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Simon Case's comments about a lack of trust in the then PM stem from a conversation with Matt Hancock Boris Johnson was a "suspicious national figure" during the Covid crisis, the senior British official has warned according to the latest leaked WhatsApp messages from Matt Hancock. Simon Case's comments from October 2020 were published as part of the latest installment of messages from the former health secretary leaked by Isabel Oakeshott.
The cabinet secretary told Mr Hancock that "reliable local figures, not nationally suspect figures like the prime minister" should be telling the public to self-isolate.
The comments published by The Telegraph appear to be part of a conversation about testability. Mr Hancock writes: 'I'll stick around and lead this deployment. The PM is absolutely right on this point. Delegate delegate delegate.
Mr Case agrees: "My concern is that we can figure out how to test, what we don't know how to do is get people to self-isolate." We're losing this war because of behaviour: that's what we need to reverse (which is probably also based on people hearing about isolation from trusted local figures, not from shady national figures like the Prime Minister, unfortunately).
The Cabinet Office declined to comment on the leaks. A Johnson spokesman said: "It is not appropriate to comment on these leaks. The public inquiry provides the correct process for these matters to be considered."
Mr Hancock also told aides he wanted to "scare everyone" about the Kent variant of Covid to ensure lockdown rules were followed, the leaked messages revealed.
The latest messages show that in December 2020 there were fears that London Mayor Sadiq Khan was following the example of Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham, who opposed the government's decision to impose strict lockdown restrictions.
Mr Hancock's adviser said: "Instead of pointing too far ahead, we can get the line rolling with the new strain." The then health secretary responded: "We are scaring everyone with the new strain."
Meanwhile, Sunak has come under pressure to answer questions about whether Treasury officials ignored evidence that his summer 2020 Eat Out to Help Out scheme helped spread the virus.
On August 24, 2020, Hancock told Case that he had "kept it out of the news" in a message that suggested the economic stimulus package had had a negative impact in terms of infections.
He said, “We've been getting a lot of feedback that [Eat Out to Help Out] is causing trouble… I've kept it out of the news, but this is serious. So please don't let the financial success of the program lead to its expansion.
Rishi Sunak places an Eat Out to Help out sticker on the window
A University of Warwick study found in October 2020 that the scheme could be responsible for 8-17% of Covid clusters in the previous two months, but the 'back of the envelope' calculations were thrown out by the government.
Professor Jonathan Portes of King's College London said: "It appears that [the Treasury] was deliberately trying to cover up evidence relating to Eat Out to Help Out."
The Telegraph also reported on Hancock's apparent concerns over a question about the role that Gina Coladangelo, the former aide with whom he had the affair that forced him to resign, had played at a meeting of G7 health ministers in June 2021. .
After being told about the matter, the former health secretary reportedly responded: "It'll be another show if it goes wrong."
The postings appear to show that the eventual written response to a Labor question was watered down to remove any mention of Ms Coladangelo playing an "advisory role" to Mr Hancock.
Matt Hancock at a Covid briefing
The former health secretary is also said to have become angry with NHS England chief executive Simon Stevens during the pandemic and even said his ouster would be a "massive improvement".
Les messages montrent that M. Hancock's counselor, Allan Nixon, adverti le secrétaire à la Santé that "vous avez l'air de perdre pied devant le n° 10" lorsqu'il était en colère contre M. Stevens lors d' a meeting. Mr. Hancock replied, "Okay, you need to know that you're screwing her up massively."
Cabinet secretary Chris Heaton Harris told the BBC on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg that the leaked messages reveal a "insight into the psyche" of Hancock in opposition to the workings of government.
“I think viewers would expect politicians, being human beings, to put things in a humane way, and I don't think you would find a politician who wasn't afraid at the start of lockdown,” he said when asked about the idea of tactics. scary.
George Osborne, who appears in some of Hancock's leaked WhatsApp messages, has defended him as one of the "sensitive" ministers during the pandemic. Speaking on Channel 4's The Andrew Neil Show, Osborne claimed the former health secretary was a "rational" voice in government.
The latest posts also show Mr Hancock criticizing vaccinations, Tsar Dame Kate Bingham.
Exchanges from October 2020 show him saying that she "has a vision and a weird way of saying it and is completely unreliable."
"She views anything that isn't her idea as political interference."
Dame Kate used an interview with the Financial Times to argue that vaccinating everyone in the UK was "not going to happen" and that the country should simply "vaccinate everyone at risk".
The newspaper details a series of complaints about him by Mr. Hancock.
The UK was the first country to approve a coronavirus vaccine and has begun a national rollout of injections, with Dame Kate's team ensuring access to a range of different injections. While working with the government, she was pressured into signing a £670,000 contract for public relations support and was also forced to deny allegations that she shared sensitive business information with investors.
Elsewhere, Hancock also complained in February 2021 about Dame Kate and Clive Dix, who took over the presidency after their six-month term ended, amid concerns over UK access to vaccines from the Serum Institute of India.
A Dame Kate spokesperson told the newspaper: "These WhatsApps suggest that Matt Hancock was unaware of the government's agreed and published vaccine procurement policy, did not read the reports on the work of the Vaccine Task Force and did not understand the difference between complex bio-manufacturing and supply of PPE.
A Hancock spokesperson said: "As we have seen all week these stories are not true as they are based on a wholly biased account.
“In the case of vaccines, Matt's goal was to vaccinate everyone, often against systemic resistance. In the end, it prevailed, thank God, and we got the world's first vaccine, for everyone. Matt described all this in his book.
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Boris Johnson flanked by Cabinet Secretary Simon Case (left)
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