Covid inquiry live: Matt Hancock mocked by barrister Hugo Keith over ‘phone records’ as he denies liar claims

Matt Hancock has been mocked by Covid inquiry lead counsel Hugo Keith KC for having a “little notebook” to refer to, after the ex-health secretary said he had used a break to uncover new evidence of a phone call between himself and Boris Johnson.

The MP claimed his phone call with Mr Johnson on 28 February 2020 was the moment government “really started to come into action”, and claimed that had his own “doctrine” been followed, the first lockdown would have come three weeks earlier – saving 90 per cent of those who died in the first wave.

But Dominic Cummings claimed Matt Hancock was “flat out lying” to the Covid inquiry by claiming he pressed the prime minister for a lockdown on 13 March, and claimed to have “physically stopped” Mr Hancock coming to a meeting the following day because he “was bull****ting everybody about herd immunity”.

In an escalating war of words, Mr Hancock claimed to the inqury that Mr Cummings was a “malign influence” who created a toxic “culture of fear”.

Key Points

• Matt Hancock claims first lockdown should have happened three weeks earlier

• Dominic Cummings accuses Hancock of ‘flat out lying’ over lockdown claims

• Ex-health secretary blames Cummings for ‘toxic culture’ in government

• Hancock denies that he lied to colleagues about having a plan for pandemic

• What have other officials told the inquiry about Hancock?

• Inquiry’s lead counsel Hugo Keith KC mocks Hancock over ‘little notebook’

Hancock says he wasn’t told about Eat Out to Help Out scheme

Thursday 30 November 2023 17:54 , Andy Gregory

Matt Hancock has said he was not told in advance about Rishi Sunak’s Eat Out to Help Out scheme – echoing the host of top government scientists and medics who also told the inquiry last week of being blindsided by it.

Asked whether he knew in advance about it, the ex-health secretary said: “No. Not ahead of its announcement on the 8th of July. In fact cases were still falling at that point … I didn’t know about the Eat Out to Help Out scheme until the Cabinet meeting on the morning of its announcement.

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“And it was one of a package of loosenings. We were doing a number of things to bring back a bit of freedom over the summer.”

Mr Hancock said he didn’t know when asked what view he would have offered on the scheme as health secretary, to which Hugo Keith said: “Well, Mr Hancock. You’ve told the inquiry that there is in this debate between caution and allowing release – and it’s a difficult debate – a public health view, which you as the secretary of state are plainly on the side of caution, because that’s your job.”

The MP replied: “What mattered in the opening then was that there wasn’t overall too much. And in the end there was overall too much. Which individual items of opening you did or didn’t do is second order compared to the overall amount of openings.”

Hancock: No 10 told me not to say restrictions would be needed until vaccine arrived

Thursday 30 November 2023 17:25 , Andy Gregory

Matt Hancock has said he was told by No 10 in summer 2020 not to say that Covid restrictions would be needed until the arrival of a vaccine – by which point he claims he was “confident” that a vaccine would work.

Asked to what extent his concerns about easing lockdown measures too soon in summer 2020 were heard and reflected in the government’s actions, he said: “They were heard, and they were reflected I guess in as much as there might have been more opening had I not made these arguments.

“My entire strategy at this point was to try to keep R below 1. I was completely alongside Chris Whitty at this point on this strategy, which was: summer is the best time to release, if R goes a bit above 1 over the summer, not the end of the world so long as cases are very low, but then we’ll have to take action in the early autumn to get it down again’.

“But the criticial thing is to keep it under control. And in this period I articulated what I regarded as the government’s strategy, which was: ‘we suppress the virus until a vaccine can make us safe’.”

He claimed that, “after articulating that strategy a few times”, he “then got asked by No 10 not to say it because we didn’t know we’d get a vaccine. But I was confident by this point that we would get one – and anyway I couldn’t see any other way through this without far too many deaths.”

Hancock ‘concerned’ UK’s testing system would struggle to be revived if needed

Thursday 30 November 2023 17:06 , Andy Gregory

Matt Hancock has said that he was “concerned” that testing capabilities set up during the pandemic would struggle to be stood up again if needed.

Calling for the UK to spend more on health security, the ex-health secretary said: “That is what I’m concerned about.”

“For instance, recently one of the major labs was put on the market. I think it will be that better if it were mothballed and ready to go at the flick of a switch.”

Hancock criticises ‘spectacular imbalance’ in UK defence and health security spending

Thursday 30 November 2023 16:52 , Andy Gregory

Matt Hancock said that there is “spectacular imbalance” in spending on health security and physical defence in the UK.

“We spend £50bn a year on physical defence and we spend less than half a billion pounds a year on UKHSA,” he said.

“We spend less than 1 per cent of our total budget for defence on health security, yet health security failings have killed more civilians than any other external threat since the Second World War and maybe even further back than that.

“And I think this is a spectacular imbalance in the amount of resources that we put into defence of this country against, say a terror threat, compared to a health threat.

“I’ve got one particular axe to grind … the head of UKHSA should be on the National Security Council all of the time, not just brought in when there’s a health issue on the agenda because health security threats have been demonstrated to be the biggest threat to the civilian population of this country.”

Cummings accuses Hancock of ‘lie after lie’

Thursday 30 November 2023 16:49 , Andy Gregory

Dominic Cummings has accused Matt Hancock of telling “lie after lie after lie” at the inquiry, as he rejected the ex-health secretary’s claim that a plan not to suppress the virus was used for just “a few days”.

Boris Johnson’s former political aide alleges that this was the plan for months until mid-March.

Hancock told that ‘in no universe’ did he ‘lock down’ care homes prior to nationwide shutdown

Thursday 30 November 2023 16:35 , Andy Gregory

Matt Hancock has been shown WhatsApp messages from his media adviser Jamie Nkoju-Goodwin warning him that “we might have some issues with you telling the PM we ‘locked down’ care homes before the rest of the country”.

That assertion was based on a paragraph in guidance issued to care homes on 13 March, advising them to review their visiting policies ask no one to visit who is feeling unwell, to “emphasise good hygiene for visitors” and to keep the use of onsite contractors “to a minimum”.

That review should “also consider the wellbeing of residents, and the positive impact of seeing friends and family”, the guidance said.

Asked by the inquiry’s lead counsel Hugo Keith KC to explain how he would argue that he did not say anything misleading to Boris Johnson, Mr Hancock said: “It depends on whether you define the actions that were taken in the publication on the 13th of March, that guidance, as locked down or not.”

Mr Hancock added: “The critique being put at the time was that we took action to protect people in care homes later than locking down the rest of the country. And that was not true because we took action on the 13th of March.

