Covid Inquiry recap: Love rat Matt Hancock admits affair damaged public trust

Date set for Boris Johnson's Covid Inquiry reckoning

Boris Johnson will be questioned under oath over his time in No10 as he’s hauled before the Covid Inquiry next week.

The former PM will give evidence across two days on Wednesday and Thursday, before Rishi Sunak appears the following week. Mr Johnson will face difficult questions, including over claims he said he would rather “let the bodies pile high” than impose another lockdown.

He previously denied to Parliament that he had made the remark, but his former chief-of-staff Lord Lister told the Inquiry earlier this month that he heard Mr Johnson say it during a meeting in September 2020.

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Matt Hancock's evidence session closes

The former Health Secretary Matt Hancock has now finished his two-day grilling at the Covid Inquiry.

Inquiry chairwoman Baroness Heather Hallett confirms that the former Tory PM Boris Johnson will be the next witness.

Dancing On Ice fans left baffled as shameless Matt Hancock turns up in audience

He will give evidence to the probe from 10am on Wednesday.

Sick pay in UK is 'far,far too low', Matt Hancock admits

Matt Hancock tells the Covid Inquiry sick pay in this country is "far, far too low".

"It's far lower than the European average - it encourages people to go to work when they should be getting better.

"Having higher sick pay would encourage employers to do more to look after the health of their employees."

He claims before the pandemic he was on an internal government campaign to significantly increase sick pay.

"I'd double it if I had a magic wand," he says.

Hancock says Nicola Sturgeon's communication with public was 'unhelpful'

Matt Hancock criticised the former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon in WhatsApp messages shown to the covid Inquiry in July 2020.

Mr Hancock was told No 10 wanted to communicate the issue around travel from Spain and quarantine "ASAP".

He replied: "Me too. It will leak anyway - and the Scots will try to get their announcement out first."

Asked by a representative of the Scottish covid bereaved today: "What is the issue with the First Minister communicating that to the people of Scotland first?"

Mr Hancock said: "There were a number of moments when the first minister of Scotland would communicate in a way that was unhelpful and confusing to the public.

"And sometimes, (she) would leave a meeting and begin communication of a decision, for instance, sooner than agreed."

He added: "We found it much more difficult when decisions went up to first minister level, particularly with Nicola Sturgeon.

"Because we would find that sometimes some kind of spin was put on what was essentially substantively the same decision. So it was a frustration, I've got to be honest about that."

Hancock was questioned by another minister on 'rule of six'

Messages between Mr Hancock and another minister Helen Whately - then responsible for social care - show he was told there no "robust rationale" for children under 12 being in the 'rule of six'.

In October 2020 she said: "It would make such a difference for families and there isn't robust rationale for it. Now is a really good chance to show we have listened".

But Mr Hancock said in reply No10 "don't want to go there on this".

Hancock feared Johnson would be under 'enormous pressure' from Sunak

Matt Hancock feared Boris Johnson would be under "enormous pressure" from then chancellor Rishi Sunak to "not do enough" Covid spreading in autumn 2020.

In a WhatsApp exchangebetween the former health secretary and Simon Case, Mr Hancock was pressing for information from a meeting on October 30 that he claims he had been "blocked" from attending.

Mr Hancock wrote: "When then? Rishi is in the room - contrary to the stupid rules - so the PM will be under enormous pressure to not do enough once again."

Mr Case replied: "I don't know what is happening in the room - I am 90 miles away.

"Rishi has already resigned himself to the choice ahead - I spoke to him earlier. He is relatively open on regional or national (not least because regional is so wide that impact is pretty similar to national now).

"His only question (and a fair one) is about non-essential retail - where obviously we have no evidence of transmission. He thinks better to do something in secondary schools (where we know transmission takes place) instead of closing all shops (where we know it doesn't seem to)."

Matt Hancock grilled by bereaved families' lawyer

During the crisis the former Health Secretary claimed to have put a "protective ring around care homes" - despite many deaths after people left hospital to return to care homes without being tested.

The families' lawyer shows a Public Health England (PHE) document from February warning against the risk of discharging people into care homes.

Mr Hancock says he "wasn't aware" of the document at the time.

Matt Hancock questioned on his rule breaking affair

Matt Hancock says it's "important those who make the rules abide by them".

It's the reason, he says, he resigned from the Government in June 2021 despite initially trying to cling on despite his rule-breaking.

