Covid families call for Matt Hancock to face legal action

03/02/2023 Health News

Covid families call for police probe into Matt Hancock’s WhatsApps that ‘show the former health secretary rejected Chris Whitty’s care home Covid testing advice before 43,000 died’

Messages were leaked by the journalist who worked on his Pandemic Diaries
Whitty said in April 2020 there should be testing for ‘all going into care homes’
Hancock claims he was told it ‘wasn’t deliverable’, and had to prioritise instead

Families of care home residents who died from Covid have called for Matt Hancock to face legal action over bombshell claims he rejected advice to test people entering the facilities.

Lindsay Jackson, a spokeswoman for Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice who lost her mother to Covid in a care home in April 2020, said: ‘The consequences of this could not be more horrific and there needs to be an immediate and serious police investigation.

‘These revelations show why [the Covid-19 inquiry] must allow families to be heard in the hearings and for our lawyers to cross-examine key people like Matt Hancock, so we can get full answers to our questions in the right setting instead of having to relive the horrors of our loss through exposés,’ she told The Telegraph.

Another grieving family member told The Mirror of Hancock: ‘He’s betrayed my mum. This reopens the wounds and it’s just heartbreaking. They are twisting the knife into our wounds.’

Leaked WhatsApp messages show Chris Whitty, the Government’s chief medical officer, insisted there should be testing for ‘all going into care homes’.

But the disgraced ex-Health Secretary did not follow the guidance — instead telling advisers it ‘muddies the waters’.

Families of care home residents who died from Covid have called for Matt Hancock (picutred) to face legal action over bombshell claims he rejected advice to test people entering care homes

In one message on April 14, Mr Hancock said Sir Chris had finished a review and recommended ‘testing of all going into care homes, and segregation whilst awaiting result’. Mr Hancock described it as ‘obviously a good positive step’. However, the investigation said he later responded to an aide: ‘Tell me if I’m wrong but I would rather leave it out and just commit to test & isolate ALL going into care from hospital. I do not think the community commitment adds anything and it muddies the waters’

Mr Hancock on Wednesday said claims he ignored Sir Chris were ‘flat wrong’, arguing texts given to The Daily Telegraph as part of an investigation called The Lockdown Files offered a ‘distorted account’ of reality.

A spokesman for the MP, who resigned from his role after being caught having an affair with a married aide, claimed capacity issues meant it was ‘not possible’ to carry out the tests at the time.

Jean Adamson, whose father died in a care home in April 2020, told Good Morning Britain she felt ‘sickened and disgusted by these revelations’.

Ms Adamson, a founding member of Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice, added: ‘This just provides further evidence, confirms what we suspected and feared all along — that the then Health Secretary Matt Hancock lies his way through.

‘He was more focused on meeting his targets at the time, rather than the welfare of our most vulnerable members of society.

‘And as a result of his decisions, his inaction, tens of thousands of elderly people died in care homes.

‘So I just feel absolutely sickened and disgusted by these revelations.’

MailOnline has not seen the full WhatsApp exchanges, leaked to The Telegraph, so cannot confirm the context.

Rishi Sunak today urged people not to focus on ‘piecemeal bits of information’, in response to the trove of more than 100,000 WhatsApp messages being handed to the Daily Telegraph.

The Prime Minister defended the official inquiry as the ‘right way’ to scrutinise the handling of the pandemic.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer called the saga an ‘insulting and ghoulish spectacle’ and called on the Prime Minister to ensure the Covid inquiry, which has already cost £85million, is completed by the end of the year.