“Whether that action was strong enough or not to call it ‘lockdown’ – for instance, it included visitor restrictions, I think – that’s the point of debate.”

Pointing to the wording of the guidance, Mr Keith said: “In no universe, Mr Hancock, could those measures possibly be described as locking down the care homes.”

Mr Hancock conceded: “I think that’s what Jamie was trying to tell me.”

‘Quite clear’ that we did not have a protective ring around care homes, Hancock says

Thursday 30 November 2023 16:13 , Archie Mitchell

Matt Hancock has admitted that the government “quite clearly” did not have a protective ring around care homes in the early days of the pandemic.

The former health secretary was presented with evidence from Jonathan Van Tam that “a ring is a circle without a break in it”.

Hugo Keith KC said: “However you describe protective processes you put in place around the care sector, they did not form an unbroken circle, did they?”

Mr Hancock said it was “quite clear” that Professor Van Tam was right.

‘We are negligently killing the most vulnerable… I am extremely worried,’ Cummings

Thursday 30 November 2023 16:12 , Archie Mitchell

Dominic Cummings told a group including Boris Johnson, Matt Hancock, the chief medical officer and the chief scientific adviser that the government was “killing the most vulnerable” and he was “extremely worried”.

Mr Hancock was asked about the May 2020 message and whether it reflected the government’s lack of tests for those being admitted into care homes and staff working in social care.

Hancock says he was ‘absolutely determined’ NHS would not be overwhelmed

Thursday 30 November 2023 16:10 , Andy Gregory

Matt Hancock has said he was “absolutely determined” that the NHS would not be overwhelmed as he said that “nobody fully knew what that looked like”.

Asked when the government believed the NHS would be overwhelmed by exponential Covid infections without the first lockdown, Mr Hancock said: “The true answer to that question is: nobody fully knew what that would look like. But we knew that it would be catastrophic.

“When making the decision [to lock down] on the 23rd, the advice was nine days in a reasonable worst-case scenario, 15 days in the central scenario. But at that point my worry was we were going up the reasonable worst-case scenario, notwithstanding the decisions we’d taken on the 16th and 20th.

“What that would look like, what that would mean, would be people going without treatment. And I was absolutely determined that that would not happen.”

He added: “Of course the NHS would have survived. It would have done its level best … but it would not have been able to provide care to everybody. And therefore the number of people who died would have gone up even more than it would have done just because of the virus.”

‘We did not have enough tests’ to test people discharged into care homes

Thursday 30 November 2023 16:03 , Archie Mitchell

Matt Hancock has said the government did not have enough tests to check whether people had Covid before discharging them from hospitals into care homes.

“We did not have enough tests,” the former health secretary said when asked whether people were still being discharged without tests after March 18, 2020.

He was then shown a document from April showing that the policy at the time was that negative tests “are not required” before transfers or admissions into care homes.

Lockdown ‘wasn’t at all politically divisive’, says Matt Hancock

Thursday 30 November 2023 16:03 , Andy Gregory

Matt Hancock said that while people have criticised the forecasting of how many people would die, in the period before the first lockdown the figures looked like they were becoming true.

Mr Hancock said lockdown had overwhelming support and “wasn’t actually politically divisive”, adding that “some people forget what actually happened, but it wasn’t divisive at all”.

He added: “There was enormous conceptual support across very large swathes of the population and almost all political leaders. And in fact, the fact that it happened in all four nations was led by five political parties, not even four political parties, at the same time demonstrates that.”

Britain’s top civil servant mocked Matt Hancock for ‘creative counting’, inquiry hears

Thursday 30 November 2023 15:59 , Archie Mitchell

The Covid inquiry has been shown a message from cabinet secretary Mark Sedwill to Matt Hancock in which he accused the health secretary of “creative counting”.

The former top civil servant was referring to Mr Hancock reaching a target by hitting 122,000 daily Covid tests.

Mr Hancock rejected the idea he was guilty of “creative counting”.

Boris would have chaired Cobra if Covid was a terror threat, not a virus

Thursday 30 November 2023 15:51 , Archie Mitchell

Matt Hancock said the government would have taken the threat of a terror attack killing hundreds of thousands more seriously than a potential pandemic.

Referring to Boris Johnson’s failure to chair Cobra meetings early in the pandemic, Mr Hancock said he would have if the threat was a terror plot.

Mr Hancock said: “If I had gone in mid-January to the cabinet secretary setting out a 50/50 chance of a terrorist threat that might kill half a million people, I think the prime minister would have chaired the Cobra meeting, not me, don’t you?”

‘Waiting’ for Covid to arrive was ‘wrong’, says Hancock

Thursday 30 November 2023 15:45 , Andy Gregory

Matt Hancock said that the idea of “waiting and allowing it to come towards you” was “wrong”.

The former health secretary said: “If you think you’ve only got a limited period lockdown that you can put in place, the timing of that lockdown matters. And watching the Italian curve was the best way of thinking ‘what would happen here’? So the Italy data were important in that sense.

“And then you had to judge, compared to where we were on Italy, were to bring in the lockdown – and indeed, we brought in the lockdown earlier in the epidemiological curve than Italy and others did.

“My point is not about whether or not it’s right to base yourself off Italy. My point is the whole doctrine of waiting, sort of allowing it to come towards you and hold hold. And now we go, that was wrong.

“The moment you need a lockdown, you need to lockdown.”

Hancock claims he was ‘sceptical’ about stopping contact tracing in March 2020

Thursday 30 November 2023 15:32 , Andy Gregory

Matt Hancock said he had been “sceptical” about stopping contact tracing and community testing in March 2020.

He told the inquiry: “On the 12th of March, it had been announced that we were going to stop community testing and stop contact tracing. I don’t want to overplay it because I didn’t actively stop it but I was sceptical of whether we should stop these things.

“I’d been trying to drive up testing, trying to get PHE to engage the private sector in testing. And I basically, at this point, had the confidence to say what I’d previously thought, urged on by the WHO, which was ‘what on earth are we doing stopping these things?”’

He said he had “issued the instruction internally that we should not accept that these have to stop”, but when pressed by inquiry lawyer Hugo Keith, said he did not know the detail of what his instructions had been.

Mr Hancock added: “What I remember is, firstly, the approaches were different on testing and on contact tracing. On testing, the problem at this point was that we didn’t have enough tests for community testing.”

Mr Hancock said that at a meeting on 17 March, which he said had been arranged to try and “electrify the growth of testing”, he had taken responsibility for testing from PHE “back into the department and drove it very hard from there”.

