Covid inquiry live: Matt Hancock grilled over affair scandal in awkward exchange
Hancock appears before inquiry again after conceding government should have locked down earlier and denying claims that he is a liar
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Matt Hancock has admitted his affair with aide Gina Coladangelo in breach of his own lockdown rules damaged public confidence, as he gave evidence to the Covid inquiry.
Taking the stand for a second day on Friday, the ex-health secretary suggested that “the lesson for the future is very clear” in that “it is important that those who make the rules abide by them”, adding: “I resigned in order to take accountability for my failure to do that.”
Mr Hancock also defended his decision to discharge hospital patients into care homes without testing them for Covid-19 as “rational and reasonable”, adding: “Nobody has yet brought to me a solution to this problem that I think, even with hindsight, would have resulted in more lives saved.”
The MP claimed on Thursday that a phone call he had with Boris Johnson on 28 February 2020 marked 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.
‘I think we have agreed on almost everything’: Hancock snaps back during Covid inquiry
Hancock’s media adviser warned him he may need to brace for care home criticism
Matt Hancock was warned by his media adviser in early April 2020 that he may need to “get ahead” of newspaper “front pages demanding why we weren’t testing people in care homes” if people started to die from Covid in large numbers, the UK Covid-19 Inquiry has been told.
A WhatsApp message, sent on 4 April 2020 to Mr Hancock by his media adviser Jamie Njoku-Goodwin said: “On testing, do we need to have a specific strand/push on testing in care homes? We are testing hospital admissions and clinical patients at risk.
“Do we also need a push on testing people in care? Or at least have some sort of focused effort on testing people in care.
“I know it is complex and the people dying in care homes are often people who were near the end regardless, but I worry that if a load of people in care start dying, there will be front pages demanding why we weren’t testing people in care homes. Do we need to get ahead of this now?”
Mr Hancock’s WhatsApp response to the message was then read out. It stated: “Let’s have rapid advice on this tying together all the angles.”
Responding to the WhatsApps, the former health secretary told the inquiry: “The reason that we did not at that point have as much testing in care homes as many would have wanted, was that we didn’t have enough tests and the clinical prioritisation of who got tests in what order was absolutely something that I wouldn’t have interfered with.”
Hancock did not consider allowing domestic abuse victims to find refuge with family during lockdown
Matt Hancock has said he would most likely have been in favour of ensuring there were provisions in the lockdown rules to allow women in abusive relationships to seek sanctuary or respite at a friend or relative’s home – but that such a need was never brought to his attention.
The ex-health secretary was asked whether he had ever considered a lockdown provision to allow people to let their home be used as a place of sanctuary or respite for a friend or family member, given that in normal times people considering leaving abusive relationships will often turn to loved ones as opposed to refuges.
“I don’t recall that being brought to my attention, that consideration,” Mr Hancock told the inquiry. “I had a excellent team who cared very deeply about this subject and the impact of the regulations on people, as you say mostly women who are subject to domestic abuse and violence.”
He added: “I don’t recall that being brought to my attention. Had it been I’m highly confident that I would have said that we should have put in place such provision because the impact on the overall virus would have been relatively low because although the numbers are far too big they are, as a part of the population, relatively low.
“And in the same way that we realised that our initial regulations in terms of how they impacted funerals, for example, were much firmer in their interpretation on the ground than we had intended, and therefore changed them, that is the sort of thing I certaintly would have been open to considering.”
Watch: Hancock ‘acutely aware’ of Covid’s impact on ethnic minority NHS staff
Nicola Sturgeon’s Covid communications ‘unhelpful and confusing to the public’, claims Hancock
Scotland’s former first minister Nicola Sturgeon would communicate with the public “in a way that was unhelpful and confusing”, Matt Hancock has claimed.
The Covid-19 Inquiry was shown WhatsApp messages from Mr Hancock from July 2020, regarding communications around travel from Spain and quarantine.
When told that No 10 wanted to communicate the matter “ASAP”, Mr Hancock 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: “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.”
What were the Covid rules at the time of Hancock’s ‘embrace’
Matt Hancock has agreed that this decision to resign after his affair with aide Gina Coladangelo reflected that he understood the “deleterious consequences of rule-breaking” on public confidence.
So what were the Covid rules at the time? My colleague Joe Middleton reports:
What were the Covid rules at the time of Hancock’s ‘embrace’
According to Mr Hancock, ‘social distancing rules are very important and people should follow them’
Discharging hospital patients into care homes was ‘rational and reasonable’, says Hancock
Matt Hancock has defended his decision to discharge hospital patients into care homes without testing for Covid as “rational and reasonable”.
Mr Hancock said of the 19 March 2020 decision: “The testing capacity was much too small at this point ... on 17 March I had taken responsibility for testing from PHE into the Department [of Health] because it wasn’t growing fast enough. So I knew there was a problem and I was acting on it.”
He added: “If I’d left them in hospital they were more likely to have caught Covid because of the risk of nosocomial infection, and ... it was rational and reasonable to make sure they were in the safest place they could be.
“I fear – and this is the only choices between bad options here – that if we had left those patients in hospital, those who were medically fit to discharge, there is a high likelihood that more would have caught Covid and the problem could have been bigger.
“I have gone over and over in my head the decisions that we took ... every decision was a choice between difficult options and nobody has yet brought to me a solution to this problem that I think, even with hindsight, would have resulted in more lives saved. If there is one I want to know about it.”
Nearly 40 care home outbreaks when hospital discharge policy introduced, document shows
It was known that there were 37 outbreaks in care homes when the policy of discharging hospital patients without testing was announced on 19 March 2020, a document reveals.
Watch: Matt Hancock questioned over affair with Gina Coladangelo during Covid
Hancock says long Covid is an issue ‘very close to my heart’
Matt Hancock has told the UK Covid-19 Inquiry that long Covid is an issue “very close to my heart” because his mother is affected by it.
Inquiry counsel Hugo Keith said Mr Hancock’s witness statement to the probe “makes plain” that “from an early stage” he asked NHS England to consider the issue of long Covid.
He said: “I was alive to it from before the infection reached our shores.
“Chris Whitty raised the concern about the potential of some kind of post-viral fatigue syndrome, which happens with other viruses as well.
“And then, after the first peak, I was acutely aware of it, not least because members of my family were affected by long Covid, including my mother who still attends a long Covid clinic. So this was very close to my heart.”
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