Former senior civil servants have expressed surprise and concern at the cabinet secretary, Simon Case’s “unprofessional” and jokey WhatsApp chats with Matt Hancock during the Covid crisis, saying they appeared to be a highly unusual departure from normal standards.
Case’s correspondence with Hancock is revealed in a leak to the Telegraph, known as the Lockdown Files, which shows the head of the civil service saying it was “hilarious” that some travellers were being “locked up” in hotels after entering the UK.
Case also described Boris Johnson in one message as a “nationally distrusted figure”, while referring to the then chancellor, Rishi Sunak’s opposition to Covid restrictions on businesses as “going bonkers”.
In another exchange, Hancock said Johnson had called to discuss the number of coronavirus cases. Case responded: “I think it suits us well to have him still focus on these numbers. Helps keep him honest, I think.”
The files give an insight into how ministers, special advisers and officials as senior as Case, the head of the civil service, were formulating their response to the pandemic in a casual forum.
Two former permanent secretaries told the Guardian that the tone of Case’s messages with Hancock was unusual and they did not believe previous cabinet secretaries would have been so informal with ministers.
Jill Rutter, a former senior civil servant who is now a fellow at UK in a Changing Europe, said: “He is clearly very good at getting the confidence of senior politicians and one of the things about WhatsApp is that it really replicates the conversations you have between people in corridors and around coffee machines. It does give an insight into the Case style.
“But the whole thing for me is that it sounds a bit casual. I’m not sure even in a private office you would expect quite this degree of informality and chattiness.
“I can see that these were exceptional times, but the bit that struck me even more than casualness, the bit that really jarred, was saying it was ‘hilarious’ that people are being banged up in quarantine hotels. That is the sort of thing you really don’t expect civil servants to be saying because they are supposed to be serving the public.”
One former permanent secretary said they were “not entirely surprised” but they regarded it as “unprofessional in the extreme” and could not imagine that kind of correspondence happening under Mark Sedwill or Jeremy Heywood.
They said there was typically a degree of distance between a cabinet secretary and cabinet ministers, with any communications kept “friendly but formal”.
Another former official who held a senior public office said the discussions over WhatsApp were unusually casual and “are reminiscent of the American expression ‘locker-room chat’”.
Case is already under pressure on several fronts, having been involved in several controversies under Johnson, who appointed him in September 2020. He has been criticised over the Partygate scandal after it emerged there was a party in his own office and he had to recuse himself from running an inquiry.
There are also questions over his oversight during a period when Johnson was given the signoff to get an £800,000 loan facility from a distant relative, and Nadhim Zahawi was given a senior cabinet role despite concerns over his tax affairs.
No 10 said on Monday that Sunak had full confidence in Case.
A friend of Case said: “I’m sure he will be embarrassed by these remarks, but they were made in the heat of the moment in the middle of a national crisis responding to a cabinet minister. They do not represent the full policymaking process. We are talking about casual language being used in a casual setting here.”
The Cabinet Office declined to comment.
The Telegraph published more messages from the Lockdown Files on Monday. The correspondence from Hancock was leaked to the paper by the journalist Isabel Oakeshott, who co-wrote the MP’s memoirs, the Pandemic Diaries.
It appeared to show guidance on Covid restrictions for those in relationships living apart being formulated over WhatsApp in discussions between James Slack, the prime minister’s former official spokesperson, England’s chief medical officer, Sir Chris Whitty, and the government’s chief scientific adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance.
One message from Slack said: “Sorry for this, but the biggest Q of the day for our finest political journalists is: can I see my boyfriend or girlfriend if we don’t live in the same household?”
Vallance replied that the “aim is to break contacts between households so the strict answer is that they shouldn’t meet or should bunker down in the same house. But Chris can give the official CMO love advice.”
Whitty said the rules should be relaxed to encourage public compliance, adding: “I think a bit of realism will be needed. If it’s a regular partner, I don’t think people are likely to listen to advice not to see them for three weeks or maybe more.
“We could say: if they can avoid seeing one another they should, and if either of them has an older or vulnerable person in the house they must.”
In a press conference later that day, the deputy chief medical officer Jenny Harries appeared to take a harder line, saying that non-cohabiting couples needed to make a choice between observing the guidelines for different households and moving in together.