Watch: Matt Hancock mocked by lawyer Hugo Keith over ‘little notebook’

Thursday 30 November 2023 15:22 , Andy Gregory

Government ‘held fire’ on lockdown over fears public would get tired of measures, Hancock

Thursday 30 November 2023 15:07 , Archie Mitchell

Matt Hancock said the government had “held fire” in the early part of March due to “clear, scientific advice” around how long the public might put up with pandemic counter measures

He said from the weekend of 1 March the discussion changed from whether to act to when to act.

He told the inquiry: “There was then, from that period, that weekend, the discussion was then when to go, not whether to go. So it switched from whether to go to when to go, and we held fire because we didn’t know how long the public would put up with measures for and that was the clear, scientific advice. And, on this, Patrick Vallance and Chris Whitty were completely united.

Mr Hancock said a phone call with his Italian counterpart had “a very significant impact on” him, prompting him to throw his weight behind a lockdown.

He added: “We thought the Italians had acted early, but he was saying he wished he’d act early acted earlier still. And this argument that you should delay it and time it right, he had no truck with.”

Hugo Keith: ‘I don’t give evidence, I have never given evidence’

Thursday 30 November 2023 14:56 , Archie Mitchell

Hugo Keith KC is growing increasingly testy with Matt Hancock. The Covid inquiry’s lead counsel just slapped down the former health secretary for saying “you will know” about actions he took during the pandemic.

“I don’t give evidence. I’ve never given evidence in these proceedings,” Mr Keith said.

He added: “You cannot say ‘the inquiry will know that’, the inquiry does not know that you took any of those steps or that both of these [issues] were in hand.”

Matt Hancock mocked over ‘little notebook’

Thursday 30 November 2023 14:53 , Archie Mitchell

Matt Hancock has been mocked by Covid inquiry lead counsel Hugo Keith KC for having a “little notebook” to refer to.

The former health secretary used one of the breaks to uncover new evidence of a phone call between himself and the prime minister.

“You know perfectly well that we have scoured every possible source for documents and materials relevant to issues in this inquiry,” Mr Keith said. “Are you saying that you have a record of a phone call which you have not disclosed at this inquiry?”

Mr Hancock said no, but that he had a record of the phone call taking place.

Minutes later, as he discussed another phone call, Mr Keith joked that Mr Hancock may be able to find the details “in that little notebook you’ve just produced”.

A snappy Mr Hancock replied: “It’s not a notebook. It was a phone record.”

Hancock claims government would have saved ‘many, many lives’ by following his ‘doctrine’

Thursday 30 November 2023 14:52 , Andy Gregory

Matt Hancock has claimed that, had government listened to him, it would have first locked down three weeks earlier and more than 90 per cent of those who died in the first Covid wave would have survived.

“If we had the doctrine that I proposed, which is ‘as soon as you know you’ve got to lock down you lock down as soon as possible’, then we would have got the lockdown done over that weekend, in on the 2nd of March, three weeks earlier than before,” the ex-health secretary told the inquiry.

“There’s a doubling rate at this point estimated every three to four days. We would have been six doublings ahead of where we were, which means that fewer than a tenth of the number of people would have died in the first wave.

“At the time there was still enormous uncertainty. The number of cases were still very low. In fact there were only 12 cases reported on the 1st of March. So you can understand why – and the costs of what I’m just proposing were known and huge. So I defend the actions that were taken by the government at the time, knowing what we did.

“But in hindsight that’s the moment we should have done it. Three weeks earlier. And it would have saved many, many lives.”

Hancock claims he kickstarted ‘action’ on first lockdown – which could have been three weeks sooner

Thursday 30 November 2023 14:46 , Andy Gregory

Matt Hancock has claimed that his phone call with Boris Johnson after finding out that Covid’s fatality rate was 1 per cent – and therefore in a reasonable worst case scenario could kill 500,000 people in the UK – was the moment government “really started to come into action”.

And the ex-health secretary went so far as to claim that, had government followed his own wishes, the first national lockdown might have happened three weeks earlier.

“I found that out on the evening of the 27th [of February 2020] if I recall that correctly. On the 28th, I was still not being allowed to communicate in the way I’d want on this – not able to go on certain radio shows including the Today programme, which is a very important part of the national debate.

“And I phone up the prime minister and I remember it very well. Because he didn’t take the call and then he called me back and I was in a classroom in a primary school in Suffolk … and I had to say to the kids ‘I’m sorry the prime minister’s calling me, I’ve got to go’. It was quite a moment.

Mr Hancock claims he told the PM he needed to chair a Cobra meeting and said “we need to be able to communicate properly, including on all of the programmes, instead of having this political boycott”.

In the following days, Mr Hancock said he made public comments that schools and whole cities may have to be shut down, adding: “That all flowed from this phone call on the morning of the 28th February.

“I regard that as the moment that the centre of government, led by the prime minister, really started to come into action.

“And if I may say so with hindsight Italy having locked down initially locally in Lombardy on the 21st of January and then nationally locked down on the 28th of February … at that moment we realised it was definitely coming and the reasonable worst case scenario was as awful as it was.

“That is the moment that we should, with hindsight, have acted and if we had the doctrine that I proposed, which is ‘as soon as you know you’ve got to lock down you lock down as soon as possible’, then we would have got the lockdown done over that weekend, in on the 2nd of March, three weeks earlier than before.”

‘Absolutely not’ being enough done on infection control in mid-February, says Hancock

Thursday 30 November 2023 14:32 , Andy Gregory

Matt Hancock said there was “absolutely not” enough being done on infection control by mid-February 2020.

Inquiry lawyer Hugo Keith KC questioned him on plans for non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) at the time, saying: “As the secretary of state for health, you have to acknowledge, Mr Hancock, that by the 14th of February, there were still no plans for infection control in existence.

“There was a 2011 strategy report. You had, to be fair to you, commissioned a battle plan. But nothing had been committed to paper, had it?”

Mr Hancock responded: “If your point is ‘was enough going on?’, absolutely not. To the degree that there was something going on, there was clearly not enough.”

Hancock accuses inquiry lead of ‘making same mistake twice’

Thursday 30 November 2023 14:31 , Andy Gregory

Matt Hancock has accused the inquiry’s lead counsel Hugo Keith KC of making “the same mistake twice” in saying that communications are not a non-pharmaceutical health measure.

The ex-health secretary argued that in fact communications and legislation are both health interventions, adding: “I am emphatic on that point, because you’ve made that mistake twice.”