He was forced to quit as Health Secretary when he was caught breaching social distancing rules after a CCTV grab showed him kissing his colleague Gina Coladangelo in his office.

Lead Inquiry lawyer Hugo Keith KC says: “I'm sure you acknowledge the incredible offence and upset that was caused by that revelation. “

In response, Mr Hancock says: "I resigned in order to take accountability for my failure to do that [abide by the rules]".

Mr Keith said the resignation "must have been a reflection of the fact that you understood the importance of, or the deleterious consequences of, rule-breaking or guidance-breaking on public confidence in the public at large".

Mr Hancock replied: "Yes."

Matt Hancock was in 'despair' over tiered system

In his witness statement Mr Hancock said he was in "despair" the government had announced a tiered system that "wouldn't work".

Andy Burnham - the Mayor of Greater Manchester - mentioned this in his own evidence on Monday as he hit out leaders for the chaotic delivery of the policy.

Mr Hancock tells the Inquiry local leadership "largely demonstrated they were under signficant political pressure not to accept" restrictions.

Others were "not constructive", he says, and "actively unhelpful".

Matt Hancock also wrongly appears to suggest the former Mayor of Liverpool Joe Anderson has passed away, saying he's "unfortunately no longer with us".

Matt Hancock says tough third Covid lockdown could have been avoided

WhatsApp messages from October 2020 shown by the Covid Inquiry show Mr Hancock told Simon Case - the Cabinet Secretary - the country would be a national lockdown within 2 weeks without action to stop the spread of Covid.

Mr Hancock said the tiered proposal - agreed in September - still wasn't in place, with the top tier "not strong enough"

"We needed to act now," Mr Hancock says. "If we don't lockdown there will be more deaths and we will have to have a tougher lockdown in the future."

The tough third lockdown - which involved the closing of schools - could have been avoided, he says.

Matt Hancock arrives for day two of his interrogation

Ex-Health Secretary Matt Hancock has arrived at the Covid Inquiry in West London where he will shortly begin his second day of evidence.

(Tayfun Salci/ZUMA Press Wire/REX/Shutterstock)

7 explosive WhatsApps back to haunt Matt Hancock

The Covid Inquiry has been shown WhatsApps, including exchanges between Sir Chris Whitty and Sir Patrick Vallance accusing Matt Hancock and Boris Johnson of rewriting history.

Other messages show how Mr Hancock boasted about how he had kept the damaging impact of Rishi Sunak's Eat Out To Help Out scheme out of the news.

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Cheating Matt Hancock said confessing to wife was 'worst conversation of life'

Matt Hanock recalled the "dread" he felt at his affair being publicly revealed and how he broke the news to his devastated wife in a book he wrote last year.

The West Suffolk MP's relationship with Gina Coladangelo, his old Oxford pal and former aide, was exposed when CCTV images emerged of the couple sharing a kiss in his offices, which breached his own social distancing guidelines.

Mr Hancock described the moment when he told his wife about the affair as the "very worst conversation of my life".

The former Health Secretary, 44, who is now back in the UK having controversially taken part in ITV's I'm A Celebrity, says he felt "terrible black dread" at the prospect of his affair with Gina being revealed, and recalled the "devastating implications of our feelings for each other".

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Matt Hancock returns after making care home admission

Matt Hancock will return to the Covid Inquiry this morning at 10am. Yesterday in his first day of evidence, he finally accepted his claim that a "protective ring" was thrown around care homes at the start of the pandemic gave the wrong impression.

The ex-Health Secretary was taken to task at the Covid Inquiry about his assertion in May 2020 that the virus-ravaged care sector had been protected at the start of the pandemic. Care home policy remains one of the most controversial issues from the Covid crisis after the virus ripped through the vulnerable population in the first wave in 2020.

There were nearly 27,000 excess deaths in care homes in England and Wales during this period compared with the 2015-19 average. Top lawyer Hugo Keith KC said the phrase suggested "an impermeable barrier" in the care sector.

He quoted England's former deputy chief medical officer, Professor Sir Jonathan Van-Tam, who said in his statement to the inquiry: "My view is a ring is a circle without a break in it." Mr Keith said: "However you describe the protective processes you put in place around the care sector, they did not form an unbroken circle, did they?"

Mr Hancock, who said he understood why people "feel strongly about this", replied: "It is quite clear from the evidence that Professor Van-Tam is right." He said he had been trying to sum up the action taken to help the sector, including PPE and infection control guidance.

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