Early evening summary
Kemi Badenoch, the minister for women and equalities, has dismissed a call for the government to pilot menopause leave for women, complaining it was being proposed from “a leftwing perspective”. (See 5.45pm.)
Keir Starmer has urged Rishi Sunak to give the Covid inquiry the resources it needs to be able to publish its findings by the end of the year. (See 12.12pm.) Replying to Starmer at PMQs, Sunak said the inquiry had the powers it needed and should be left to get on with its job.
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Badenoch dismisses call for government to pilot menopause leave, saying it was proposed 'from leftwing perspective'
Kemi Badenoch, the minister for women and equalities, has dismissed suggestions that the government should pilot menopause leave for women, complaining it was being proposed from “a leftwing perspective”.
She made the comment during bad-tempered exchanges when she was giving evidence to the Commons women and equalities committee, where Labour’s Carolyn Harris asked about a recommendation in a report the committee published last year.
The committee urged the government to trial “specific menopause leave so that women are not forced out of work by insensitive and rigid sickness policies”.
Badenoch said anyone could carry out a pilot; it did not have not have to be the government. She went on:
We spend so much time creating new work for government to do, we spread our attention so thinly, that we miss things.
Harris said the government had accepted the committee’s call in the same report for a menopause ambassador to be appointed. She asked why, if a menopause ambassador was not a waste of time, piloting menopause leave was.
Badenoch replied:
That is something which would require far more resources than encouraging employees in terms of changing their work culture.
Arguing that it was a matter of philosophical perspective, she told Harris:
You’re speaking from a leftwing perspective on creating something. I’m speaking from centre-right perspective. I think that influences the approach that you take. I do not think that creating another pilot on more leave is what is going to help women who have the menopause.
Badenoch, who clashed with Caroline Nokes, the Conservative chair of the committee as well during the hearing, also dismissed the idea that the menopause should be given protected status under equality law. She said:
We have so many things that people ask for protected characteristics – carers, single people, having ginger hair, being short, all sorts of things that people ask for as protected characteristics.
Creating a new special characteristic for the menopause is a complete misunderstanding of what protected characteristics are, they are immutable characteristics, we have nine of them that cover everyone.
The menopause can be dealt with, alongside three existing ones: age, sex, and disability, because it is a health condition and many disabilities are health conditions.
This is from the Scotsman’s Alexander Brown.
Quite the clash at the Women and Equalities Committee where Kemi Badenoch accused Carolyn Harris of "speaking from a left wing perspective" after calling for a pilot on menopause leave pic.twitter.com/iCIycz5e62
— Alexander Brown (@AlexofBrown) March 1, 2023
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Covid inquiry chair hits back at Oakeshott, saying it won't drag on and there will be 'no whitewash'
Isabel Oakeshott justified her decision to release Matt Hancock’s WhatsApp messages partly on the grounds that she thinks the official public inquiry into the pandemic will “drag on forever”. (See 10.34am.) She also claimed the inquiry could end up “a colossal whitewash”.
The inquiry is already holding preliminary hearings, with lawyers, not witnesses, covering procedural matters, and at the start of a hearing this morning Heather Hallett, the inquiry chair, made a statement specifically rejecting the Oakeshott allegation. She said:
This inquiry will not drag on for decades, I have been determined from the outset that the inquiry must reach conclusions, and make recommendations, as soon as possible if we are to achieve our aim of learning lessons, and reducing suffering in any future pandemic.
That is why I sought the express agreement of the then prime minister to issue interim reports, and I have given instructions to the module teams that that is what I wish to do whenever possible.
However, if we are going to conduct a thorough and effective investigation it will take some time, despite the inquiry team working flat out …
I know of no other inquiry of its kind in the world, ie one in public, with statutory powers to obtain evidence, with core participants playing important roles, and with extraordinarily broad terms of reference.
So with respect to certain commentators, comparisons to other countries are unhelpful.
Furthermore, I wish to emphasise there will be no whitewash.
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My colleague Jim Waterson has written an excellent profile of Isabel Oakeshott, the journalist who has turned over Matt Hancock. Here is an extract.
As Robert Colvile, the director of the rightwing Centre for Policy Studies thinktank and co-author of the 2019 Tory manifesto, said: “The main lesson I’ve learned from this is not to hire someone who absolutely hates your signature policy as your ghostwriter.”
One political journalist said: “The man needs his head testing to have gone near Oakeshott with a flaming trebuchet, let alone a bargepole.”
Extraordinarily Oakeshott handed the entire archive of Hancock’s messages to the Daily Telegraph despite being paid a rumoured six-figure salary by Rupert Murdoch’s News UK to be a pundit on its struggling TalkTV channel.
Staff at the Sun and the Times have been left fuming that they are now trying to follow up a story given to a rival newspaper by one of their own employees – while TalkTV has missed out on a scoop that could have helped it in its ratings battle with GB News.