The inquiry’s chair Baroness Heather Hallett interjected to say: “I think we’re going round in circles – I think we were here this morning”, before appearing to hide a smile.

I was not reading Sage minutes until February

Thursday 30 November 2023 14:22 , Archie Mitchell

Matt Hancock said he was not reading minutes of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) until February.

The former health secretary said with hindsight he should have “gone directly to listen” to Sage. He said he did not read the minutes of Sage meetings unless they were presented to him, which did not happen until “some point in February”.

Dominic Cummings, former chief adviser to Boris Johnson mocked Mr Hancock for the admission, saying it “explains a lot”.

ICYMI: Cummings acted as prime minister ‘in all but name’, Sajid Javid tells Covid inquiry

Thursday 30 November 2023 14:12 , Andy Gregory

In evidence echoed today by Matt Hancock, his successor as health secretary Sajid Javid told the inquiry yesterday that Dominic Cummings acted as prime minister in all but name and was the driving force behind key decisions during the pandemic.

Mr Javid said cabinet ministers were often excluded from decision-making and it was Mr Cummings calling the shots.

Recalling his decision to resign as chancellor in February 2020, he said he agreed with claims made by others that there was a “toxic” and “feral” culture within No 10 and said he had “not experienced that extent of dysfunction in any government before”.

He blamed the dominance of Mr Cummings, who was Mr Johnson’s top adviser, revealing: “I felt that the elected prime minister was not in charge of what was happening in his name and was largely content with Mr Cummings running the government.”

Cummings PM in all but name, says Javid

Boris Johnson to be grilled at Covid inquiry next week

Thursday 30 November 2023 13:53 , Andy Gregory

Boris Johnson will appear before the Covid 19 inquiry next Wednesday and Thursday, it has been confirmed.

The former prime minister will answer questions about the government’s decision-making during the pandemic.

Mr Johnson will be the only figure at the inquiry next week, and is scheduled to sit from 10.00am to 4.30pm on both days in a marathon evidence session.

It will offer the ex-PM a chance to answer criticism of his handling of the pandemic, including the incendiary claim that he was “obsessed with older people accepting their fate and letting the young get on with life and the economy going”.

Boris Johnson to be grilled at Covid inquiry next week

Watch: Matt Hancock claims government’s pandemic preparedness was inadequate

Thursday 30 November 2023 13:34 , Andy Gregory

Covid restrictions were not raised in February 2020 exercise to plan for pandemic, says Hancock

Thursday 30 November 2023 13:16 , Andy Gregory

Matt Hancock has conceded that the question of what health measures could be needed to counter a coronavirus pandemic if it hit the UK “was not asked” during a ministerial planning exercise in mid-February 2020.

Mr Hancock was asked why – despite it being evidently understood in a February planning session called Exercise Nimbus that many people would die – there was not more generally any debate about infection control measures such as home isolation and shutting schools.

The health secretary said the exercise was based on the 2011 pandemic flu strategy “which was based on the wrong doctrine that the government’s job in a pandemic is to manage the consequences of a pandemic, not to stop it happening”.

He added: “This central question of ‘when do you lock down? what are the triggers?’ … should have been at the centre of Nimbus … at this point it was still 50/50 whether [the virus] would escape China.”

Hugo Keith replied: “It was a ministerial and advisory tabletop exercise designed to try and address the very problem faced by the United Kingdom. And fundamentally there was a complete absence of any attempt to identify what sort of measures might be required.”

Mr Hancock agreed, saying: “The question simply wasn’t asked.”

Pandemic’s eventual impact ‘was reasonable worst case scenario’, says Hancock

Thursday 30 November 2023 12:58 , Andy Gregory

The pandemic’s impact on Britain “was essentially the reasonable worst-case scenario”, Matt Hancock has said.

Asked what predictions were based on in February of how badly a pandemic would hit the UK if the virus left China, Mr Hancock said: “The central variables in that are the IFR [infection fatality rate] … this is much earlier than we knew the IFR. We didn’t know the transmissibility rate.

“Then of course the third factor would be the government and society’s response, which can affect the R rate. So we didn’t have the variables.

“But we did know that there was a significant chance of a pandemic. So it was 50/50 per cent chance of a global pandemic, and then within that there was a range of potential different outcomes – from essentially it just petering out like Sars did in the West, all the way through to basically what happened.

“Because what happened was essentially the reasonable worst-case scenario … we assumed it would come and we assumed it would be terrible, and unfortunately that assumption turned out to be correct.”

Matt Hancock: ‘I did not want to decide who lived or died’

Thursday 30 November 2023 12:51 , Archie Mitchell

Matt Hancock has denied a suggestion by the former NHS boss Simon Stevens that he wanted to decide who would live or die if the health service became overwhelmed.

The former health secretary said that after a tabletop exercise to plan for the pandemic the NHS asked “how to prioritise when there is insufficient capacity”.

Mr Hancock said: “I concluded that it should be for clinicians, not for ministers to make a decision on this basis… the minutes are really clear on that.”

Lord Stevens previously told the inquiry that Mr Hancock believed that he – rather than doctors or the public – should decide “who should live and who should die” if hospitals became overwhelmed with Covid patients.

Covid inquiry counsel clashes with Hancock: ‘Do you use the word immediate or lockdown?’

Thursday 30 November 2023 12:42 , Andy Gregory

Cummings accuses Hancock of ‘talking rubbish’ on asymptomatic transmission

Thursday 30 November 2023 12:42 , Andy Gregory

Dominic Cummings has accused Matt Hancock of “talking rubbish” about asymptomatic Covid transmission in mid-March (see post at 12:14pm).

Boris Johnson’s ex-political aide said on Twitter/X that the health secretary “badly confused” the prime minister on the issue and “repeated the misinformation” to Cabinet – despite being told he was wrong by the chief scientific adviser.

My team was diverted from Covid to deal with manifesto commitments, Hancock

Thursday 30 November 2023 12:33 , Andy Gregory

Matt Hancock has told the Covid inquiry his team was diverted from tackling Covid to help Boris Johnson deliver on his manifesto commitments.

The former health secretary said it would have been “far better” if that time had been spent on the “gathering storm” of Covid.

Dominic Cummings was responsible for a ‘culture of fear’, Matt Hancock

Thursday 30 November 2023 12:23 , Archie Mitchell

Matt Hancock has said Dominic Cummings was responsible for a “culture of fear” which hamstrung the government’s response to the pandemic.

The former health secretary said the way Boris Johnson’s ex-top advisor forced the resignation of Sajid Javid as chancellor was of huge importance to the handling of Covid.

