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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Jessica Elgot Deputy political editor

Gavin Williamson said teaching unions ‘just hate work’ during Covid pandemic

Matt Hancock and Gavin Williamson
Matt Hancock and Gavin Williamson’s messages to each other have been leaked to the Daily Telegraph. Photograph: Dinendra Haria/Alamy

Teachers complained about a lack of PPE in order “to have an excuse not to teach”, Gavin Williamson said in a leaked WhatsApp chat, commenting later that some teaching unions “really do just hate work”.

In new leaked WhatsApp messages from the Telegraph’s investigation, Matt Hancock, the then health secretary, was asked by Williamson, who was the education secretary, to help unblock school requests for protective equipment if a child became ill at school as classrooms prepared to reopen after the first lockdown.

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