Matt Hancock at COVID inquiry: Dominic Cummings evidence ‘inaccurate’ and UK ‘should’ve locked down three weeks earlier’
Matt Hancock has accused Dominic Cummings of giving “inaccurate” evidence to the COVID inquiry as he refuted accusations he himself was a liar – while also claiming the first lockdown happening three weeks earlier would have saved “many, many lives”.
The former health secretary on Thursday spent the whole day giving evidence to the UK’s COVID inquiry – and will return to continue doing so Friday.
In an escalating war of words, Mr Hancock accused Boris Johnson’s former chief adviser of being a “malign actor” who created a “toxic culture” in Downing Street during the pandemic.
Politics Live: Ex-Labour chancellor Alistair Darling dies
Politics Hub with Sophy Ridge
Sky News Monday to Thursday at 7pm.
Watch live on Sky channel 501, Freeview 233, Virgin 602, the Sky News website and app or YouTube.
The broadside came as Mr Hancock was asked about accusations levelled at him that he had a habit of saying things that weren’t true when he held the top post in the health department.
Inquiry counsel Hugo Keith said a number of witnesses – including Mr Cummings, ex-chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance and former deputy cabinet secretary Helen MacNamara – referred to Mr Hancock as “lying”, “getting overexcited and just saying stuff” and saying things “which surprise people because they knew the evidence base wasn’t there”.
‘I was not’ lying
Mr Hancock said: “I was not.
“You will note that there’s no evidence from anybody who I worked with in the department or the health system who supported those false allegations.”
He added: “What there was, was a great deal of hard work on our side and a toxic culture that we had to work with, which seemed to want to find people to blame rather than spend all of their effort solving the problems.”
Mr Hancock went on to say that the “toxic culture” in government was “essentially caused by the chief adviser [Mr Cummings]” and the impact was that “others were brought into it”.
He said “the lesson for the future is systems need to be in place so that if there is a malign actor in No 10” or “people whose behaviour is unprofessional” then “the system needs to be able to work despite that”.
While defending his own relationship with the truth, Mr Hancock suggested that Mr Cummings’ testimony was “not accurate”.
He was presented with evidence the former adviser gave to the inquiry, saying that by 11 March – two weeks before the nation went into lockdown – it was generally understood a large percentage of the virus was being transmitted asymptomatically.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
‘Did you lie your way through COVID?’
Read More:
Key questions facing ex-health secretary when he gives evidence
Hancock’s ex-aide called Cummings a ‘psychopath’
Inquiry reveals a toxic, destructive group working through a crisis
Mr Hancock said: “Well that is not accurate, as much of that particular witness’s evidence is not accurate, that is not accurate in all areas.”
In his attack on Mr Cummings, Mr Hancock also claimed the ex-top aide created a “culture of fear”, abused health department staff and “got in the way” of the response to the pandemic by trying to stage “a power-grab” and exclude ministers from meetings.
He said Mr Cummings had attempted to exert influence over decision-making in a way that was “inappropriate in a democracy”.
But Mr Cummings, who was heavily critical of Mr Hancock in his evidence to the inquiry, calling him a “proven liar”, hit back on social media that the former Tory MP is talking “rubbish”.
‘Incredibly raw’ to see Hancock give evidence
“It’s incredibly raw to me.”
Nicola Richards lost 30 residents of her care home during the peak of the virus.
As she watched Matt Hancock give his evidence to the COVID-19 inquiry, she remembered the trauma of those days in spring 2020.
Mr Hancock admitted he failed to “throw a protective ring around care homes” – as he claimed at a Downing Street press conference in May 2020.
It brings back memories for me too. Because during the peak of the virus, I was with the staff and residents of Nicola’s care home in Sheffield, which was like thousands across the country in the grip of this unknown, invisible but deadly virus.
I witnessed for myself a lack of PPE, a shortage of tests for staff and patients discharged from hospital without being tested.
Patients gasping for breath, their relatives unable to be by their bedside in those final moments.
Nicola says she’s still dealing with the guilt of staff who likely came into contact with residents when they didn’t know they had the virus, potentially passing it on to the vulnerable.
Through the inquiry, Mr Hancock’s been accused of lying by his close political and scientific colleagues, but perhaps the worst verdict is from those who were on the front line on care homes.
“It’s incredibly raw to me. It’s upsetting to hear Mr Hancock speak about this three years on,” said Nicola.
“There was never a protective ring around care homes. We were left to fend for ourselves and the most vulnerable suffered.”