He said: “It inculcated a culture of fear. Whereas what we needed was a culture where everybody was brought to the table and given their heads to do their level best in a once in a generation crisis.”

Dominic Cummings had ‘too great an influence’ on Boris Johnson, Hancock confirms

Thursday 30 November 2023 12:20 , Archie Mitchell

Dominic Cummings exerted too much influence on Boris Johnson during the pandemic, Matt Hancock has confirmed.

The former health secretary told the Covid inquiry that “at times” he exerted too great an influence on the ex-PM’s decision-making process.

He went on to describe how Mr Cummings “actively circumvented” emergency Cobra meetings and held his own meetings.

In one, Mr Cummings even said “decisions don’t need to go to the prime minister,” Mr Hancock claimed.

“Now that is inappropriate in a democracy, and I saw it simply as essentially a power grab,” he added.

Matt Hancock: ‘Dominic Cummings abused my staff’

Thursday 30 November 2023 12:16 , Archie Mitchell

Matt Hancock has accused Dominic Cummings of abusing his staff during the pandemic.

The former health secretary said Mr Cummings was a “malign influence” in government and made work during the pandemic “unpleasant”.

“It was unpleasant for a whole load of my staff as well, who were subject to this sort of abuse from the chief adviser [Mr Cummings,” Mr Hancock said.

“It went wider than I thought at the time,” he added.

‘I was not a liar… Dominic Cummings was a malign actor’ Matt Hancock

Thursday 30 November 2023 12:15 , Archie Mitchell

Matt Hancock has described accusations he was a “liar” as health secretary as “false”.

“There’s no evidence from anybody who I worked within the department or the health system who supported those false allegations,” Mr Hancock said.

In a damning question, inquiry counsel Hugo Keith KC said: “How could important government advisors and officials have concluded that the Secretary of State for Health … was a liar?”

Mr Hancock again blamed the “toxic culture” at the centre of government, this time directly blaming Dominic Cummings. He said: “The toxic culture was caused by the chief adviser [Mr Cummings].”

He went on to describe Mr Cummings as a “malign actor”.

Hancock claims ‘fog of uncertainty’ over scientific advice about asymptomatic transmission

Thursday 30 November 2023 12:14 , Andy Gregory

Matt Hancock has insisted that there was a “fog of uncertainty” in the evidence he received about asymptomatic Covid transmission.

Hancock said: “I knew what [Sir Patrick Vallance and Chris Whitty knew] and I read the Sage minutes. As you’ll see, the Sage minutes and the various other things I did see at the time clearly state that ‘there may be’ or ‘there is likely some’, or there are all sorts of formulations of – in a fog of uncertainty – but it was all essentially unproven anecdote.”

Hugo Keith interjected: “You appear to give a suggestion the information you were given was itself contained within a fog of uncertainty. I’ve put to you the Nervtag meeting on 12 February stated: ‘The evidence suggests that 40 per cent of virologically confirmed cases are asymptomatic.’

“That’s not much of a fog, is it?”

Mr Hancock insisted he did not see that evidence at the time.

Patrick Vallance and Chris Whitty: ‘Just as well Sage minutes are public’

Thursday 30 November 2023 12:03 , Archie Mitchell

Sir Patrick Vallance and Professor Chris Whitty said it was “just as well” Sage meetings were public.

The chief scientific advisor and chief medical officer in July 2020 messaged each other about their confusion at Matt Hancock and Boris Johnson claiming they “did not know about asymptomatic transmission” in the early days of the pandemic.

“I have no idea, we did not know how important they were, that is correct. But we were aware of the possibility,” Professor Whitty said.

Sir Patrick said that by March “we were pretty clear that we thought there was asymptomatic transmission”.

“We will have to put up with quite a bit of this. Just as well Sage minutes are public domain,” Professor Whitty said.

Matt Hancock hits back at Dominic Cummings: ‘His evidence is not accurate’

Thursday 30 November 2023 12:02 , Andy Gregory

Our political correspondent Archie Mitchell reports:

Matt Hancock has hit back at Dominic Cummings, saying: “Much of that particular witness’s evidence is not accurate.”

The former health secretary was pressed on why he did not act on Mr Cummings’s warning that by the 11 March, it was “generally understood” that a large portion of Covid cases were transmitted asymptomatically.

But he said Mr Cummings, who has himself accused Mr Hancock of “flat out lying”, has not provided accurate evidence to the inquiry.

‘Not fair’ to say scientists knew for sure about asymptomatic transmission by mid-March, says Hancock

Thursday 30 November 2023 12:01 , Andy Gregory

Matt Hancock was confronted with messages from ex-chief medical officer Chris Whitty asking why he and Boris Johnson were claiming the government did not know about asymptomatic Covid transmission in March.

Pressed by Hugo Keith KC on the fact that despite uncertainty, he “simply had to plan on the basis that” Covid was asymptomatic “regardless of how strong the science was”, Mr Hancock replied: “It is not fair to say that the scientists knew for sure about this by mid-March.

“That’s just not how it was represented to me.”

I was in the ‘let’s worry about asymptomatic transmission camp’, Matt Hancock

Thursday 30 November 2023 11:50 , Archie Mitchell

A visibly frustrated Matt Hancock has bemoaned “why could I not get Public Health England to change the scientific advice?” on asymptomatic transmission.

The former health secretary was pressed on why decisions were not made based on the assumption the virus could transmit between people without symptoms.

“It was obvious there was asymptomatic transmission”, inquiry counsel Hugo Keith KC told Mr Hancock.

“I hope you can understand how frustrating this was,” Mr Hancock replied, insisting he was in the “let’s worry about asymptomatic transmission camp”.

My single greatest regret was not pushing harder on asymptomatic transmission, Hancock

Thursday 30 November 2023 11:43 , Archie Mitchell

Matt Hancock said his “single greatest regret” during the pandemic was not pushing harder to ensure decisions were taking account of the potential for asymptomatic transmission of Covid.

The former health secretary said he should have “overruled the formal scientific advice” he was receiving”.

He said he raised the issue in January 2020, and “kept pushing” throughout February.

However, policies were based on the “settled international view” that it was not transmitted asymptomatically.

Hancock ‘flat out lying’ to inquiry with claim he pushed for lockdown, says Cummings

Thursday 30 November 2023 11:42 , Andy Gregory

Dominic Cummings has claimed Matt Hancock is “flat out lying” to the Covid inquiry by claiming he pushed for a lockdown on 13 March 2020.

