Matt Hancock confirmed “nuclear levels” of confidence at the beginning of the COVID pandemic – and “regularly” advised colleagues in Downing Street issues “they later discovered weren’t true” – in response to a senior civil servant who was there on the time.
Helen MacNamara was deputy cupboard secretary through the pandemic and was giving proof to the COVID inquiry immediately.
Asked concerning the then well being secretary, she talked about “jarring” behaviour she had seen, together with him miming taking part in cricket and saying “they bowl them at me, I knock them away” through the first lockdown.
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Ms MacNamara mentioned this was an instance of the “unbelievably bullish” and dismissive tradition current throughout Boris Johnson’s tenure as prime minister because the COVID-19 disaster hit the UK.
Mr Johnson confirmed a “breezy confidence”, dismissing warnings Ms MacNamara equipped to him, she advised the inquiry.
She added that inside Downing Street individuals had been “laughing at the Italians” through the preliminary outbreak there.
Italy was among the many European nations first hit by the virus – resulting in stunning scenes within the north of the nation, as Sky News reported on the time.
Questions about Mr Hancock grew inside Number 10 in April 2020, and there was a “lack of confidence of what he said was happening, was actually happening”.
This included Mr Hancock saying issues had been underneath management or being sorted in conferences, just for it to emerge in days or perhaps weeks that “was not in fact the case”.
There was a “pattern of being reassured that something was absolutely fine and then discovering it was very, very far from fine”, she mentioned.
Andrew O’Connor KC, the lawyer for the inquiry, requested Ms MacNamara: “Does it come back to the fact that Mr Hancock regularly was telling people things that they later discovered weren’t true?”
“Yes,” she replied.
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Ms MacNamara added that she returned to Downing Street after affected by COVID in April 2020 and located it “eerily empty” – though Mr Hancock was current.
She mentioned she advised Mr Hancock he didn’t should be there, and that it have to be “very hard” being well being secretary in a world pandemic.
Apparently, Mr Hancock advised her he was “loving” the accountability – and to indicate this, he took up a “batsman’s stance outside the cabinet room”.
Mr Hancock then mentioned “they bowl them at me, I knock them away”, in response to Ms MacNamara.
She advised the inquiry: “I’m trying to explain just how jarring some of that was.
“It does partly return to my level concerning the nuclear ranges of confidence that had been being deployed, which I do suppose is an issue. It actually caught with me, this second.”
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She described it as “overconfidence”.
A spokesman for the previous well being secretary mentioned: “Mr Hancock has supported the inquiry throughout and will respond to all questions when he gives his evidence.”
Source: information.sky.com”