Locking down earlier, the care sector and Eat Out to Help Out
In the latter half of the inquiry, Mr Hancock was probed on various parts of the government’s response to the pandemic.
He said that 28 February 2020 was when the centre of government – including Mr Johnson – “really started to come into action”.
The former health secretary defended the path of action taken at the time, but said “with hindsight”, “that’s the moment we should have [locked down], three weeks, and it would have been would have saved many, many lives”.
The inquiry later moved on to the care sector and the way Mr Hancock described putting a “protective ring” around care homes.
At one point, messages sent from Mr Hancock’s then adviser, Jamie Njoku-Goodwin, on 13 May are shown to the inquiry. He tells his boss they might “have some issues” with Mr Hancock telling Mr Johnson care homes were “locked down” before the rest of the UK.
Mr Hancock admitted there were holes in his ‘protective ring’ of care homes
The only evidence for Mr Hancock’s claim at the time was guidance from 13 March which told sick people and contractors to stay away from care facilities, and encouraged hand-washing.
Mr Hancock also admitted that his so-called “protective ring” around care homes was not an unbroken circle of protection and had holes in it.
The former health secretary confirmed to the inquiry that he had not heard about the controversial Eat Out to Help Out scheme – which discounted using hospitality after the first lockdown – before it was announced to cabinet and the public.
Messages show that – despite being told the scheme was “causing problems”, Mr Hancock told cabinet secretary Simon Case he had “kept it out of the news”.
He added that he had been “protecting [the Treasury headed by then chancellor Rishi Sunak] in the comms and thankfully it hasn’t bubbled up”.
The former cabinet minister claimed he did this because he believed government is a “team effort”.
Mr Hancock played a key role in the UK’s pandemic response but various witnesses have expressed concern about his approach, with the inquiry hearing that the country’s most senior civil servant wanted him to be sacked and another accusing him of displaying “nuclear levels of overconfidence”.
His political career was torpedoed after footage emerged in 2021 of his affair with aide Gina Coladangelo which broke social distancing guidelines.
He now sits as an independent MP after losing the party whip for appearing on ITV’s I’m A Celebrity reality TV show following his sacking.
Click to subscribe to the Sky News Daily wherever you get your podcasts
He sought to defend his record during the lengthy evidence hearing, claiming he raised concerns about COVID in early 2020 but they were not taken seriously, and that he even warned Mr Johnson to go into lockdown 10 days before this actually happened.
But the inquiry barrister questioned his claim, saying there was no entry in Mr Hancock’s book, Pandemic Diaries, recording such a conversation and no notes or emails in the inquiry’s possession to back up his version of events.
Politics
Sir Keir Starmer vows to defend budget decisions ‘all day long’ as farmers slam ‘disrespectful’ PM
Sir Keir Starmer has said he will defend the decisions made in the budget “all day long” amid anger from farmers over inheritance tax changes.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced last month in her key speech that from April 2026, farms worth more than £1m will face an inheritance tax rate of 20%, rather than the standard 40% applied to other land and property.
The announcement has sparked anger among farmers who argue this will mean higher food prices, lower food production and having to sell off land to pay for the tax.
Sir Keir defended the budget as he gave his first speech as prime minister at the Welsh Labour conference in Llandudno, North Wales, where farmers have been holding a tractor protest outside.
Sir Keir admitted: “We’ve taken some extremely tough decisions on tax.”
He said: “I will defend facing up to the harsh light of fiscal reality. I will defend the tough decisions that were necessary to stabilise our economy.
“And I will defend protecting the payslips of working people, fixing the foundations of our economy, and investing in the future of Britain and the future of Wales. Finally, turning the page on austerity once and for all.”
He also said the budget allocation for Wales was a “record figure” – some £21bn for next year – an extra £1.7bn through the Barnett Formula, as he hailed a “path of change” with Labour governments in Wales and Westminster.
And he confirmed a £160m investment zone in Wrexham and Flintshire will be going live in 2025.
‘PM should have addressed the protesters’
Among the hundreds of farmers demonstrating was Gareth Wyn Jones, who told Sky News it was “disrespectful” that the prime minister did not mention farmers in his speech.
He said “so many people have come here to air their frustrations. He (Starmer) had an opportunity to address the crowd. Even if he was booed he should have been man enough to come out and talk to the people”.
He said farmers planned to deliver Sir Keir a letter which begins with “‘don’t bite the hand that feeds you”.
Farmers’ tractor protest outside the Welsh Labour conference in Llandudno, North Wales
Mr Wyn Jones told Sky News the government was “destroying” an industry that was already struggling.