And here is the full article.
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The Daily Telegraph has published more extracts from what it calls its “lockdown files” (ie, Matt Hancock’s WhatsApp collection). It says that Boris Johnson proposed giving over-65s a choice over whether they could shield, and that Sir Patrick Vallance, the chief scientific adviser, and Prof Sir Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer, both highlighted the disadvantages with shielding. The Telegraph reports:
The government’s most senior scientific advisers told the prime minister that the implementation of shielding measures was not “very effective” – but ministers still asked 2.2 million people to follow them for months, The Telegraph can disclose.
Sir Patrick Vallance, the chief scientific adviser, said in a WhatsApp message in Aug 2020 that shielding implementation – which required people who were clinically “extremely vulnerable” to isolate – had not been “easy or very effective”.
Professor Sir Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer, added that he would personally “think twice” about following shielding guidelines himself, unless it was to protect the NHS – which was not their principal aim.
Both stories are interesting, but don’t fundamentally shift our understanding of what was happening within government as it grappled with government.
What is much more engrossing, though, is the opportunity to read the WhatsApp threads exchanged by ministers at the time. It is like being able to eavesdrop on a private conversation, and WhatsApp messages can reveal more about character than what gets said in public. The Telegraph is embedding the threads in their news stories.
For example, here is one from Boris Johnson, after he read a figure in the Financial Times that made him think official fatality rate figures for Covid were wrong.
This was sent to what seems to be a small group of Johnson’s top advisers who then proceeded to explain to him what the official figures said. Vallance worked out the problem, which was that the FT figure was misleading.
Boris Johnson clutching at straws to validate his anti-lockdown instincts, Vallance and Whitty explaining the facts patiently and deferentially, Dominic Cummings whacking the media – it’s all there.
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Kate Forbes insists her policy plaftorm for SNP leadership is 'very progressive'
Kate Forbes, the Scottish government’s finance secretary, has rejected suggestions that she would abandon the SNP’s “progresssive agenda” if she were to become party leader and next first minister.
Yesterday Humza Yousaf, the health secretary, said “the SNP has managed to gain support to dizzying heights because of the progressive agenda that we have”. This was taken as a jibe at Forbes, whose campaign has been badly damaged by her declaration that she is personally opposed to equal marriage, and the gender recognition bill, for faith reasons.
Asked about the comment at a campaign event today, Forbes said she agreed with Yousaf and that her plans did not involve a shift away from progressive ideas. She said:
I think it is very progressive to believe in the inherent dignity and humanity of every human being in Scotland and to ensure that when they need care, and when they need medical assistance, they can access that free at the point of need.
If we’re serious about eradicating poverty, which I am, if we’re serious about reinvesting in our public services, which I am, then we need a growing an prosperous economy.
You cannot eradicate poverty and reinvest in our public services at the level that we need to if we don’t have a growing and prosperous economy.
This is about profits with purpose. It’s about a growing economy with a view to reducing poverty in Scotland and reinvesting in our public services.
Sinn Féin says there's 'no time to waste' in implementing PM's protocol deal
Sinn Féin has said there is “no time to waste” in implementing the PM’s deal on the Northern Ireland protocol. At a press conference at Stormont with Mary Lou McDonald, the Sinn Féin president, where they both encouraged the DUP to resume power sharing, Michelle O’Neill, the party’s leader in Northern Ireland and first minister designate, said:
I rarely find myself agreeing with the British prime minister, but I do think that the opportunity we now have of access to both markets has to be grabbed on to with both hands, and there is no time to waste because we’re about to attend in Washington DC a number of events that will be to celebrate St Patrick’s Day, but as you all know, that’s about encouraging investment here, that’s about the economic potential of here.
We have in quick succession a deal being done on the protocol, we go to the States next week to celebrate St Patrick’s Day, very quickly in the aftermath of that comes the anniversary of the Good Friday agreement.
The economic potential for us here is enormous and this is a moment not to be missed.
Power sharing has been suspended for more than a year because the DUP started a boycott until the protocol was reformed. The party is deciding whether or not to back the new version negotiated by Sunak, and it says it won’t be rushed as it makes up its mind. (See 11.56am.)
To implement the protocol deal, the UK-EU joint committee has to approve the changes, and then the UK and the EU need to make legislative changes.
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Raab says government will legislate for independent public advocate to support victims and relatives after disasters
Dominic Raab, the justice secretary and deputy prime minister, used a statement in the Commons to announce that the government will “legislate as soon as possible to introduce an independent public advocate to put victims and the bereaved at the heart of our response to large-scale public disasters”.
This is something that has been promised by the government for years, in response to complaints from victims and their relatives that at public inquiries into events like the Hillsborough disaster they did not get proper representation equivalent to the support available to bodies facing criticism, like the police.
The advocate’s office will support victims “right from the immediate aftermath of a tragedy until all inquiries and inquests have concluded”, the Ministry of Justice said.
