✕CloseMatt Hancock questioned over resignation after affair with Gina Coladangelo
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Matt Hancock has admitted his affair with aide Gina Coladangelo in breach of his own lockdown rules damaged public confidence, as he gave evidence to the Covid inquiry.
Taking the stand for a second day on Friday, the ex-health secretary suggested that “the lesson for the future is very clear” in that “it is important that those who make the rules abide by them”, adding: “I resigned in order to take accountability for my failure to do that.”
Mr Hancock also defended his decision to discharge hospital patients into care homes without testing them for Covid-19 as “rational and reasonable”, adding: “Nobody has yet brought to me a solution to this problem that I think, even with hindsight, would have resulted in more lives saved.”
The MP claimed on Thursday that a phone call he had with Boris Johnson on 28 February 2020 marked the moment government “really started to come into action”, and claimed that had his own “doctrine” been followed, the first lockdown would have come three weeks earlier – saving 90 per cent of those who died in the first wave.
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Hancock says he would like to double sick pay in UK
Sick pay in the UK “is far too low” and “I’d double it”, Matt Hancock has claimed, after the Trades Union Congress (TUC) asked him about self-isolation payments for people with from Covid-19.
In March 2020, the government made sick pay available from day one rather than day three. But messages at the time from Mr Hancock suggested that, while he was supportive, it only solved half the problem.
Asked what the other half of the problem was, Mr Hancock said: “Well sick pay in this country is far, far too low. It’s far lower than the European average, it encourages people to go to work when they should be getting better.
“Having low sick pay encourages the spread of communicable diseases. Having higher sick pay… would encourage employers to do more to look after the health of their employees.
“Before the pandemic, I’d been on an internal government campaign to significantly increase sick pay. I’d double it if I had a magic wand. So moving from three days to one day of payment was a small step, which obviously was necessary for the pandemic – and I enthusiastically embraced – but I would have gone far, far higher.
“We needed isolation payments from the start. We got them in the end by September. And I pay tribute to the Trades Union Congress for their campaigning on this issue, which helped me get it over the line.”
Andy Gregory1 December 2023 14:581701440813
Hancock: I was opposed on lockdown by ‘coordinated group'
Matt Hancock has said he was opposed by a “co-ordinated” group that argued against lockdown in Parliament.
The former health secretary added that the need to maintain “parliamentary consent” was a reason why he thought a circuit breaker proposal was not the best way forward.
Mr Hancock told the UK Covid-19 Inquiry: “Those arguing against lockdown in Parliament were formulating a group – they were co-ordinated, they were campaigning, and this became more of a problem later on.
“And so we needed to keep parliamentary consent and public support. And that was one of the reasons that I thought in practice a circuit breaker proposal wasn’t the best way forward.”
Andy Gregory1 December 2023 14:261701439433
ICYMI: Matt Hancock bemoans ‘toxic culture’ at heart of Government
In his first day of evidence yesterday, Matt Hancock defended his record as health secretary, hitting out at a “toxic culture” and “deep unpleasantness” at the heart of Government during the pandemic.
The former minister denied there had been “absence of a plan” and insisted his department “rose to the challenge” of responding to the biggest public health crisis in a century.
You can read more here:
Covid inquiry: Matt Hancock bemoans ‘toxic culture’ at heart of Government
The former miniser denied there had been ‘absence of a plan’ and insisted his department did ‘rise to the challenge’ of the pandemic.
Andy Gregory1 December 2023 14:031701438113
‘I think we have agreed on almost everything’: Hancock snaps back during Covid inquiry
‘I think we have agreed on almost everything’: Hancock snaps back during Covid inquiryAndy Gregory1 December 2023 13:411701436973
Hancock’s media adviser warned him he may need to brace for care home criticism
Matt Hancock was warned by his media adviser in early April 2020 that he may need to “get ahead” of newspaper “front pages demanding why we weren’t testing people in care homes” if people started to die from Covid in large numbers, the UK Covid-19 Inquiry has been told.
A WhatsApp message, sent on 4 April 2020 to Mr Hancock by his media adviser Jamie Njoku-Goodwin said: “On testing, do we need to have a specific strand/push on testing in care homes? We are testing hospital admissions and clinical patients at risk.
“Do we also need a push on testing people in care? Or at least have some sort of focused effort on testing people in care.
“I know it is complex and the people dying in care homes are often people who were near the end regardless, but I worry that if a load of people in care start dying, there will be front pages demanding why we weren’t testing people in care homes. Do we need to get ahead of this now?”
Mr Hancock’s WhatsApp response to the message was then read out. It stated: “Let’s have rapid advice on this tying together all the angles.”
