Matt Hancock is ‘two-faced’ and ‘was like a headless chicken’ during COVID vaccine drive
Matt Hancock has been branded “two-faced” and compared to a “headless chicken” by the former boss of the COVID vaccines taskforce.
Dr Clive Dix said the outgoing Tory MP, who resigned as health secretary after being caught breaking social distancing rules to pursue an affair with an aide, was “the most difficult of all the ministers”.
“He didn’t take time to understand anything,” he said of Mr Hancock, in an article for The Daily Telegraph.
“He was all over the place, a bit like a headless chicken.”
Dr Dix is especially critical of Mr Hancock’s desire to set public targets, including driving the goal of vaccinating the entire population against the virus.
The damning assessment of the ex-minister’s conduct during the pandemic comes as more of his leaked WhatsApp messages from the height of the outbreak emerge.
Earlier, the messages revealed Mr Hancock took his mistress to private dinners with the US health secretary then altered a ministerial response to remove suggestions he invited her.
Some of the latest texts to be published in the Telegraph show Mr Hancock made a series of negative comments about senior figures who worked on the vaccine rollout.
Exchanges from October 2020 show him describing vaccines tsar Dame Kate Bingham as “totally unreliable”.
Mr Hancock said she has a “wacky way” of expressing her views, after a Financial Times interview in which she recommended the UK should only vaccinate “everyone at risk” rather than the whole population.
He complained about Dame Kate again in February 2021, as well as Dr Dix, amid concerns over the UK’s access to vaccines from India as a backup to jabs from AstraZeneca, which was experiencing manufacturing problems.
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Dr Dix, who became deputy chair of the vaccine taskforce in June 2020 and interim chair at the end of 2020, said it showed the West Suffolk MP was “panicking”.
The UK did procure jabs from India in 2021, which Dr Dix said “had been meant for the developing world”.
A spokesman for Dame Kate told the Telegraph that the messages suggested Mr Hancock “was not aware of the published and agreed government vaccine procurement policy”.
He also seemingly “did not read the reports by and about the work of the Vaccine Taskforce”.
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‘He was a loose cannon’
In his article for the Telegraph, Dr Dix said Mr Hancock’s leaked WhatsApp messages – shared with the newspaper by journalist Isabel Oakeshott – were “two-faced”.
“We were working as hard as we could, and he thought he could just come in and make a bold statement to the public and tell us that we have got to do it,” he said.
“I don’t think he understood the process. He was a loose cannon.”
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Hancock fought ‘resistance in the system’
Mr Hancock has dismissed the Telegraph’s reporting, with a spokesperson labelling the stories as “wrong”.
“Matt drove the goal of getting everyone vaccinated, often against resistance in the system,” they said.
Menawhile, earlier, former chancellor George Osborne, defended the former health secretary as one of the “sensible” ministers during the pandemic.
The former Conservative MP, who crops up in the leaked messages offering advice and support to Mr Hancock amid the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic, told Channel 4’s The Andrew Neil Show, the ex-health secretary was a “rational” voice in government.
Mr Osborne said: “This is not a fashionable view at the moment – but Matt was one of the sensible people in the room in a supreme crisis for the British state and indeed lots of other countries around the world.”
Mr Hancock’s account of the UK’s response to the pandemic is outlined in his memoir, The Pandemic Diaries, which was co-authored by Ms Oakeshott.
Mr Hancock shared the WhatsApp messages with her as they worked on the book.
Ms Oakeshott says she leaked them as it was in the “public interest”.
A teenage girl who was killed after getting out of a police car on the M5 in Somerset has been named.
Tamzin Hall, 17 and from Wellington, was hit by a vehicle that was travelling southbound between junction 24 for Bridgwater and junction 25 for Taunton shortly after 11pm on Monday.
She had exited a police vehicle that had stopped on the northbound side of the motorway while transporting her.
A mandatory referral was made to the Independent Office for Police Conduct, which is now carrying out its own investigation into what happened.
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Avon and Somerset Police said: “Our thoughts and sympathies go out to Tamzin’s family for their devastating loss.
“A specially-trained family liaison officer remains in contact with them to keep them updated and to provide support.
“The family have asked for privacy at this difficult time.”
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The police watchdog, the IOPC, has been asked to investigate.
In a statement, director David Ford, said: “This was a truly tragic incident and my thoughts are with Tamzin’s family and friends and everyone affected by the events of that evening.
“We are contacting her family to express our sympathies, explain our role, and set out how our investigation will progress. We will keep them fully updated as our investigation continues.”
Paramedics attended the motorway within minutes of the girl being hit but she was pronounced dead at the scene.
The motorway was closed in both directions while investigations took place. It was fully reopened shortly after 11am on Tuesday, Nationals Highways said.