Raab said:
The independent public advocate goes some way to making good on this government’s longstanding promise to ensure that pain, that suffering of the Hillsborough victims and other victims is never repeated again.
I can tell the house it will be passed into law, it will be made up of a panel of experts to guide survivors and the bereaved in the aftermath of a major disaster.
Here is the MoJ news release.
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Sunak and Boris Johnson have had 'good discussion' on NI protocol deal, says No 10
At the post-PMQs lobby briefing the PM’s press secretary said that Rishi Sunak has had “a good discussion” with Boris Johnson about the deal to revise the Northern Ireland protocol. She did not give details.
But she did say Sunak thought Tory MPs should be given time to consider the merits of the deal.
The PM believes that it’s right that colleagues across the house have the time to reflect and go through the details of the agreement.
It is thought that Johnson still resents the part Sunak played in forcing his resignation, by resigning as chancellor, and there was speculation that Johnson would lead a Tory revolt against the deal. Last week Johnson said that a better strategy would have been for the government to just carry on with the Northern Ireland protocol bill. But Johnson has not said a word in public about the deal since it was published on Monday and, with Tory opposition to the plan appearing to evaporate, Johnson has been left with the problem that he cannot spearhead a rebellion that does not exist.
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At the Downing Street post-PMQs lobby briefing the PM’s spokesperson defended the use of WhatsApp by ministers for government business. He said:
The rules set out that ministers are able to discuss government businesses over text messages or WhatsApp, that’s entirely within the rules, understandably part and parcel of modern government.
The requirement is that substantive decisions are communicated to the Cabinet Office.
Families who lost loved ones to Covid-19 “more than ever need to have a full understanding” of what records the public inquiry into the pandemic was requesting in the wake of reports based on WhatsApp messages sent by Matt Hancock, a legal counsel for bereaved relatives has said.
The families needed to have the ability to assist identifying any gaps in the disclosure of documents and messages, Anna Morris KC told the inquiry, which also heard a call from a lawyer representing Scottish families for clarification that Hancock had disclosed the messages which have recently been leaked.
Morris, who represents Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice, said:
The families deserve to be in the inquiry circle of trust. They do not deserve to be left reeling from media revelations regarding documentation that I’m sure your team will agree is clearly within the scope.
She said that the families were pleased to hear counsel for the inquiry say on Wednesday morning that others with relevant evidence were being requested to come forward, but the relatives also expected that this request would be followed by “rule nine” letters, which direct that recipients provide written evidence.
Morris also pressed the inquiry to plan for the risk that there could be potential witnesses who would, in her words, “be reluctant to engage with the full scrutiny of the inquiry, and who may choose instead to hide the lie and hide a reliance on parliamentary privilege”. She went on:
One can think of examples of parliamentarians who, when faced with statements made outside of parliament or on WhatsApp messages which conflict with what was said within parliament, may decline to repeat in a witness statement what they did state on the record in parliament and claim that there is no requirement that they do so using parliamentary privilege as a justification. This is likely to be a live issue and soon.
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Richard Tice, Reform UK leader and Oakeshott's partner, says WhatsApp leak justified because Covid inquiry may not uncover truth
The social care UQ is over.
Richard Tice, leader of Reform UK, the successor to the Brexit party which is challenging the Tory party from the right, is the partner of Isabel Oakeshott, the journalist behind the release of WhatsApp messages being used by the Telegraph to criticise Matt Hancock.
Tice and Oakeshott are both strong critics of the government’s lockdown policy, which they believe was too restrictive, and in an interview with GB News this morning Tice said the Telegraph revelations were justified because the public was not told the truth about what happened. He said:
It’s really important that the public understand the extent to which our politicians didn’t tell us the truth all the way through these lockdowns and the consequences of that.
You remember those words, ‘we’re making the right decisions based on the best science at the right time’? Well, it turned out that wasn’t the case.
Very often they were making decisions to suit their own political expediency and ignoring some of the right advice and completely refusing to look at advice from other people.
The reality is that these messages, they proved what we feared, those of us who were sceptical of the lockdowns and the merits of them, we feared what was going on.
Tice also said he was not confident the inquiry would uncover the truth. He said:
Our real concern here is that the inquiry will turn out to be literally a whitewash and establishment cover-up to show that everybody did the best thing and that simply isn’t the truth and people deserve it.
The people deserve the truth.
Aaron Bell (Con) accuses Labour of being “opportunistic” in the way they are attacking the government’s Covid policy “with hindsight”. Whately says he is “100% right”.
Kieran Mullan (Con) claims Labour has misled the public about the government’s record on handling the pandemic. He says Labour should apologise for that. Labour said the UK had the worst death toll in Europe, but its record wasn’t the worst, and was broadly in line with France’s and Germany’s, he says.
Whately agrees. She says the country needs to reflect on what happened.
