01 December 2023 , 15:54
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Matt Hancock has endured a two-day grilling at the Covid Inquiry where he faced questions on deaths in care homes and the crucial decisions to impose lockdowns.
Quizzed under oath the former Health Secretary admitted his infamous claim to have thrown a "protective ring" around care homes was wrong and insisted he pushed for an early lockdown.
He also claimed that "many, many lives" would have been saved if Boris Johnson had ordered the first nationwide lockdown at the beginning of March 2020.
His rule-breaking affair with his former aide, which led to his resignation, also came under the spotlight as he admitted it had a damaging impact on public confidence during the crisis.
Here The Mirror looks at some of the key moments from the former Health Secretary's two-day appearance.
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First Covid lockdown was three weeks too late
"Many, many" lives were lost as the UK went into lockdown three weeks later than it should have, Mr Hancock admitted. He said he was told the massive death toll was a "reasonable worst case scenario" on February 27, 2020. But the first national lockdown was not introduced until several weeks later, on March 23.
Mr Hancock said: "With hindsight - Italy having locked down initially, locally in Lombardy on January 21, and then nationally locked down around also February 28... If that moment, we'd realised that it was definitely coming and the reasonable worst case scenario was as awful as it was, that is the moment we should have acted.
"And we had the doctrine I proposed, which is as soon as you know you have got to lock down, you lock down as soon as possible, then we would have got the lockdown done over that weekend on March 2 - three weeks earlier than before."
Boris Johnson faced 'enormous pressure' from Rishi Sunak
As the debate raged over whether to lockdown the country for a second time in the autumn of 2022 Mr Hancock said the Rishi Sunak would have put "enormous pressure" on the former PM Boris Johnson.
A WhatsApp exchange from October 2020 between Mr Hancock and Cabinet Secretary Simon Case showed how Mr Hancock was pressing for information from a meeting on October 30 that he claims he was "blocked" from attending.
It suggested Mr Sunak was in favour of tighter controls when it came to schools, rather than the closure of all shops. 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 nonessential 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)."
Care home 'protective ring' claim boast was wrong
The infamous claim from Mr Hancock that a "protective ring" was thrown around care homes came under the spotlight during the two-day hearing. Hugo Keith KC said the phrase had suggested “an impermeable barrier” in the care sector.
He quoted England’s former deputy chief medical officer, Professor Sir Jonathan Van-Tam, who had told the inquiry: “My view is a ring is a circle without a break in it.” 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.”
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On the second day of the hearing Mr Hancock was also told he was warned in April 2020 about the need for a "focused effort" on testing people in care homes. There were nearly 27,000 excess deaths in care homes in England and Wales during this time compared to the 2015-19 average.
Impact of rule-busting affair with aide
Mr Hancock admitted his rule-busting affair with his former aide Gina Coladangelo had a damaging impact on public confidence during the Covid crisis.
The former Health Secretary faced an excruciating grilling as he appeared at the Covid Inquiry today. He was forced to quit in June 2021 after he was caught breaching social distancing guidance by kissing his colleague in his government office.
Mr Hancock stayed in his job when CCTV footage first emerged, but stood down three days later amid public fury. Lead counsel Hugo Keith KC told him: “I'm sure you acknowledge the incredible offence and upset that was caused by that revelation.” Mr Hancock said: “What I'd say is that the lesson for the future is very clear. It is important that those who make the rules abide by them and I resigned in order to take accountability for my failure to do that.”
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".
'Creative counting' on Covid tests
The UK's top senior civil servant congratulated Hancock on using "creative counting" to claim he'd met his 100,000-a-day Covid test target.
The then-Health Secretary pledged to achieve the goal by the end of April 2020. At a Downing Street press conference, Hancock boasted the target had been met with 122,000 tests on April 30. But it emerged the figure included 40,000 tests that were sent out but had not been used or processed. The total number of tests processed in a day did not reach 100,000 until June 2020.
