Under-fire Hancock to give evidence before Covid inquiry next week

The former health secretary will appear before the Covid-19 inquiry in a major week of hearings.

Matt Hancock will appear before the Covid inquiry next week (Aaron Chown/PA) (PA Archive)

Former health secretary Matt Hancock will appear before the Covid-19 inquiry next week, in a major week of hearings that will also see Michael Gove and Dominic Raab give evidence.

In what will be a highly anticipated week of evidence, London Mayor Sadiq Khan and Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham will also appear.

Former health secretary Sajid Javid, as well as Liverpool’s Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram, will also appear to give evidence. Former deputy chief medical officer Professor Dame Jenny Harries is also scheduled to take questions from Lady Hallett’s probe.

Mr Hancock has faced repeated criticism from a number of witnesses before the inquiry, with the former health secretary down to give evidence across both Thursday and Friday.

The former Tory MP, who now sits as an independent after losing the party whip by appearing on ITV’s I’m A Celebrity… reality TV show, played a key role in the UK’s pandemic response.

But various witnesses have expressed concern about his performance as health secretary, with the inquiry hearing that the country’s most senior civil servant at the time, Lord Sedwill, wanted Mr Hancock sacked.

The inquiry heard that in one WhatsApp exchange with the permanent secretary at Number 10 Simon Case – who is the current Cabinet Secretary – Lord Sedwill joked it was necessary to remove Mr Hancock to “save lives and protect the NHS”.

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

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.

Mr Hancock will have an opportunity to defend himself when he attends next week.

Mr Johnson and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak are both expected to give evidence to the inquiry before Christmas.