A survivors group advocating for women allegedly assaulted by Mohamed al Fayed has said it is “grateful another abuser has been unmasked”, after allegations his brother Salah also participated in the abuse.
Justice for Harrods Survivors says it has “credible evidence” suggesting the sexual abuse allegedly perpetrated at Harrods and the billionaire’s properties “was not limited to Mr al Fayed himself”.
The group’s statement comes after three women told BBC News they were sexually assaulted by al Fayed’s brother, Salah.
One woman said she was raped by Mohamed al Fayed while working at Harrods.
Helen, who has waived her right to anonymity, said she then took a job working for his brother as an escape. She alleges she was drugged and sexually assaulted while working at Salah’s home on Park Lane, London.
Two other women have told the BBC they were taken to Monaco and the South of France, where Salah sexually abused them.
Mohamed al Fayed. Pic: AP
The Justice for Harrod Survivors representatives said: “We are proud to support the survivors of Salah Fayed’s abuse and are committed to achieving justice for them, no matter what it takes.”
The group added it “looks forward to the others on whom we have credible evidence – whether abusers themselves or enablers facilitating that abuse – being exposed in due course”.
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Salah was one of the three Fayed brothers who co-owned Harrods.
The business, which was sold to Qatar Holdings when Mohamed al Fayed retired in 2010, has said it “supports the bravery of these women in coming forward”.
A statement issued by the famous store on Thursday evening continued: “We encourage these survivors to come forward and make their claims to the Harrods scheme, where they can apply for compensation, as well as support from a counselling perspective and through an independent survivor advocate.
“We also hope that they are looking at every appropriate avenue to them in their pursuit of justice, whether that be Harrods, the police or the Fayed family and estate.”
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Bianca Gascoigne speaks about Al Fayed abuse
The Justice for Harrods Survivors group previously said more than 400 people had contacted them regarding accusations about Mohamed al Fayed, who died last year.
One of those alleged to have been abused is Bianca Gascoigne, the daughter of former England player Paul.
Speaking to Sky News in October, Gascoigne said she was groomed and sexually assaulted by al Fayed when she worked at Harrods as a teenager.
UK
Wes Streeting ‘crossed the line’ by opposing assisted dying in public, says Labour peer Harriet Harman
Wes Streeting “crossed the line” by opposing assisted dying in public and the argument shouldn’t “come down to resources”, a Labour peer has said.
Speaking on Sky News’ Electoral Dysfunction podcast, Baroness Harriet Harman criticised the health secretary for revealing how he is going to vote on the matter when it comes before parliament later this month.
MPs are being given a free vote, meaning they can side with their conscience and not party lines, so the government is supposed to be staying neutral.
But Mr Streeting has made clear he will vote against legalising assisted dying, citing concerns end-of-life care is not good enough for people to make an informed choice, and that some could feel pressured into the decision to save the NHS money.
He has also ordered a review into the potential costs of changing the law, warning it could come at the expense of other NHS services if implemented.
Baroness Harman said Mr Streeting has “crossed the line in two ways”.
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“He should not have said how he was going to vote, because that breaches neutrality and sends a signal,” she said.
“And secondly… he’s said the problem is that it will cost money to bring in an assisted dying measure, and therefore he will have to cut other services.
“But paradoxically, he also said it would be a slippery slope because people will be forced to bring about their own death in order to save the NHS money. Well, it can’t be doing both things.
“It can’t be both costing the NHS money and saving the NHS money.”
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Review into assisted dying costs
Baroness Harman said the argument “should not come down to resources” as it is a “huge moral issue” affecting “only a tiny number of people”.
She added that people should not mistake Mr Streeting for being “a kind of proxy for Keir Starmer”.
“The government is genuinely neutral and all of those backbenchers, they can vote whichever way they want,” she added.
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‘Fix care before assisted dying legislation’
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Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has previously expressed support for assisted dying, but it is not clear how he intends to vote on the issue or if he will make his decision public ahead of time.
The cabinet has varying views on the topic, with the likes of Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood siding with Mr Streeting in her opposition but Energy Secretary Ed Miliband being for it.
Energy Security and Net Zero Secretary Ed Miliband is said to support the bill. Pic: Reuters
Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood has concerns. Pic: Reuters
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The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill is being championed by Labour backbencher Kim Leadbeater, who wants to give people with six months left to live the choice to end their lives.
Under her proposals, two independent doctors must confirm a patient is eligible for assisted dying and a High Court judge must give their approval.
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Labour MP Kim Leadbeater discusses End of Life Bill
The bill will also include punishments of up to 14 years in prison for those who break the law, including coercing someone into ending their own life.
MPs will debate and vote on the legislation on 29 November, in what will be the first Commons vote on assisted dying since 2015, when the proposal was defeated.
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