The revelations have come thick and fast. The joke was that the health secretary believed Rishi Sunak’s “Eat out to help out” plan could lead to a rise in Covid cases. He was the most senior civil servant to describe the then Prime Minister Boris Johnson as “an unbelievable figure at a national level”. Teaching unions were referred to as “complete assholes”. The leaked phone messages from Matt Hancock’s WhatsApp account certainly came as a surprise to him.
Provided by political journalist Isabel Oakeshott, even a week after being published in the Daily Telegraph, have they really helped our understanding of government decision-making during the pandemic? Or is it just more political gossip?
Guardian Political Correspondent aubrey allegretti says Hannah Moore how Oakeshott got hold of the messages, and why Hancock called the leaks “a massive betrayal”. He analyzes what this tells us about the culture of the government at the time and the choices they made, and explains why there may be more to come.
Photograph: PA Video / PA
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