Ministers and senior officials discussed the need to “get heavy” with the police over the enforcement of Covid lockdown regulations, according to the latest tranche of Matt Hancock’s leaked messages published by The Daily Telegraph.
The newspaper highlighted an exchange between the then-health secretary and Cabinet Secretary Simon Case from August 2020, in which Mr Case raised the question: “Who actually is delivering enforcement?” Mr Hancock replied “I think we are going to have to get heavy with the police”, prompting Mr Case to point out that they were due to have a roundtable meeting with ministers and the “cops”.
Following another meeting in January 2021 involving Boris Johnson, Mr Hancock messaged Mr Case to inform him that the “PM was in vg shape” and that “the plod got their marching orders”.
