Matt Hancock is ‘two-faced’ and ‘was like a headless chicken’ during COVID vaccine drive

Published

2 years ago

March 6, 2023

admin

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.

Click to subscribe to the Sky News Daily wherever you get your podcasts

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”.

‘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.”

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”.

UK

Boy, 14, stabbed to death on bus in Woolwich, southeast London

Published

4 hours ago

January 7, 2025

admin

Boy, 14, stabbed to death on bus in Woolwich, southeast London

A 14-year-old boy has been stabbed to death on a bus in Woolwich, in southeast London.

Police were called around 2.30pm to reports of a stabbing on a bus on Woolwich Church Road near the junction with the A205 South Circular Road.

A boy who police said had received stab wounds was treated by paramedics, but he died at the scene shortly after they arrived.

Officers have launched an investigation into the incident.

No arrests have been made so far but police are appealing for witnesses of the incident on the 472 bus.

A cordon and road closures were in place as of shortly before 5pm.

UK

Liverpool hospital declares critical incident over ‘exceptionally high’ demand on A&E amid rising flu cases

Published

8 hours ago

January 7, 2025

admin

Liverpool hospital declares critical incident over 'exceptionally high' demand on A&E amid rising flu cases

The Royal Liverpool University Hospital has declared a critical incident due to “exceptionally high” demand on A&E and patients being admitted to wards.

The hospital said there had been a spike in people with flu and respiratory illnesses going to emergency departments in recent weeks.

The number of people in England’s hospital with flu quadrupled in the last month, according to NHS data.

A spokesperson for the hospital said it had a “comprehensive plan in place” and was “taking all the necessary actions to manage the challenging circumstances”.

“We are working with partner organisations to ensure those that are medically fit can leave hospital safely and at the earliest opportunity,” they added.

The hospital warned some people would experience delays as it prioritises the sickest patients.

People whose case isn’t an emergency are being asked to see their GP, pharmacy or walk-in centre – or call the 111 service for advice.

The Royal Liverpool University Hospital is in the city centre and is the biggest hospital in Merseyside and Cheshire.

Declaring a critical incident can happen when a hospital is experiencing exceptional demand, or sometimes if there is a serious problem with staffing levels.

It indicates it can’t function as normal and allows it to take extra measures to protect patients, such as prioritising the most unwell people and getting support from other agencies.

It could last hours, a few days, or weeks if necessary.

A critical incident was also declared on Friday by the NHS Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Integrated Care Board.

It said it had seen almost four times as many inpatients compared with last year and urged people with flu to avoid going to A&E.

There have been warnings this winter of a so-called “quad-demic”– with flu, vomiting bug norovirus, COVID and RSV circulating at the same time.

The NHS provides vaccinations against three of the four; flu, COVID-19 and RSV (a common cause of chest infection in babies).

UK

Zendaya and Tom Holland engagement rumours swirl after Golden Globes

Published

10 hours ago

January 7, 2025

admin

Zendaya and Tom Holland engagement rumours swirl after Golden Globes

Zendaya and Tom Holland are rumoured to be engaged after the 28-year-old actress appeared at the Golden Globes wearing a massive diamond ring on her left ring finger.

They met after working together on 2017’s Spider-Man: Homecoming and confirmed their relationship in 2021.

Sky News has contacted representatives for Zendaya and Holland for comment.

Zendaya chatted to journalists on the Globes red carpet, where she was nominated for best actress in a musical or comedy for her role in the romantic sports drama Challengers.

Despite being pipped to the prize by Demi Moore, who won for her role in body horror The Substance, there was plenty of buzz around Zendaya’s large diamond ring, which was clearly visible throughout the show.

A Los Angeles Times reporter appeared to ask Zendaya about it, holding up her own engagement ring and pointing to it. Zendaya responded by showing her left-hand ring.

The reporter then asked if the actor was engaged and “she kept showing her ring, smiled coyly and shrugged her shoulders mysteriously”.

Holland, who is also 28, wasn’t at Sunday’s Globes.

Zendaya wore an orange Louis Vuitton ball gown, and diamond jewellery from Bulgari – for which she’s an ambassador – on the Globes red carpet.

But while the Dune star’s other jewellery items were listed in a press release, there was no mention of the ring on her left finger.

Zendaya, who rose to fame after her breakout role in Disney sitcom Shake It Up, became a household star after starring in Euphoria.

Tom Holland, who is the son of British actor/comedian Dominic Holland, won a role in Billy Elliot The Musical as a child, and has gone on to achieve global fame playing Spider-Man in six Marvel Cinematic Universe movies.