Did Matt Hancock ‘bounce’ Boris Johnson into extending Covid restrictions?

John Rentoul assesses the significance of a report that the health secretary withheld information from ministerial colleagues

Matt Hancock, once described as ‘totally hopeless’ by the prime minister (Getty)

Today was going to be “freedom day”, marking the fourth and final stage of the easing of coronavirus restrictions, as set out by the prime minister in February. Instead, we have to wait another month before social distancing, the rule of six and compulsory table service are abolished.

Yesterday’s Sunday Telegraph front-page lead story claimed that this delay was engineered by Matt Hancock, the health secretary, who had “bounced” Boris Johnson into the decision by withholding important information about how effective the vaccines are against the Delta variant of the virus.

The Department of Health has responded with an emphatic denial, saying the story is “incorrect”. So what is going on?