Former well being secretary Matt Hancock performed a key function within the UK’s response to the COVID pandemic – and his choices will immediately be scrutinised by the official inquiry.
Mr Hancock was a well-known face on the common press conferences that befell throughout that interval, giving updates to the general public about social distancing measures, the state of the NHS and the vaccine programme.
In 2021, he was pressured to resign after he admitted he broke the federal government’s personal coronavirus steering to pursue an affair with an aide.
Today it’s his flip to offer proof to the COVID inquiry.
He will comply with a string of high-profile witnesses who’ve already shared their expertise of the pandemic with inquiry chair Baroness Hallett, together with Dominic Cummings, Boris Johnson’s former chief adviser, Lord Simon Stevens, who was the chief govt of the NHS on the time, and former chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance.
Mr Hancock has already featured closely within the testimonies of the witnesses who’ve given proof to the inquiry to date.
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A spokesperson for Mr Hancock stated he has “supported the inquiry throughout and will respond to all questions when he gives his evidence”.
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Former NHS CEO Lord Stevens made this evaluation of Mr Hancock when he appeared earlier than the COVID inquiry in the beginning of November.
“The secretary of state for health and social care took the position that in this situation he – rather than, say, the medical profession or the public – should ultimately decide who should live and who should die,” he stated in a written assertion to the inquiry.
“Fortunately, this horrible dilemma never crystallised.”
However, though Lord Stevens advised that Mr Hancock wished too many powers in his capability as well being secretary, he did add that “for the most part” the previous cupboard minister may very well be trusted.
“There were occasional moments of tension and flashpoints, which are probably inevitable during the course of a 15-month pandemic but I was brought up always to look to the best in people,” he stated.
‘Nuclear ranges of over-confidence’
The day earlier than Lord Stevens gave proof, the COVID inquiry heard from Helen MacNamara, who was deputy cupboard secretary throughout the pandemic.
She informed the inquiry Mr Hancock confirmed “nuclear levels” of confidence firstly of the COVID pandemic and “regularly” informed colleagues in Downing Street issues “they later discovered weren’t true”.
For instance, Ms MacNamara stated the previous well being secretary would say issues have been below management or being sorted in conferences, just for it to emerge in days or perhaps weeks that “was not in fact the case”.
She additionally recalled a “jarring” incident the place she informed Mr Hancock that it will need to have been tough to be well being secretary throughout a pandemic, to which he responded by miming taking part in cricket, saying: “They bowl them at me, I knock them away” throughout the first lockdown.
‘Lied his manner via this and killed folks’
There is clearly no love misplaced between Mr Hancock and Mr Cummings, who informed the inquiry that he repeatedly referred to as for Boris Johnson to sack him.
Mr Cummings alleged that the ex-health secretary “lied his way through this and killed people and dozens and dozens of people have seen it”.
In a message despatched to Mr Johnson in May 2020, Mr Cummings stated: “You need to think through timing of binning Hancock. There’s no way the guy can stay. He’s lied his way through this and killed people and dozens and dozens of people have seen it.”
In August 2020, he wrote once more: “I also must stress I think leaving Hancock in post is a big mistake – he is a proven liar who nobody believes or [should] believe on anything, and we face going into autumn crisis with the c**t in charge of NHS still.”
Mr Cummings additionally echoed Ms MacNamara’s accusation that the previous well being secretary informed colleagues issues that later have been found to not be true, saying he “sowed chaos” by persevering with to insist in March 2020 that individuals with out signs of a dry cough and a temperature have been unlikely to be affected by coronavirus.
He additionally revealed that he purposefully excluded Mr Hancock from conferences as a result of he couldn’t be trusted.
Mark Sedwill wished Hancock eliminated to ‘save lives and defend the NHS’
Messages exchanged by Lord Mark Sedwill, the previous head of the Civil Service and Simon Case, the present cupboard secretary, revealed that Lord Sedwill wished Mr Hancock eliminated as well being secretary to “save lives and protect the NHS” – a play on the pandemic-era slogan on the time.
Lord Sedwill stated this was “gallows humour” and that he didn’t use the work “sack” when chatting with Mr Johnson about his well being secretary.
However, he did admit that Mr Johnson would nonetheless have been “under no illusions” about his emotions in direction of Mr Hancock.
‘He had a behavior of claiming issues he did not have a foundation for’
Sir Patrick Vallance, who was chief scientific adviser from 2018 to 2023, was one other determine who claimed Mr Hancock would say issues “he didn’t have a basis for”, which he attributed to “over-enthusiasm”.
He informed the COVID inquiry: “I think he had a habit of saying things which he didn’t have a basis for and he would say them too enthusiastically too early, without the evidence to back them up, and then have to backtrack from them days later.
“I do not know to what extent that was form of over-enthusiasm versus deliberate – I believe a number of it was over-enthusiasm.”
Asked if this meant he “stated issues that weren’t true”, Sir Patrick replied: “Yes”.
‘I have a high opinion of Matt Hancock as a minister’
One COVID witness who did defend Mr Hancock was Michael Gove, who was minister for the Cabinet Office and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster during the pandemic.
He told the inquiry that “an excessive amount of was requested” of Mr Hancock’s department at the beginning of the pandemic.
“We ought to collectively have recognised that this was a well being system disaster at an earlier level and brought on to different components of presidency the duty for supply that was being requested of DHSC [department for health and social care] on the time,” he said.
He added: “I’ve a excessive opinion of Matt Hancock as a minister.”
Source: information.sky.com”