Health Secretary and Prime Minister, pictured during a visit to Bassetlaw District General Hospital on November 22, 2019

The leaked texts also include exchanges between the former Health Secretary and then Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who revealed he was going ‘quietly crackers’ about the UK’s shortage of test kits

The Government introduced mandatory testing for people going into care homes from hospital, but not from the community (Pictured: Boris Johnson holds a coronavirus meeting on February 28, 2020, attended by Sir Chris Whitty, second from right, and Matt Hancock, right)

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.

Jacob Rees-Mogg ‘had a Covid test for one of his children couriered to his home amid a shortage’, according to leaked messages

Mr Rees-Mogg had the test organised by then Health Secretary Matt Hancock’s special advisor, just two days after the director of NHS Test and Trace was forced to give ‘heartfelt apologies’ to anyone who couldn’t get a test due to shortages, according to leaked messages

‘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.’

Declining to comment directly on the leaks, a Government spokesman said: ‘We have always said there are lessons to be learnt from the pandemic.

‘We are committed to learning from the Covid inquiry’s findings, which will play a key role in informing the Government’s planning and preparations for the future.’

Pat McFadden, Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, told Sky News: ‘We were told at the time that the Government was putting a protective ring around care homes.’

He added: ‘The stories this morning suggest that protective ring wasn’t there — that people were being allowed to go into care homes that could have been positive, contrary to the advice of the Chief Medical Officer at the time.

‘What we’ve got to do is get to the bottom of it, get to the truth of it.

‘Because if that did happen, it looks like a pretty major breach early on in an area where we knew elderly people were vulnerable.’

Justin Madders, Shadow Minister for Employment Rights, pointed to Mr Hancock’s exclamation of ‘I WANT TO HIT MY TARGET’ of 100,000 tests per day — in a message to George Osborne in April 2020.

He said: ‘This confirms what we suspected at the time that he wanted a good headline, ignoring professional advice, ignoring what was happening in care homes, it was all about him.’

Professor Karol Sikora, a world-renowned oncologist, tweeted that ‘these revelations should surprise nobody’.

‘Policies more about Hancock’s PR than reducing all-cause mortality,’ he said.

TalkTV presenter Julia Hartley-Brewer said the messages show that decisions weren’t made based on following the science, but instead based on ‘politicians’ ego, on their careers and reputations’ and even their ‘likes on Twitter’.

Carol Vorderman said the investigation ‘makes for shocking reading’.

‘The many thousands of care home deaths which might easily have been prevented, the school closures, face masks, the casual nature of it all,’ she said.

The WhatsApp leaks also lay bare divisions between Mr Hancock and social care minister Helen Whately, who said she was concerned about the Government’s policy of discharging NHS patients into care homes to free up capacity.

She also urged action on PPE supplies to social care which were ‘all over the place’ in April, with problems continuing into May.

Ms Whately also warned Mr Hancock in June 2020 that nearly 100 care homes were refusing to test their staff for the virus over concerns they would need time off work.

The WhatsApp leaks also lay bare divisions between Mr Hancock and social care minister Helen Whately (pictured today), who said she was concerned about the Government’s policy of discharging NHS patients into care homes to free up capacity

Reports also claimed that Mr Hancock’s adviser arranged for a personal test to be couriered for fellow top Tory Jacob Rees-Mogg’s child 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 George Osborne to ‘call in a favour’.

The investigation also revealed that senior Conservative Jacob Rees-Mogg had a Covid test couriered to his home during a testing shortage.

In September 2020, an aide messaged Mr Hancock to say the lab had ‘lost’ a 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.’

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 George Osborne, who was editor of the Evening Standard from 2017 to 2020, 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!’

Mr Hancock later clashed with Mr Osborne, when in November 2020 the former Chancellor urged the Government to make testing its ‘absolute number one priority’.

In a text following the interview, Mr Hancock questioned the comments and said ‘mass testing is going v well’.

But Mr Osborne said: ‘No one thinks testing is going well, Matt.

‘If I wanted a test today I can’t get one, unless I fake symptoms – and [name redacted by The Telegraph] is still waiting test results from 3 weeks ago ([name redacted by The Telegraph] went private in the end).

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