Whately says, if Labour was in power, she is sure that, like the government, it would have tried to make the best decisions in the light of the information available.
Daisy Cooper (Lib Dem) why Jacob Rees-Mogg was able to get a Covid test sent to his home by courier when there was a national shortage of tests.
Whately says she needed a test for her family, and used the same app as everyone else.
Peter Bone (Con) says Labour wants to rewrite history. At the time people did not know what was right or wrong. One of Matt Hancock’s messages said: “Tell me if I’m wrong.” He says the Covid inquiry must consider this. But can it report earlier?
Whateley says at the time there was “a huge amount of uncertainty”.
As for the timing of the inquiry, that is not under the control of ministers, she says.
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Sir Oliver Heald (Con) says what was are seeing today is “trial by media”.
Whately agrees. She says the public inquiry should be allowed to do its job.
Whately is responding to Kendall.
She says the government had to limit testing at first. The courts have backed the decisions taken by the government about whom to prioritise, she says.
She says the WhatsApp messages that have been published are selective. Advice was given in other places. The evidence has been given to the inquiry, she says.
She quotes from an email sent after the WhatsApp exchanges reported by the Telegraph saying everyone going into care home should be tested “as capacity allows”.
Ministers did all they could to protect people, including the most vulnerable, she says.
UPDATE: Whately said:
I think it’s relatively easy for [Kendall] to come to House today and make these highly political points.
And knowing actually how she and I worked together in the pandemic and she and I talked about all that we were doing to look after people in care homes, I am, as I say, shocked and disappointed in the tone that she has taken today when we are dealing with extremely serious questions.
There’s very selective information that she is basing her comments on. [She] knows how the government and me personally strained every sinew, worked day and night, did everything in our power to help people and specifically the most vulnerable during the pandemic.
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Liz Kendall, the shadow social care minister, asks why Matt Hancock ignored medical advice to test all people going into care homes. She says relatives of people who died will be “appalled” by his attempt to rewrite history.
UPDATE: Kendall said:
Former ministers are touring the studios this morning claiming this delay was simply because there weren’t enough tests. Where is the evidence for this? And even if tests were in short supply, why weren’t care home residents prioritised when the devastating impact of Covid was there for all to see?
The families of the 43,000 care home residents who lost their lives will be appalled at the former health secretary attempting to rewrite history, an attempt that will turn to ashes along with his TV career.
We need more humility and less celebrity from the member for West Suffolk and above all we need answers.
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Ministers suggests WhatsApp leak gives 'limited and at times misleading' impression of Hancock's care home policy
Helen Whately, the health minister, is responding to the urgent question.
She says Matt Hancock set ambitious targets for testing. “The importance of testing was never in doubt, and there was full agreement on that in every part of government,” she says.
But she says at the start the government did not have the capacity to do mass testing.
The government built the largest testing capacity in Europe, she says.
She says “selective snippets” of WhatsApp conversations give a “limited and at times misleading” impression as to what happened.
PMQs - snap verdict
That was an unremarkable and easily forgettable PMQs. Neither Keir Starmer nor Rishi Sunak were particularly on form and, among the party leaders, Stephen Flynn probably did best, with a zinger of a question on Brexit. (See 12.16pm.)
Starmer adopted a scattergun approach, going from one issue to another. His questions, crafted to make a point rather than elicit an answer, were fine, but none of them were particularly new or powerful, and because he was trying to cover so much ground, it meant that it was hard to know what his main point was.
At least a couple of times Sunak responded by avoiding the question altogether. Some of his retorts were reasonably effective in debating terms, but he did not “land” a serious message overall. CCHQ is trying hard at the moment to argue that Labour’s policy programme is just a catalogue of “unfunded commitments”. At the election, this will be an important debate. But the CCHQ material is not really getting an audience at all, at the moment. As Starmer pointed out, after the mini-budget, CCHQ has lost credibility on this issue.
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Keir Starmer has received a surprise endorsement from Isabel Oakeshott.
I'm delighted @Keir_Starmer just called for the covid inquiry to report by end of this year. As @RishiSunak said, the public inquiry has the resources it needs and the powers it needs. What it doesn't have is a deadline! Which suits certain people very well #TheLockdownFiles
— Isabel Oakeshott (@IsabelOakeshott) March 1, 2023
Joanna Cherry (SNP) says she and Sunak have both had to sort out consitutional messes caused by Boris Johnson. Sunak said Northern Ireland would benefit from being in the EU single market. If NI can have a special status, why can’t Scotland have one?
Sunak says Scotland has a special status – “inside the United Kingdom”.
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Craig Tracey (Con) asks if stopping illegal crossings remains a piority?
Sunak says the government must do more. “As soon as the legislation is ready” it will be published, he says.
Cat Smith (Lab) asks about a hosptial supposed to be one of the government’s “40 new hospitals”. But no development is happening, she says.