Sir Chris Whitty (left) told then health secretary Matt Hancock (right) there should be testing for ‘all going into care homes’

CARE HOME DEATHS: Data from the Office for National Statistics shows there were more than 40,000 fatalities in care homes that involved Covid in the first two years of the pandemic. Nearly 18,000 of these occurred between mid-April and mid-August, before guidance was published stating that all of those going into homes from the community should be tested

KEY CLAIMS OF THE LOCKDOWN FILES INVESTIGATION

A fresh cache of 100,000 text and WhatsApp messages leaked to the Daily Telegraph by the ex-journalist who ghost-wrote Hancock’s pandemic diaries claimed:

Matt Hancock rejected the Chief Medical Officer’s call to test all residents going into English care homes for Covid
A minister in Mr Hancock’s department said restrictions on visitors to care homes were ‘inhumane’ but residents remained isolated many months on
Mr Hancock’s adviser arranged for a personal test to be couriered for Jacob Rees-Mogg’s child at a time of national shortage
Mr Hancock told former chancellor George Osborne, then-editor of the Evening Standard, ‘I WANT TO HIT MY TARGET!’ as he pushed for favourable front-page coverage
Mr Osborne warned Mr Hancock that ‘no one thinks testing is going well’ in late 2020
Then Prime Minister Boris Johnson, revealed he was going ‘quietly crackers’ about the UK’s shortage of test kits

Messages were leaked by journalist Isabel Oakeshott who was handed them by Mr Hancock while she worked on his Pandemic Diaries memoir, which was serialised by the Daily Mail in December.

Ms Oakeshott, who has described lockdowns as an ‘unmitigated disaster’, said she was releasing the messages because it would take ‘many years’ before the end of the official Covid inquiry, which she claimed could be a ‘colossal whitewash’.

‘That’s why I’ve decided to release this sensational cache of private communications – because we absolutely cannot wait any longer for answers,’ she said.

A spokesman for Mr Hancock said the former minister is ‘considering all options’ in response to the leak, with a source close to him saying: ‘She’s broken a legal NDA [non-disclosure agreement]. Her behaviour is outrageous.’

The spokesman said: ‘Having not been approached in advance by the Telegraph, we have reviewed the messages overnight.

‘The Telegraph intentionally excluded reference to a meeting with the testing team from the WhatsApp. This is critical, because Matt was supportive of Chris Whitty’s advice, held a meeting on its deliverability, told it wasn’t deliverable, and insisted on testing all those who came from hospitals.

‘The Telegraph have been informed that their headline is wrong, and Matt is considering all options available to him.

‘This major error by Isabel Oakeshott and the Telegraph shows why the proper place for analysis like this is the inquiry, not a partial, agenda-driven leak of confidential documents.’

The spokesman for Mr Hancock said ‘the Telegraph story is wrong’, arguing that ‘instead of spinning and leaks we need the full, comprehensive inquiry’.

‘It is outrageous that this distorted account of the pandemic is being pushed with partial leaks, spun to fit an anti-lockdown agenda, which would have cost hundreds of thousands of lives if followed. What the messages do show is a lot of people working hard to save lives,’ the spokesman said.

Discussing Mr Hancock’s messages on Good Morning Britain, Jean Adamson (pictured), whose father died in a care home in April 2020, said: ‘I am appalled, quite frankly. Sickened. But I am not surprised. I am not surprised at all’

Matt Hancock and Boris Johnson, then Health Secretary and Prime Minister, pictured during a visit to Bassetlaw District General Hospital on November 22, 2019

The leaked texts also include exchanges between the former Health Secretary and then Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who revealed he was going ‘quietly crackers’ about the UK’s shortage of test kits

‘Those who argue there shouldn’t have been a lockdown ignore the fact that half-a-million people would have died had we not locked down.

‘And for those saying we should never lock down again, imagine if a disease killed half those infected, and half the population were going to get infected – as is happening right now with avian flu in birds. If that disease were in humans, of course we’d want to lock down.’

He continued: ‘The story spun on care homes is completely wrong. What the messages show is that Mr Hancock pushed for testing of those going into care homes when that testing was available.

‘The full documents have already all been made available to the inquiry, which is the proper place for an objective assessment, so true lessons can be learned.’

Health minister Helen Whately, whose texts were also leaked by The Telegraph, today said the importance of testing was ‘never in doubt’ but added ‘tough decisions about prioritisation had to be made’.

She said: ‘Even in those early days, the UK Government and colleagues in my department were clear, testing would be crucial.