Boris Johnson’s former chief political aide claimed on Twitter/X that Mr Hancock was “still pushing Plan A herd immunity” at the time, and claimed that he “physically stopped” the then-health secretary coming to a meeting the following day because he “was bull****ting everybody about herd immunity”.

‘Did you say immediate… or lockdown’? Hancock asked

Thursday 30 November 2023 11:35 , Archie Mitchell

Matt Hancock sought to clarify why he did not recall in his diary telling Boris Johnson to call a lockdown as early as March 13, 2020.

The former health secretary said “further evidence had come to light” while preparing his witness statement for the inquiry.

“You will see an email from me to the prime minister on the 13th of March arguing for a suppression strategy,” Mr Hancock said.

But inquiry counsel Hugo Keith KC said: “In that email… do you use the word immediate or lockdown?”

Mr Hancock said he did not have the email in front of him, prompting Mr Keith to repeat the question. The former health secretary gave the same answer.

Hancock appears to forget first Covid measures

Thursday 30 November 2023 11:15 , Andy Gregory

Following a reference by Hugo Keith KC to “the sorts of measures that were ultimately put into place on 12 March”, the puzzled ex-health secretary said: “I’m so sorry – we didn’t put measures into place on 12th March, I don’t know what you’re referring to.”

Mr Keith noted: “The 12th March was the first day on which measures were put into place – you will recall it was the order for symptomatic individuals to isolate for seven days.”

Matt Hancock denies that he lied about having a plan

Thursday 30 November 2023 11:13 , Archie Mitchell

Inquiry counsel Hugo Keith KC is pressing Matt Hancock on why he repeatedly told officials there was a plan, which colleagues have said is untrue.

“There was a plan … my critique of the plan is that it was not an adequate plan,” Mr Hancock told the inquiry.

And pressed specifically on whether there was a plan for “countermeasures … the sorts of measures which were ultimately put into place”, Mr Hancock insisted there was a plan based on the 2011 flu pandemic plan.

“The idea that it was wrong to suggest that we had a plan is is completely false,” Mr Hancock said.

‘We have full plans regularly prepped and refreshed,’ Matt Hancock

Thursday 30 November 2023 11:05 , Archie Mitchell, Andy Gregory

Matt Hancock told Dominic Cummings in January that Britain had “full plans up to and including pandemic levels regularly prepped and refreshed”.

The former health secretary was grilled over the claim at the Covid inquiry, with counsel Hugo Keith KC saying that Mr Hancock had accepted in his book “that the only plan there was was a strategy plan from 2011 … on central government response to a pandemic”.

The ex-health secretary said of his claims to Cummings: “This is what I thought at the time.”

Asked who told him that, he said: “Public Health England. The World Health Organisation.”

Pressed that the WHO “doesn’t hold the book for the United Kingdom plans”, Mr Hancock said: “It did analysis on which countries were the best prepared – and we were the second overall. All I can tell you is what I thought at the time, it’s not what I think now.”

Mr Keith challenged him: “You wouldn’t as the secretary of state have phoned up the World Health Organisation and said, ‘what are our plans?’ You would have made inquiries in your department.”

Matt Hancock called for lockdown on March 13, but did not write it in his diary

Thursday 30 November 2023 11:00 , Archie Mitchell

Matt Hancock claims he told Boris Johnson on 13 March 2020 that he would need to plunge Britain into lockdown to control the pandemic.

But Covid inquiry counsel Hugo Keith KC asked why the intervention was not recorded in his diary.

A stunned Mr Keith said: “There is a whole page on how you woke up from the dawn flight to Belfast … you then went to Cardiff and so on.

“Telling the prime minister of this country, for the first time, that he had to call an immediate lockdown, is surely worthy of some recollection, is it not?”

Mr Hancock replied: “I didn’t have full access to my papers for the writing of that, and this came to light in researching the papers ahead of this inquiry. This is after all the formal public inquiry.”

Watch: Matt Hancock claims there was ‘unhealthy toxic culture’ in government

Thursday 30 November 2023 10:56 , Andy Gregory

Matt Hancock grilled over ‘we were better prepared than other countries’ claim on 12 March

Thursday 30 November 2023 10:53 , Archie Mitchell

A damning WhatsApp message on 12 March 2020 from Matt Hancock to Dominic Cummings said: “We are better prepared than other countries.”

The former health secretary was grilled over the exchange by the Covid inquiry’s lead counsel Hugo Keith KC, who said: “Why did you say we are better prepared than other countries?”

“By the 12th of March, you were surely aware that we were not better prepared than other countries,” Mr Keith said.

Mr Hancock said he was worried about the “risk of going too early” with measures to control the virus. But he said he realised the next day that it was “the end of the road” for the argument that it was better to wait.

Hancock: People who accused me of overconfidence were ‘against action to tackle virus’

Thursday 30 November 2023 10:52 , Andy Gregory

Matt Hancock was asked about claims by ex-senior civil servant Helen MacNamara that he displayed “nuclear” levels of overconfidence, and asked whether he rejects that he gave that impression to colleagues in presenting the “extraordinarily difficult issues” his department faced.

The ex-health secretary said: “It depends who with … in a trusted environment we were self-critical about how we were responding – that’s only natural, because we could see what was happening and could see we were in the middle of something that hadn’t happened for decades and it was on our watch.

“I also thought it was necessary – and I can understand how some people will have interpreted the way that I now know that they did, although I didn’t know this at the time because nobody raised any of these issues with me – I can see how my sense of needing to keep driving the system forward might have had this impact on some people.

“Especially those who were more sceptical of the need of the government to act, frankly. We have seen some of the evidence that the same people who were accusing me of overconfidence, at the same time were blocking the action that I was saying we needed.

“And so I can now see the dynamics of – if they were against action being taken, and I was going in and saying we absolutely must do this, and there was a huge amount of uncertainty and worry – and I basically felt it was my professional to try to keep driving forward.”

Asked who was against action being taken, he said: “I don’t want to point fingers because everybody was doing there best”.

Matt Hancock quizzed over messages from Boris Johnson

Thursday 30 November 2023 10:45 , Andy Gregory

Matt Hancock has been confronted with a message from Boris Johnson on 7 March 2020, in which the former prime minister asked him whether there was “anything I can do to help”.

Hugo Keith KC asked: “Was that not an opportunity for you to say to the prime minister: ‘well we absolutely have to get on top of the very real difficulties with the absence of real plans for infection control, with the development implementation of counter-measures, with the incredibly difficult issue of funding and planning for vaccines, shielding – all the other areas that your department was grappling with?”

Mr Hancock replied: “By this point, the prime minister, the Cabinet Office machine and No 10 were wholly engaged. The prime minister I think chaired the first Cobra on 2 March, and so we’d had almost a week of me being able to say all of that.