Sunak says, as well as the 40 hospitals, there are 90 upgrades. The government is backing the NHS, he says.
Sarah Champion (Lab) says 79 people have been killed on smart motorways. She says the government is still rolling them out. They are “death trap roads”. Why is that justified?
Sunak says last year the rollout was paused. Safety is a priority, he says.
Virginia Crosbie (Con) asks if the government will develop more nuclear power.
Sunak says the govenrment is committed to more nuclear power plants, and that Crosbie’s constituency, Ynys Môn, would make a good site for a development.
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Stephen Flynn, the SNP leader at Westminster, says Sunak said yesterday access to the single market was special, exciting and attractive. Why is Sunak denying it to the rest of the country.
Sunak says it is disappointing that Flynn is playing politics with this. Northern Ireland has a special place in the UK.
Flynn says Sunak was more positive about the single market than Keir Starmer.
What the prime minister said yesterday is that EU single market access will be a good thing for business. Now of course that’s in contrast to the leader of the Labour party who said in December, that EU single market access would not boost economic growth.
Does it hurt the prime minister to know that the Labour party believe in Brexit more than he does?
Sunak says this is about getting the right mechanisms in place for Northern Ireland, not about the macro issues around Brexit.
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Philip Dunne (Con) welcomes the deal on the NI protocol, and asks if the UK will rejoin the Horizon programme.
Sunak says the UK will continue to work with the EU on a range of areas.
Keir Starmer calls for Covid inquiry to report by end of year
Starmer says the sight of politicians writing books about Covid, or leaking messages, will be “insulting” and a “ghoulish spectacle” to many people. Will the Covid inquiry get the resources it needs to report by the end of this year?
Families across the country will look at this, and the sight of politicians writing books portraying them as heroes will be an insulting and ghoulish spectacle for them.
Sunak says it is an independent inquiry. He says, as a lawyer, Starmer should know the importance of due process. MPs should let it do its work, he says.
Rather than comment on piecemeal bits of information, I’m sure the honourable gentleman will agree with me the right way for these things to be looked at is the Covid inquiry.
There is a proper process to these things, it is an independent inquiry, it has the resources it needs, it has the powers it needs and what we should do in this House is to let them get on and do their job.
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Starmer says abolishing non-dom status could release more money for childcare.
Sunak says Labour has already spent the money it claims it would raise from its non-dom policy five times.
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Starmer says Sunak introduced a tax, and Shell has not paid a penny. “Fantastic work.” The Tories said they would build more homes. But the Tories shelved housing reform. Will he bring them back, or duck that fight?
Sunak says the number of first-time buyers is at its highest level for 20 years. He says Labour would ban new energy developments in the North Sea. That would mean more imports, which would be bad for the economy.
Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the Speaker, points out that the question was about house building. He jokingly suggests that was due to the noise, and Sunak not hearing the question.
Starmer says CEO surveys show they think only Labour has a plan for the economy, and only the Tories broke the economy. Why won’t the government close the loopholes in the windfall tax?
Sunak says he introduced the windfall tax. “I have got good news for him – we did it a year ago.”
Starmer says the definition of unfunded promises was the Tory kamikaze budget last autumn. Who will pay for higher gas prices? Families, or energy companies.
Sunak makes a jibe about Starmer going to Davos, and says a CEO survey shows businesses rate the UK as a place to invest.
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Keir Starmer says the average family in Britain will be poorer than the average family in Poland by 2030. That is shocking, he says.
Starmer made a speech on this on Monday.
Sunak says the energy crisis has the biggest impact on living standards. He lists what the government is doing on that.
He accuses Labour of making unfunded commitments.
Tom Randall (Con) asks about a hospital development plan in Gedling.
Sunak says the government is committed to a new hospital in Randall’s constituency.
Justin Madders (Lab) asks Sunak why he is not backing Labour’s plan to double the number of places at medical school.
Sunak says Madders should “keep up”. The government does have an NHS workforce plan, he says.
Rishi Sunak starts by wishing people a happy St David’s day.
Here is the list of MPs down to ask a question.
PMQs is about to start.
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Stormont lock in NI protocol deal likely to be 'fairly ineffective', says DUP's Sammy Wilson
Sammy Wilson, the DUP’s chief whip, has said that he thinks the Stormont brake – the mechanism at the heart of Rishi Sunak’s deal to revise the Northern Ireland protocol – will turn out to be “fairly ineffective”.
On Monday Sunak told MPs that the brake was “a powerful new safeguard” that would allow Stormont to block new EU laws.
But Wilson told Times Radio this morning:
Let’s not underestimate the fact that when the EU introduces new laws in the future, it will have an impact on Northern Ireland. And the point of the brake was meant to be to give a means for unionists to oppose that. I think it will have to be used on lots of occasions, though I suspect to be fairly ineffective.
