'It is outrageous': Ex-UK health secretary Matt Hancock denies claims he ignored Covid care home advice

Former UK health secretary Matt Hancock denied all claims that he rejected expert advice on Covid tests for people going into care homes when the pandemic began.

These claims come as during an investigation by a journalist named Isabel Oakeshott published some 100,000 WhatsApp messages or around 2.3 million words, including Hancock's texts exchanges with the current UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Boris Johnson and a few others while working on his 'Pandemic Dairies' book, City AM reported.

According to the investigation, Professor Chris Witty, chief medical officer back then advised Hancock that anyone going into care homes should be tested.

But leaked texts suggest that he rejected the guidance and introduced mandatory Covid testing for hospital leavers.

The MP then hit back at these claims, saying "it is outrageous that this distorted account of the pandemic is being pushed with partial leaks, spun to fit an anti-lockdown agenda."

A spokesperson for Hancock claimed that a "key part" of WhatsApp messages was left out by the report. "The Telegraph have doctored the messages by excluding a key line from the texts by Allan Nixon."

The spokesperson added that all of these claims are untrue and Hancock went as far and as fast as possible in expanding testing and saving lives in the country.

On releasing the texts, Oakeshott in writing in the Telegraph said that she released the text messages as the inquiry may take many years before coming to any conclusions and claimed: "the whole thing may become a colossal whitewash."

Hancock also said that the right place for questions about the pandemic response is the official inquiry led by former Court of Appeal judge Baroness Heather Hallett.

(With inputs from agencies)

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