Matt Hancock under fire over care home deaths and ‘chaotic’ Covid response

Matt Hancock faced fresh criticism on Wednesday over the deaths of thousands of people in care homes during the Covid pandemic after the leak of WhatsApp messages which revealed “chaos” in the Government’s response to the crisis.

The former health secretary was engulfed in a row over whether he rejected advice from one of England’s health chiefs at the start of the pandemic over testing people going into care homes.

His claim to have put a “protective ring” around care homes has been thrown into greater doubt.

Mr Hancock faced allegations in The Daily Telegraph, which obtained more than 100,000 WhatsApp messages between him, ministers and officials, that he had not followed the advice of England’s Chief Medical Officer Sir Chris Whitty.

Mr Hancock furiously rejected the claims, arguing that he had not initially ordered testing on people from the community going into care homes because of testing restraints.

But shadow health secretary Wes Streeting tweeted: “The claim that the Government threw a ‘protective ring’ around care homes during Covid has proven to be a sham.

“They ignored the Chief Medical Officer and people died. How many lives could have been saved?”

However, it was far from clear this morning whether Mr Hancock had limited testing for care homes against the advice of Sir Chris. The truth of the matter seems to centre on what was said at a crucial meeting on testing in the early stages of the pandemic.

Nevertheless, what is clear is that crucial decisions were changing within hours. WhatsaApp messages obtained by the Telegraph showed Mr Hancock stating at 9.16am on April 14 2020: “Chris Whitty has done an evidence review and now recommends testing of all going into care homes, and segregation whilst awaiting result.

“This is obviously a good positive step & we must put into the doc.” The Government was due to publish its Covid plan for adult social care.

But later that day the Health Secretary changed his stance, seemingly after a meeting about testing.

An aide Allan Nixon messaged at 6.23pm: “I wasn’t in testing mtg.

“Just to check: officials are saying your steer is to *remove* the commitment to testing on admission to care homes *from the community*, but *keep* commitment to testing on admission to care homes *from hospital*. Is that right?”

He is then said to have WhatsApped 25 minutes later: “Update: we can say in the doc that it’s our ambition to test everyone going into a care home from the community where care homes want (’in the comings weeks’ is the suggested timeframe I’ve been told).”

Mr Hancock responded at 7.05pm: “Fine. Tell me if I’m wrong but I would rather leave it out and just commit to test & amp; isolate ALL going into care from hospital. I do not think the community commitment adds anything and it muddies the waters.”

He on Wednesday denied he had rejected Sir Chris’s advice on testing for care homes. A spokesman for Mr Hancock said: “On April 14th Matt received a response to his request for advice from the Chief Medical Officer’s that testing was needed for people going into care homes, which he enthusiastically accepted. Later that day he convened an operational meeting on delivering testing for care homes where he was advised it was not currently possible to test everyone entering care homes, which he also accepted.

“Matt concluded that the testing of people leaving hospital for care homes should be prioritised because of the higher risks of transmission, as it wasn’t possible to mandate everyone going into care homes got tested.”

But Lib Dem MP Daisy Cooper said: “These messages lay bare the chaos at the heart of the government during the pandemic, and the mistakes that led to countless lives being needlessly lost.”

The messages were leaked by journalist Isabel Oakeshott after she worked on the Pandemic Diaries memoir of Mr Hancock, who was suspended from the Tory parliamentary party for taking part in I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here! and will step down as an MP at the next election.

Ms Oakeshott, who has described lockdowns as a “disaster”, said she was releasing the messages as the official Covid inquiry would take “many years” and could be a “whitewash”.

Mr Hancock’s spokesman said the messages had been made available to the inquiry.