Wilson also said the DUP would not be rushed into deciding whether or not to back the new deal. Asked how long the party would take to come to a decision, he said:
As long as it takes us to get, first of all, the analysis, and secondly, the answers from the government, before we make that decision, that’s the time we’ll take.
But the one thing I’ll say to you is that we will not have a knee-jerk reaction to this deal. It means too much to us. And we have got to give it real consideration.
At the end of the day, we will then come to a conclusion, is this a deal which safeguards the union that safeguards our economy? If it’s not, then we’ll reject it, if we come to a conclusion on balance it does, then we’ll accept it.
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Hancock's WhatsApp messages show 'effort and hard work' he put in during Covid, says ally
Lord Bethell, who served as a health minister when Matt Hancock was health secretary and is a personal friend, was on the Today programme this morning defending him. Here are the main points.
Bethell said Hancock should publish all his WhatsApp messages so that people can judge for themselves whether he acted properly. Bethell said:
I certainly think Matt should just publish his WhatsApps and get them out there. Clearly that ship has sailed and I’m very proud of what’s in many of those messages. I think the listeners will see them and admire the effort and hard work that people put into our pandemic response.
He said, although the Telegraph reporting implied that Hancock and other ministers conducted important government business via WhatsApp, that was not correct. He said:
Formal decision-making is done through paperwork, and we don’t have that in front of us. And that’s why this partial glimpse into the decision-making is so unfortunate because it gives a misleading impression.
He said Hancock said the guidance should only mandate testing for people entering care homes from hospital at an early stage in the pandemic because it was not possible to test everyone else. Bethell said:
The reality was there was a very, very limited number of those tests …
The thing that held us back was not a dispute about the clinical advice. It was simply the operational ability to deliver tests.
Bethell described Isabel Oakeshott as “a terrific journalist” but “not a very good friend”.
He said that he had deleted messages from his own phone relating to the PPE contracts, and the so-called VIP lane, because his phone was short of space for data. He said:
I don’t think that’s odd. Listen, I had an issue with capacity on my phone and there simply wasn’t enough space on my phone for all the WhatsApp messages and I clumsily deleted them.
In retrospect, I regret doing that but that isn’t the sign of a conspiracy… there wasn’t a great conspiracy behind these arrangements.
SNP criticised for restricting media access to party leadership hustings
The Scottish National party have come in for heavy criticism over lack of transparency after it emerged officials were planning to hold all nine leadership hustings without media access or live-streaming, as a media-free “safe-space” for party members.
All three candidates running to replace Nicola Sturgeon as SNP leader – Ash Regan, Kate Forbes and Humza Yousaf – backed calls to allow media access on Tuesday afternoon, as broadcasters and print journalists came together to challenge the decision amidst fierce criticism from opposition parties.
The party has now said it is working with media outlets, though it remains unclear how the first hustings, taking place in Cumbernauld tonight, will be managed.
The SNP has suggested that one representative from print, television and radio could attend, on a pooled basis.
Speaker grants urgent question at 12.30pm on care home policy during Covid following Hancock allegations
If Matt Hancock wants to defend his record on care homes, he will get a chance in the Commons at 12.30pm, because Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the speaker, has granted an urgent question on the topic. Liz Kendall, the shadow care minister, has tabled the question. A health minister will respond. Hancock is just a backbencher now, but he can ask a question if he wants and, although questions are meant to be very short, Hancock might get some leeway to go on a bit given that he is leading the news at the moment.
After that there are two statements: one from Dominic Raab, the justice secretary, on an independent public advocate; and another from Andrew Mitchell, the development minister, on aid to Turkey and Syria.
ERG's legal team hope to produce verdict on NI protocol deal 'within a fortnight', says Mark Francois
Tory Brexiters can normally spot what they see as a surrender to Brussels in the blink of an eye. But the European Research Group’s so-called “star chamber” of lawyers could take up to a fortnight to scrutinise Rishi Sunak’s Northern Ireland protocol deal, Mark Francois said today.
Francois, the ERG chair, told TalkTV that he expected the “star chamber” to produce an assessment “within a fortnight” but he said there was no deadline. He told the station:
It takes as long as it takes because it’s very important all this. But I think Sir Bill [Cash] and his team are going to try and do this if they can within a fortnight and as I say they will make their conclusions publicly available for all to see.
But because of the importance of this, if it takes a little bit longer than that, then it takes a little bit longer.
Francois also said an “important consideration” would be whether the EU would be able to retaliate if the UK were to use the Stormont brake.
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'Evidence I have seen is broadly in his favour' - what Isabel Oakeshott said about Hancock and care homes in December
In December last year Isabel Oakeshott wrote an article for the Spectator about co-writing Matt Hancock’s Pandemic Diaries with him in which she said he was “surprisingly inclined to disclosure”. Hancock did not keep a real diary during the pandemic, and so the book, which is written in diary form, was compiled with extensive reference to contemporary records, including WhatsApp messages. She said that she did not expect him to reveal everything, but that he “shared far more than I could ever have imagined”.
