Former health secretary Matt Hancock is fighting claims that he rejected advice to give Covid tests to all residents going into care homes during the pandemic.
The allegations are based on more than 100,000 leaked WhatsApp messages obtained by the Daily Telegraph giving an insight into the way the Government operated at the height of the Covid crisis. Mr Hancock's spokesman said a report claiming he rejected clinical advice on care home testing was "flat wrong" because he was told it was "not currently possible" to carry out the tests.
A spokesman alleged the messages provided to the Telegraph by journalist Isabel Oakeshott, who was handed them by Mr Hancock while she worked on his Pandemic Diaries memoir, have been "spun to fit an anti-lockdown agenda". The Telegraph's investigation revealed England's chief medical officer Professor Sir Chris Whitty told the then-health secretary in April 2020 there should be testing for "all going into care homes".