“So I think this was a … he asked if there was ‘anything I can do to help’, and I said we should have a whole national effort so that pretty much covers all bases.”

Health department ‘brought in resources from wherever we could find them’, says Hancock

Thursday 30 November 2023 10:37 , Andy Gregory

In March and April 2020, the Department of Health and Social Care was “under enormous pressure and enormous stress”, said Matt Hancock.

“We brought in more resources – basically from wherever we could find them – and did everything that we could. But that ramp-up was extremely difficult.”

Watch live: Former health secretary Matt Hancock gives evidence at Britain’s Covid inquiry

Thursday 30 November 2023 10:35 , Andy Gregory

Matt Hancock: I was not taken seriously until end of February

Thursday 30 November 2023 10:33 , Andy Gregory

Our political correspondent Archie Mitchell reports:

Matt Hancock has said the health department’s concerns about Covid were “not taken as seriously as they should have been” until the end of February.

The former health secretary said he was blocked from calling an emergency Cobra meeting in the early days of the pandemic.

Responding to criticism that Mr Hancock’s department took too much responsibility for the handling of Covid, and did not tell tell central government how bad it was, he said the opposite was true.

“There was so much that needed to be done, and in some cases we just had to get on and do it,” Mr Hancock said.

There was a ‘toxic culture’ at the centre of government, Matt Hancock

Thursday 30 November 2023 10:28 , Archie Mitchell

Matt Hancock has described vicious messages about his competence as part of an “unhealthy toxic culture” in which “extremely unpleasant language and false allegations were thrown”.

“I tried to lead a positive culture, a can do culture, where if there was a problem, the question that was raised in the department was how do we fix this,” the former health secretary said.

He added: “Unfortunately, that rubbed up against this deep unpleasantness at the centre.”

‘Lack of empathy’ in government over difficulty of rising to Covid challenge, says Hancock

Thursday 30 November 2023 10:27 , Andy Gregory

There was a “lack of generosity or empathy” at the centre of government in “understanding the difficulty of rising to” the challenge of the Covid pandemic, Matt Hancock has said.

“Some of these exhibits you’ve just shown demonstrate a lack of generosity or empathy in understanding the difficulty of rising to such a big challenge,” he told the inquiry.

“So did the DHSC need to expand and grow? Of course. Did it get everything right? No, of course not. No doubt we’ll go into individual challenges. But did it rise to the challenge overall of responding to the biggest public health crisis in a century. I think it did.”

Britain’s top civil servant slammed ‘clear lack of grip’ in health department

Thursday 30 November 2023 10:23 , Archie Mitchell

Matt Hancock has been shown a slew of descriptions of the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) as unable to deal with Covid.

Sir Patrick Vallance’s diaries, shown to the inquiry, reveal Mark Sedwill, then Britain’s top civil servant, said there was a “clear lack of grip” in the department.

In another entry, he recalled an email from within DHSC describing it as “ungovernable and a web of competing parts”.

Another entry described the “massive internal operational mess” in the department.

“Getting something done is almost impossible,” Sir Patrick recalled.

Mr Hancock said there was a “toxic culture” at the centre of government “assuming that whenever something was difficult or a challenge there was somehow fault and blame”.

Patrick Vallance’s notes ‘certainly more contemporaneous’ than Hancock’s diaries, inquiry told

Thursday 30 November 2023 10:23 , Andy Gregory

Matt Hancock has been faced with notes by Sir Patrick Vallance that the Department of Health and Social Care was “ungovernable and a web of competing parts”.

The ex-health secretary: “I don’t know whether these parts of Sir Patrick’s diaries were contemporaneous because some was written after the event.”

To which Hugo Keith KC interjected: “Well can I just pause you there, with respect, these were … notes made certainly more contemporaneously than your Pandemic Diaries book. The vast majority were written on the day or the day after. Only some were written, it is apparent, were written later.”

Mr Hancock replied: “As I say, we don’t know whether these were contemporaneous. But that is by the by.”

Department of health was not ‘under par’ when pandemic hit, says Hancock

Thursday 30 November 2023 10:19 , Andy Gregory

Matt Hancock has rejected the suggestion that the Department for Health and Social care was “under par” when the pandemic broke.

The former health secretary said: “I would reject that because the senior personnel in DHSC were absolutely superb and rose to the challenge. But it’s blazingly obvious that when a pandemic strikes the health department is going to have more to do.

“And so I regard that comment as very straightforward.”

The plans that we had were not adequate, Matt Hancock

Thursday 30 November 2023 10:14 , Andy Gregory

Our political correspondent Archie Mitchell reports:

Matt Hancock has opened his evidence with an admission that the government’s pandemic preparedness was inadequate.

The former health secretary said the UK “did not have a significant testing capability” and plans were based on a pandemic flu.

That was “based on the assumption that we’d be dealing with the consequences of a pandemic, rather than trying to suppress a pandemic,” Mr Hancock added.

He insisted there “were plans”, but that they were not adequate.

Pandemic planning was based on assumption government would not try to suppress it, says Hancock

Thursday 30 November 2023 10:13 , Andy Gregory

All of the planning based on the 2011 pandemic flu plan was based on the assumption that we would be dealing with the consequences of a pandemic – rather than trying to suppress a pandemic, Matt Hancock has said.

Hancock’s Pandemic Diaries book ‘not a diary’, inquiry hears

Thursday 30 November 2023 10:09 , Andy Gregory

The Covid inquiry has received a copy of Matt Hancock’s Pandemic Diaries book.

The former health secretary said it is written as “contemporaneous rather than with hindsight, but it was written after the pandemic using contemporaneous materials”.

Hugo Keith KC noted: “So stylistically, it is not a diary but is repieced together and called a diary.”

Mr Hancock replied: “Correct, it is my recollections.”

Thursday 30 November 2023 10:06 , Andy Gregory

Matt Hancock has now started giving his evidence to the Covid inquiry.

Watch: Helen MacNamara recalls how Matt Hancock pretended to be cricketer

Thursday 30 November 2023 09:47 , Andy Gregory

Boris Johnson to testify at Covid inquiry next week

Thursday 30 November 2023 09:36 , Andy Gregory

Former prime minister Boris Johnson will give evidence to the UK Covid-19 Inquiry on Wednesday and Thursday next week.

The Covid ‘charge sheet’ facing ex-health secretary Matt Hancock

Thursday 30 November 2023 09:30 , Andy Gregory

Matt Hancock will today appear at the Covid inquiry to defend his record as health secretary during the pandemic.