Hancock, of course, will be bitterly regretting their collaboration now that Oakeshott has decided to share the material with Daily Telegraph, and, via the paper, the world at large. In an article explaining why she has done so, she says that the public deserves to know the truth about what happened and that the public inquiry is going to take too long. She says:
Announced in May 2021, our public inquiry – which has already cost up to £85 million – has yet to begin formal hearings. Alarmingly, it does not appear to have any specific timeframe or deadline.
We all know what this means – it will drag on forever. After all, the investigation into Bloody Sunday took 10 years and was nowhere near as daunting a task.
The hopelessly open-ended nature of the formal process makes these WhatsApp files all the more important. Amid the ever-present threat of another pandemic, perhaps more deadly than the last, we emphatically cannot afford to wait until the mid-2030s or even beyond to learn lessons. Those who have information in the public interest need to put it out there right now.
The Telegraph’s first story from the document trove accuses Hancock of ignoring medical advice on care homes. In her article Oakeshott barely mentions this, and that might be because she thinks that broadly what he did was right. In her Spectator article in December she set out what she learned about the rights and wrongs of the government’s Covid policy when researching the book, and this is what she said about care homes.
Hancock is more sensitive about this subject than any other. The accusation that he blithely discharged Covid-positive patients from hospitals into care homes, without thinking about how this might seed the virus among the frail elderly, or attempting to stop this happening, upsets and exasperates him. The evidence I have seen is broadly in his favour.
At the beginning of the pandemic, it was simply not possible to test everyone: neither the technology nor the capacity existed. Internal communications show that care homes were clearly instructed to isolate new arrivals. It later emerged that the primary source of new infection in these settings was in any case not hospital discharges, but the movement of staff between care homes. Politically, this was very inconvenient: Hancock knew he would be accused of ‘blaming’ hardworking staff if he emphasised the link (which is exactly what has now happened).
He is on less solid ground in relation to the treatment of isolated care-home residents and their increasingly desperate relatives. His absolute priority was to preserve life – however wretched the existence became. Behind the scenes, the then care home minister Helen Whately fought valiantly to persuade him to ease visiting restrictions to allow isolated residents some contact with their loved ones. She did not get very far. Internal communications reveal that the authorities expected to find cases of actual neglect of residents as a result of the suspension of routine care-home inspections.
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Boris Johnson’s supporters are increasingly doubtful he could make a comeback as prime minister after being “humiliated” over his post-Brexit deal with the EU, my colleague Aubrey Allegretti reports. He has filed a very thorough story on this which you can read here.
Steven Swinford has written a similar story for the Times. He has been tweeting about it this morning.
Exclusive
— Steven Swinford (@Steven_Swinford) March 1, 2023
Boris Johnson allies think he won't oppose Rishi Sunak's brexit deal because he can 'see which way the wind is blowing'
They say he won't want to be an outlier if there are just 15 or so rebels
Johnson is still reflecting on the dealhttps://t.co/zJaCrrsVWy
Boris Johnson ally:
— Steven Swinford (@Steven_Swinford) March 1, 2023
'Boris will row in behind this deal because there’s no rebellion
'He doesn’t want to be an outlier on this. If he ends up voting with 12 to 15 other people he will look silly. He knows the way the wind is blowing'
Another Boris Johnson ally said they expected he would have a 'longstanding prior engagement' on Brexit vote days
— Steven Swinford (@Steven_Swinford) March 1, 2023
They say he might raise concerns but they don't expect him to vote against the deal
Sunak ‘guilty of some overclaiming’ on NI deal, says Lord Frost
Lord Frost, Boris Johnson’s former Brexit negotiator has fired a shot at Rishi Sunak’s Northern Ireland protocol deal, admitting it will “help” but will not remove EU law from Northern Ireland, my colleague Lisa O’Carroll reports.
Frost made his comments in a column in the Daily Telegraph. Here’s an excerpt.
Most of our political class is choosing not to look too closely at any of this because they are tired of the whole problem. Some even argue, as the prime minister did yesterday, that it is actually better for Northern Ireland to be subject to the Protocol than fully part of the UK. But just as some overclaiming by Boris Johnson in 2019 came back to haunt him, so it will for Rishi Sunak in 2023, because moving goods to Belfast will still not really be like moving goods to Birmingham.
A fairer statement of the position would be “this deal softens the application of the Protocol, but does not remove it. It’s the best we could persuade the EU to do because we weren’t prepared to use the protocol bill and the EU knew it”. That doesn’t mean the deal shouldn’t go ahead. It will help. But it won’t remove the underlying tensions, even if the DUP does decide to go back into Stormont. It leaves the government still only partly sovereign over all its territory. Just as in 2019, that is a bitter pill to swallow.