“They’re destroying an industry that’s already on its knees and struggling, absolutely struggling, mentally, emotionally and physically. We need government support not more hindrance so we can produce food to feed the nation.”
He said inheritance tax changes will result in farmers increasing the price of food: “The poorer people in society aren’t going to be able to afford good, healthy, nutritious British food, so we have to push this to government for them to understand that enough is enough, the farmers can’t take any more of what they’re throwing at us.”
Mr Wyn Jones disputed the government’s estimation that only 500 farming estates in the UK will be affected by the inheritance tax changes.
“Look, a lot of farmers in this country are in their 70s and 80s, they haven’t handed their farms down because that’s the way it’s always been, they’ve always known there was never going to be inheritance tax.”
On Friday, Sir Keir addressed farmers’ concerns, saying: “I know some farmers are anxious about the inheritance tax rules that we brought in two weeks ago.
“What I would say about that is, once you add the £1m for the farmland to the £1m that is exempt for your spouse, for most couples with a farm wanting to hand on to their children, it’s £3m before anybody pays a penny in inheritance tax.”
Read more:
Ex-Labour adviser suggests doing to farms ‘what Thatcher did to coal mines’
Farmers ‘could block ports and disrupt food supply’
Welsh farmer Gareth Wyn Jones
Ministers said the move will not affect small farms and is aimed at targeting wealthy landowners who buy up farmland to avoid paying inheritance tax.
But analysis this week said a typical family farm would have to put 159% of annual profits into paying the new inheritance tax every year for a decade and could have to sell 20% of their land.
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
The Country and Land Business Association (CLA), which represents owners of rural land, property and businesses in England and Wales, found a typical 200-acre farm owned by one person with an expected profit of £27,300 would face a £435,000 inheritance tax bill.
The plan says families can spread the inheritance tax payments over 10 years, but the CLA found this would require an average farm to allocate 159% of its profits each year for a decade.
To pay that, successors could be forced to sell 20% of their land, the analysis found.
Trump’s administration could push DeFi from niche to mainstream, with crypto advocates eyeing potential pro-crypto policy shifts.
A former Conservative MP has said he felt “enormous guilt” when he found out he was the victim of a Westminster honeytrap scandal.
William Wragg resigned from the parliamentary party in April after he admitted giving out fellow politicians’ phone numbers to the suspected perpetrator of the sexting scam.
He said he felt threatened and pressured by the “catfish” after exchanging explicit photos with them.
Mr Wragg divulged the numbers to what he thought was a real person on a dating app, amid fears that the intimate images of himself would be leaked.
The former Tory party whip said he first saw news articles about the scandal when he was on a train.
The 36-year-old told the BBC: “My stomach just dropped.
“When I found out some of the things that had been going on, I just felt enormous guilt, enormous remorse.”
After the former Hazel Grove MP handed over the personal information, the catfish told Mr Wragg to vouch for their identity with their next potential victims, with the catfish telling their fresh targets they were a former researcher for Mr Wragg.
Mr Wragg agreed and this is what he feels “the most regret for” as it was “deceitful”.
Pic: PA
Panic attacks
After he was allegedly blackmailed, Mr Wragg started having panic attacks, with instances of yelling, crying, and swearing shocking his sleeping flatmates.
Police are investigating the scandal with at least 12 men with links to Westminster believed to have received unsolicited messages from the aliases “Charlie” and “Abi”.
The fake accounts were allegedly part of the scam to get MPs and other people in politics to send explicit images and other private or sensitive information.
Unlike others who were approached by the catfish accounts, Mr Wragg approached “Charlie” himself after spotting the profile on gay dating app Grindr.
And he thought the account was a real person before exchanging explicit photos with the catfish.
Suicidal thoughts
When the scandal broke, the humiliation and shame became too much for Mr Wragg.
He recounted photographers and the media camped outside his parents’ house, which is where he went to as he began to have suicidal thoughts.
Shortly after receiving medical attention, he returned to Westminster to resign as Conservative whip and from his posts on two parliamentary committees.
He had already announced he would not run in the next general election.
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
Man detained
In June, a member of the Labour Party aged in his mid-20s was apprehended in Islington, north London, on suspicion of harassment and offences under the Online Safety Act.
He has since been released on bail.
Anyone feeling emotionally distressed or suicidal can call Samaritans for help on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org in the UK.
-
Sports2 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports7 months agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports1 year agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Environment1 year agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Sports3 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Business2 years agoBank of England’s extraordinary response to government policy is almost unthinkable | Ed Conway