NICOLA Sturgeon “was causing all sorts of difficulties” during the Covid pandemic, former UK health secretary Matt Hancock has claimed.
While giving evidence to the UK Covid Inquiry on Thursday, Hancock made the claim after it was revealed that Scotland’s then-health secretary Jeane Freeman had asked for a “reset” in governmental relationships.
Hancock – who was fired as health secretary after being found to have broken Covid rules by having an extramarital affair in his office – was presented with a document which showed a summary of what had happened at a devolved administrations (DA) call.
A section highlighted by lawyers at the inquiry stated: “JF [Freeman] made a request to reset the relationship between the English and Scottish administrations regarding Covid-19 handling.
“All on the call agreed they are keen to ensure they can have conversations and share information in confidence and trust going forwards.”
The former Tory MP claimed: “No, this was all about how Nicola Sturgeon was causing all sorts of difficulties.”
The inquiry then moved on, saying it was not relevant.
Before giving evidence, Hancock was booed on his way into the inquiry.
Mandy Phillips, who booed him and is a member of the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group, told the PA news agency that he “should never have been health secretary”.
She added: “So I want to come and I want to hold him to account, basically. And I think it is important that we just sit there, and in my case, I will just sit at the back and glare at him basically.”
Elsewhere in his evidence session, Hancock was asked about his previous witness statements which suggested “inappropriate political interference from Number 10”, and if that interference applied to the scope of these hearings.
He said: “Well, of course some of it did. For instance, the biggest interference that caused difficulties was within testing, where some of the political appointees in Number 10 caused incredible difficulties.
“But that’s not to do with this module.”
Hancock further agreed under questioning that entering the pandemic with low intensive care bed numbers and high bed occupancy meant that hospitals were under strain.
Asked if the decision to suspend all non-urgent, planned care was the right one, he replied: “Yes.”
He added he wanted to protect the NHS from being overwhelmed.
“Of course, every part of the NHS was under pressure, and some individual parts found that pressure overwhelming, but the system as a whole withstood the pressures thanks to enormous efforts from literally millions of people.”