Responding to the WhatsApps, the former health secretary told the inquiry: “The reason that we did not at that point have as much testing in care homes as many would have wanted, was that we didn’t have enough tests and the clinical prioritisation of who got tests in what order was absolutely something that I wouldn’t have interfered with.”
Andy Gregory1 December 2023 13:221701435869
Hancock did not consider allowing domestic abuse victims to find refuge with family during lockdown
Matt Hancock has said he would most likely have been in favour of ensuring there were provisions in the lockdown rules to allow women in abusive relationships to seek sanctuary or respite at a friend or relative’s home – but that such a need was never brought to his attention.
The ex-health secretary was asked whether he had ever considered a lockdown provision to allow people to let their home be used as a place of sanctuary or respite for a friend or family member, given that in normal times people considering leaving abusive relationships will often turn to loved ones as opposed to refuges.
“I don’t recall that being brought to my attention, that consideration,” Mr Hancock told the inquiry. “I had a excellent team who cared very deeply about this subject and the impact of the regulations on people, as you say mostly women who are subject to domestic abuse and violence.”
He added: “I don’t recall that being brought to my attention. Had it been I’m highly confident that I would have said that we should have put in place such provision because the impact on the overall virus would have been relatively low because although the numbers are far too big they are, as a part of the population, relatively low.
“And in the same way that we realised that our initial regulations in terms of how they impacted funerals, for example, were much firmer in their interpretation on the ground than we had intended, and therefore changed them, that is the sort of thing I certaintly would have been open to considering.”
Andy Gregory1 December 2023 13:041701434618
Watch: Hancock ‘acutely aware’ of Covid’s impact on ethnic minority NHS staff
Hancock ‘acutely aware’ of Covid’s impact on ethnic minority NHS staffAndy Gregory1 December 2023 12:431701432528
Nicola Sturgeon’s Covid communications ‘unhelpful and confusing to the public’, claims Hancock
Scotland’s former first minister Nicola Sturgeon would communicate with the public “in a way that was unhelpful and confusing”, Matt Hancock has claimed.
The Covid-19 Inquiry was shown WhatsApp messages from Mr Hancock from July 2020, regarding communications around travel from Spain and quarantine.
When told that No 10 wanted to communicate the matter “ASAP”, Mr Hancock replied: “Me too. It will leak anyway – and the Scots will try to get their announcement out first.”
Asked by a representative of the Scottish Covid bereaved: “What is the issue with the first minister communicating that to the people of Scotland first?”
Mr Hancock said: “There were a number of moments when the first minister of Scotland would communicate in a way that was unhelpful and confusing to the public. And sometimes, [she] would leave a meeting and begin communication of a decision, for instance, sooner than agreed.”
He added: “We found it much more difficult when decisions went up to first minister level, particularly with Nicola Sturgeon. Because we would find that sometimes some kind of spin was put on what was essentially substantively the same decision. So it was a frustration, I’ve got to be honest about that.”
Andy Gregory1 December 2023 12:081701431776
What were the Covid rules at the time of Hancock’s ‘embrace’
Matt Hancock has agreed that this decision to resign after his affair with aide Gina Coladangelo reflected that he understood the “deleterious consequences of rule-breaking” on public confidence.
So what were the Covid rules at the time? My colleague Joe Middleton reports:
What were the Covid rules at the time of Hancock’s ‘embrace’
According to Mr Hancock, ‘social distancing rules are very important and people should follow them’
Andy Gregory1 December 2023 11:561701430368
Discharging hospital patients into care homes was ‘rational and reasonable’, says Hancock
Matt Hancock has defended his decision to discharge hospital patients into care homes without testing for Covid as “rational and reasonable”.
Mr Hancock said of the 19 March 2020 decision: “The testing capacity was much too small at this point … on 17 March I had taken responsibility for testing from PHE into the Department [of Health] because it wasn’t growing fast enough. So I knew there was a problem and I was acting on it.”
He added: “If I’d left them in hospital they were more likely to have caught Covid because of the risk of nosocomial infection, and … it was rational and reasonable to make sure they were in the safest place they could be.
“I fear – and this is the only choices between bad options here – that if we had left those patients in hospital, those who were medically fit to discharge, there is a high likelihood that more would have caught Covid and the problem could have been bigger.
“I have gone over and over in my head the decisions that we took … every decision was a choice between difficult options and nobody has yet brought to me a solution to this problem that I think, even with hindsight, would have resulted in more lives saved. If there is one I want to know about it.”
Andy Gregory1 December 2023 11:32NewerOlder✕
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