‘That is why the former secretary of state, the Right Honourable member for West Suffolk [Matt Hancock] set ambitious testing targets to drive a true step change in the quantity of tests because he knew testing would be a vital lifeline until the vaccines could be developed and proven safe and effective.’

She added: ‘The importance of testing was never in doubt and there was full agreement on that in every part of Government, from the chief medical officer to the health secretary to the prime minister.

‘But in a situation where we had the capacity to test at most a few thousand each day, tough decisions about prioritisation had to be made, decisions that were taken on the best public health advice available.’

Official stats show more than 43,000 care home residents died from the virus during the first two years of the unprecedented crisis.

Matt Hancock was warned it was ‘inhumane’ to impose restrictions on visiting care homes and elderly were at risk of ‘just giving up’ due to being isolated for so long, leaked messages show

The messages show Health Secretary Matt Hancock advised against any sudden changes to the visiting rules, as the government sought to improve its monthly targets

Mr Hancock oversaw the hugely contentious policy that allowed untested hospital patients to be discharged into care homes at the height of the first wave — seen as the defining factor behind the huge death toll in the sector.

Ms Adamson added: ‘We have always been seeking the truth and so desperate for lessons to be learned to prevent further loss of life and that’s what we’ve always been focused on.

‘However, whilst these untruths are being peddled, we can’t even hope to learn lessons because there has been this lack of transparency from the very outset.

‘My father, among tens of thousands of other care home residents, were lambs to the slaughter.

‘And Matt Hancock has really treated us with contempt. He had this foray into the Jungle, bleating on about forgiveness and wanting to make things right.

‘But this man is yet to actually show a heartfelt apology.

‘It’s all about him and his image that he’s trying to rehabilitate. But he’s shown no compassion and treated us with the utmost disrespect.’

Meanwhile, one campaign group revealed that it would back ‘an immediate police investigation into criminal negligence and misconduct in public office’, if there was enough evidence.

Social media users — including Piers Morgan and other critics of No10’s handling of the outbreak — accused him of ‘criminal negligence’.

Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK said: ‘There needs to be an immediate and serious police investigation in parallel with the inquiry.’

Another grieving relative, who wished to stay anonymous, told MailOnline that they would ‘fully support’ anyone seeking to go down the legal route.

And Jayne Connery, of Vulnerable Care, said: ‘The elderly residents that lost their lives need answers.’

Labour’s shadow health secretary Wes Streeting said: ‘The claim 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?’

Liberal Democrat health and social care spokesperson 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.

‘Matt Hancock’s claims to have thrown a protective ring around our care homes could not be further from the truth.

‘It’s almost a year ago that a court ruled that the government unlawfully discharged people from hospitals into care homes without testing.

‘But bereaved families are still no closer to having justice and the truth. They deserve answers through the official Covid inquiry, so we can learn lessons and save lives.’

In one message on April 14, Mr Hancock said Sir Chris had finished a review and recommended ‘testing of all going into care homes, and segregation whilst awaiting result’.

Mr Hancock described it as ‘obviously a good positive step’.

However, the investigation said he later responded to an aide: ‘Tell me if I’m wrong but I would rather leave it out and just commit to test & isolate ALL going into care from hospital. I do not think the community commitment adds anything and it muddies the waters.’

Official guidance, which was published on April 15, set out that all those discharged from hospitals into care homes would be tested — but the Government would ‘move to’ testing those going into care from the community.

However, it was not until August 14 that the document was updated to require care home admissions from the community to be tested.

In the first two years of the pandemic, care homes in England logged 43,256 deaths involving Covid. Nearly 18,000 of these were logged between mid-April and mid-August — before homes were instructed to test all new admissions.

Mr Hancock told the Health and Social Care Committee in June 2021 that ‘sadly the biggest route of Covid into care homes is through the community’.

And in his pandemic diaries, Mr Hancock claimed hospital discharges were not to blame, and pointed the finger at infections being ‘brought in from the wider community, mainly by staff’.

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