Matt Hancock denies ‘completely wrong’ claims he rejected care home testing advice as he considers legal action
Good morning. Covid has soared backed to the top of the news agenda, after the Daily Telegraph published a front page story claiming Matt Hancock ignored medical advice on testing people going into care homes in the early days of the pandemic, when he was health secretary. Hancock says the story is “completely wrong”, based on a partial use of confidential material that is in effect stolen, and published to support the Telegraph’s anti-lockdown agenda.
Hancock is also considering suing the paper for libel.
Here is the key allegation from the Telegraph’s splash.
Matt Hancock rejected the chief medical officer’s advice to test for Covid all residents going into English care homes, leaked messages seen by The Telegraph reveal.
Prof Sir Chris Whitty told the then health secretary early in April 2020, about a month into the pandemic, that there should be testing for “all going into care homes”. But Mr Hancock did not follow that guidance, telling his advisers that it “muddies the waters”.
Instead, he introduced guidance that made testing mandatory for those entering care homes from hospital, but not for those coming from the community. Prior to the guidance, care homes had been told that negative tests were not required even for hospital patients. The guidance stating that those coming in from the community should be tested was eventually introduced on Aug 14.
The front page of tomorrow's Daily Telegraph:
— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) February 28, 2023
'Hancock rejected Whitty's advice on care home tests'#TomorrowsPapersToday
Read the story here: https://t.co/6L39959qrQ
Sign up for the Front Page newsletterhttps://t.co/x8AV4Oomry pic.twitter.com/IcbR6pyUET
In response, a spokesperson for Hancock said that the guidance only mandated testing for people entering care homes from hospital because the capacity was not available to test people entering care homes from the community as well at that point. The spokesperson said:
Having not been approached in advance by the Telegraph, we have reviewed the messages overnight.
The Telegraph intentionally excluded reference to a meeting with the testing team from the WhatsApp. This is critical, because Matt was supportive of Chris Whitty’s advice, held a meeting on its deliverability, told it wasn’t deliverable, and insisted on testing all those who came from hospitals.
The Telegraph have been informed that their headline is wrong, and Matt is considering all options available to him.
The spokesperson also accused the Telegraph of attacking him to promote the paper’s anti-lockdown agenda. The spokesperson said:
It is outrageous that this distorted account of the pandemic is being pushed with partial leaks, spun to fit an anti-lockdown agenda, which would have cost hundreds of thousands of lives if followed.
What the messages do show is a lot of people working hard to save lives.
The full documents have already all been made available to the inquiry, which is the proper place for an objective assessment, so true lessons can be learned.
Those who argue there shouldn’t have been a lockdown ignore the fact that half a million people would have died had we not locked down. And for those saying we should never lock down again, imagine if a disease killed half those infected, and half the population were going to get infected - as is happening right now with avian flu in birds. If that disease were in humans, of course we’d want to lockdown.
The story spun on care homes is completely wrong. What the messages show is that Mr Hancock pushed for testing of those going into care homes when that testing was available.
Instead of spinning and leaks we need the full, comprehensive inquiry, to ensure we are as well prepared as we can be for the next pandemic, whenever it comes.
The Telegraph story is wrong, based on partial, spun leaks – and they did not approach Matt before publication.
The Telegraph obtained its material from Isabel Oakeshott, the journalist who co-authored his Pandemic Diaries. She was shown his WhatsApp messages subject to a non-disclosure agreement, but she has said it is in the public interest for them to be be published. This is not the first time she has turned against someone having collaborated with them on a book; it happened to Arron Banks, the Ukip and Leave.EU donor whose Brexit memoirs she ghost wrote.
What makes this story particularly concerning, not just for Hancock but for the government as a whole, is that it is not a one-off. The Telegraph says that it has more than 100,000 WhatsApp messages from Hancock and that it will be publishing a series of revelations from them in the coming days. It has set up a dedicated web page to the story – always a worrying development, as those caught up in its MPs’ expenses investigation will recall.
I will post more on this through the day. But we have also got PMQs, and ongoing discussion about the Northern Ireland protocol deal.
Here is the agenda for the day.
10.15am: Dominic Raab, the justice secretary and deputy PM, gives evidence to the Lords constitutional affairs committee.
12pm: Rishi Sunak faces Keir Starmer at PMQs.
2.45pm: Kemi Badenoch gives evidence to the Commons women and equalities committee in her capacity as minister for women and equalities. (She is also business secretary.)
I’ll try to monitor the comments below the line (BTL) but it is impossible to read them all. If you have a direct question, do include “Andrew” in it somewhere and I’m more likely to find it. I do try to answer questions, and if they are of general interest I will post the question and reply above the line (ATL), although I can’t promise to do this for everyone.
If you want to attract my attention quickly, it is probably better to use Twitter. I’m on @AndrewSparrow.
Alternatively, you can email me at andrew.sparrow@theguardian.com.
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