Lord Sedwill, who was the Cabinet Secretary at the time, sent Hancock a WhatsApp on May 1 to congratulate him. He wrote: "Hi Matt. Well done this evening. Creative counting and 122k!" Hancock was yesterday asked if he accepted or rejected the creative counting suggestion. He replied: "I reject it, and on every different way you could possibly count these measures, we hit that target."
Dominic Cummings accused of creating 'culture of fear'
Dominic Cummings was accused of being a "malign actor" who created a "culture of fear". Mr Hancock said the former No10 official sought to exert influence over decision making in a way that was "inappropriate in a democracy" as Covid spread.
The former Health Secretary also accused Mr Cummings of bypassing emergency COBRA meetings and instead taking major decisions into his office. He added: "He invited a subset of the people who needed to be there to these meetings.
"He didn't regard ministers as a valuable contribution to decision making as far as I could see in the crisis or, indeed, any other time." Mr Hancock said the "toxic culture" in government was "essentially caused by the chief adviser [Cummings]" and the impact was that "others were brought into it".
Concerns PM and Hancock were trying to 'rewrite history'
Chris Whitty and Chief Scientific Adviser Sir Patrick Vallance raised concerns that Boris Johnson and Hancock were trying to rewrite history. In a WhatsApp exchange on July 24, 2020, Sir Patrick asked: "Why are PM and Matt Hancock saying we didn't know about asymptomatic transmission?"
Sir Chris wrote: "I have no idea. We did not know how important they were, that is correct. But we were aware of the possibility." Sir Patrick replied: "I think [by March] we were pretty clear that we thought there was asymptomatic transmission." "Yes," Sir Chris added. "We will have to put up with quite a bit of this. "Just as well SAGE minutes are [in the] public domain."
UK sick pay 'far, far too low'
Sick pay in the UK is "far, far too low", the former Health Secretary told the Covid Inquiry as he praised the Trades Union Congress's work on the issue. During the crisis Mr Hancock had admitted on BBC Question Time he could not live on the payment - which stood at just £94-per-week at the time.
Speaking at the Inquiry, Mr Hancock said sick pay is "far lower than the European average" and people go to work when they should be recovering. He added: "Having higher sick pay would encourage employers to do more to look after the health of their employees." The TUC has previously warned the lack of decent sick pay left millions "brutally exposed" as the virus spread across the country.
Mr Hancock claimed to the Inquiry he had been campaigning in government behind the scenes to "significantly increase sick pay". He said he would "double" the £109-per-week payment if he had a "magic wand". After his comments on Friday, the TUC Assistant General Secretary Kate Bell said: “Matt Hancock has let the cat out of the bag. During the pandemic, every minister knew our sick pay system was broken but they chose to sit on their hands and do nothing."
Boast UK had 'full pandemic plans'
Matt Hancock insisted the Government had "full plans" to deal with a pandemic in a WhatsApp message to Dominic Cummings in January 2020.
He said: "We have full plans up to & including pandemic levels, regularly prepped and refreshed. "The CMO [Chief Medical Officer] is an epidemiologist by background. ESCAPE Wuhan "It is in our top tier risk register - and we had an SR [spending review] bid even before this."
In response, Cummings wrote: "Great. Am reading about CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] and preps for flu pandemic. V worrying." Hancock added: "Yes. We are about to evacuate British nationals from Wuhan. They say vaccine for WnCoV is at least a year away - I am pushing them very hard on that."
Backslapping messages with Boris Johnson
WhatsApp messages reveal backslapping exchanges between Boris Johnson and Hancock despite the rapid spread of the virus. On March 7, 2020, the PM wrote: "You are doing great, keep going. Anything I can do to help?" Mr Hancock replied: "Kind of you to say. It's not easy. You are doing great too. Follow the science!
"There's one thing I think we should do more on when the moment is right: that this is a national effort. Everyone can do their bit. It starts with hand washing but there will be more: helping old folks if they have to stay at home...
"It's a great unifying clarion call for you to lead when the time is right." The PM messaged back: "OK let's talk Mon. Am off to rugby." "Excellent. Enjoy," Hancock replied. The PM and his then fiancee Carrie, inset, went to the England v Wales match at Twickenham that day, even though there had been two UK Covid deaths by then.