Tests reveal Matt Hancock wanted his announcement of a new variant of Covid to have ‘maximum impact’
Former UK health secretary Matt Hancock wanted “Scare the pants off everyone” to ensure compliance with the government’s Covid-19 restrictions, it revealed a number of leaked text messages.
More than 100,000 text messages were leaked to the Sunday Telegraph newspaper. Among them is an alleged exchange between Hancock and Cabinet Secretary Simon Case in which Case suggested in January 2021 that “fear” would be a “vital” factor to ensure UK citizens comply with Covid restrictions.
They also appear to show that Hancock discussed when to reveal information to the public about the discovery of a new virus strain in the hope of maximizing the impact of the blocking rules.
“Rather than doing too much forward signaling, we can roll pitch with the new tension,” a supposed message from Case read. Hancock replied: “We scared the pants off of (sic) everyone with the new strain.”
“When we deploy the new variant,” Hancock apparently asks in a later message.
The alleged text message conversation, which took place on December 13, 2020, came at a time when concerns were growing over a sharp increase in Covid cases in the south-east of England. Hancock revealed a day later, on December 14, that a new variant of Covid-19 had been identified in the country.
Five days later, London and the south-east of England entered a state of so-called alert level 4 which imposed increased Covid restrictions over the Christmas period, as Boris Johnson’s Conservative government scrapped the plans to relax the rules. On January 6, 2021, England entered what was a third national lockdown.
The reported messages also revealed that Hancock and other government figures were concerned that London Mayor Sadiq Khan might resist plans to impose a strict lockdown on the English capital. The mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, had previously clashed with the government over its plans to introduce strict lockdown rules in the area.
Hancock responded to the leaks by saying there is “Absolutely no public interest case” Peru “major violation” of text messages, which he described as a “massive betrayal”.
“As we have seen, releasing them in this way gives a partial partial account to fit an anti-lockdown agenda,” Hancock said Thursday.
The messages were given to the Sunday Telegraph by journalist Isabel Oakeshott, a prominent critic of the blockades who had collaborated with Hancock on his memoir. Oakeshott argued that text message leaks are in the public interest.