Ahead of his appearance, The Independent looks at the charge sheet facing the under-fire former health secretary, who now sits as an independent after losing the party whip for appearing on ITV’s I’m A Celebrity:

The Covid ‘charge sheet’ facing ex-health secretary Matt Hancock

Hancock accused of ‘lying his way through’ pandemic with ‘nuclear’ overconfidence

Thursday 30 November 2023 09:15 , Andy Gregory

WhatsApp messages shared with the inquiry also revealed that former top Number 10 adviser Dominic Cummings repeatedly pushed Boris Johnson to fire the former minister.

At one stage, Mr Cummings claimed Mr Hancock had “lied his way through this and killed people and dozens and dozens of people have seen it”.

Helen MacNamara, who served as deputy cabinet secretary, also claimed in her evidence that Mr Hancock displayed “nuclear levels” of overconfidence and a pattern of reassuring colleagues the pandemic was being dealt with in ways that were not true.

Sir Christopher Wormald, a senior civil servant in the Department of Health, suggested it was a “very small number of people” claiming that the minister was “actually telling untruths”.

But he added that there were a lot who thought he was “overoptimistic” and “overpromised” on what could be delivered.

Mr Hancock will have an opportunity to defend himself when he gives evidence.

Matt Hancock knew Tier 3 restrictions would not work, says Andy Burnham

Thursday 30 November 2023 09:07 , Andy Gregory

Earlier this week, Andy Burnham told the inquiry that Matt Hancock knew Tier 3 restrictions would not work when he imposed them on Greater Manchester.

The mayor accused the government of administering a “punishment beating” for Manchester in late 2020, following an argument over financial support for residents who were unable to work due to the restrictions.

Quoting from written evidence from Mr Hancock, Mr Burnham said: “He says in his evidence about Tier 3, ‘I was in despair that we had announced a policy that we knew would not work.’”

Labour frontbencher says Matt Hancock gives him ‘sinking feeling’

Thursday 30 November 2023 09:05 , Andy Gregory

Labour shadow minister Peter Kyle has said that seeing Matt Hancock gives him a “sinking feeling” because he has “flashbacks” to being very involved in the dire situation in care homes during the pandemic.

Watch: Matt Hancock believed he should decide ‘who should live and die’ if NHS overwhelmed

Thursday 30 November 2023 08:51 , Andy Gregory

Pictured: Matt Hancock arrives to give evidence at Covid inquiry

Thursday 30 November 2023 08:40 , Andy Gregory

Matt Hancock has been pictured this morning arriving in Paddington for the Covid inquiry:

What happened yesterday at the Covid inquiry?

Thursday 30 November 2023 08:33 , Archie Mitchell

On another day of shocking revelations, the Covid-19 Inquiry heard yesterday that:

• Savjid Javid said Britons would have to “learn to live” with Covid, to which Boris Johnson replied, “and die with it”.

• Mr Johnson believed people were “going into hospital with Covid who don’t need it”.

• Former deputy chief medical officer Dame Jenny Harries said it would be “clinically appropriate” to discharge Covid patients from hospitals into care homes.

• Mr Javid said he was not invited to key meetings when the Omicron variant of Covid-19 was on the rise.

• Dominic Raab said he did not accept the Johnson government was a “puppet regime” run by Mr Cummings.

Mr Javid opened his testimony to the inquiry stating that “we will never fully understand the scale of the grief” of those who lost loved ones.

Evidence shown to the inquiry painted a picture of the former chancellor and health secretary as an often more cautious voice throughout the pandemic.

Dominic Cummings acted as prime minister ‘in all but name’, Sajid Javid tells Covid inquiry

Thursday 30 November 2023 08:32 , Archie Mitchell

Sajid Javid told the Covid inquiry yesterday that Dominic Cummings acted as prime minister in all but name and was the driving force behind key decisions during the pandemic.

The former health secretary said cabinet ministers were often excluded from decision-making and it was Mr Cummings calling the shots.

Recalling his decision to resign as chancellor in February 2020, he said he agreed with claims made by others that there was a “toxic” and “feral” culture within No 10 and said he had “not experienced that extent of dysfunction in any government before”.

He blamed the dominance of Mr Cummings, who was Mr Johnson’s top adviser, revealing: “I felt that the elected prime minister was not in charge of what was happening in his name and was largely content with Mr Cummings running the government.”

Mr Javid said that, when he stood down from his post after Mr Cummings told him to sack all his aides, he warned that the strategist had been given “a huge amount of responsibility and power” and “would not stop until he had burnt the house down”.

Cummings PM in all but name, says Javid

What have others told the Covid inquiry about Matt Hancock?

Thursday 30 November 2023 08:22 , Andy Gregory

Matt Hancock will finally have the chance to hit back after months of criticism by top officials at the Covid-19 Inquiry, reports our political correspondent Archie Mitchell.

So far the inquiry has heard that Britain’s top civil servant urged former PM Boris Johnson to sack Mr Hancock during the pandemic, “to save lives and protect the NHS”.

Former cabinet secretary Mark Sedwill said he made the suggestion as a joke in a WhatsApp message to then-No10 permanent secretary Simon Case.

Former NHS boss Simon Stevens also attacked him for wanting to “decide who should live or die if the NHS became overwhelmed” in the pandemic.

Mr Johnson’s former top adviser Dominic Cummings used the inquiry to attack Mr Hancock as a “proven liar”, a “problem leaker” and a “c***”.

And Helen MacNamara, the former deputy cabinet secretary, claimed Mr Hancock was “regularly” telling people things that they later discovered were not true and that No10 had a “lack of confidence” that what he said were happening “was actually happening”.

Matt Hancock to defend his record as health secretary before Covid inquiry

Matt Hancock to take stand at Covid inquiry

Thursday 30 November 2023 08:18 , Andy Gregory

Former health secretary Matt Hancock is set to testify to the Covid inquiry today.

The outgoing MP was tasked by Boris Johnson with overseeing healthcare and the NHS from July 2018 until he was caught on CCTV in his office in June 2021 breaking social distancing guidelines by kissing his adviser Gina Coladangelo.

Mr Hancock has been repeatedly branded a liar, incompetent and weak by witnesses at the inquiry.

In a bumper session, expected to run from Thursday at 10.00am and spill into Friday, Mr Hancock will seek to correct the record of his time handling the pandemic.

Thursday 30 November 2023 08:12 , Andy Gregory

Good morning, and thanks for joining us. We’ll be using this liveblog to provide live updates on the Covid inquiry throughout the day.