The private messages by Matt Hancock offer fresh insight into the Government’s response to Covid.
They raise serious questions about why ministers failed to protect care home residents and why the testing regime was dogged by failures.
The messages of the former Health Secretary and officials have been made public after he shared them with journalist Isabel Oakeshott who helped him write his pandemic memoir.
The leak throws Covid decision-making back into the spotlight, with a string of explosive allegations about care home policy and availability of tests.
Further allegations are expected in the coming days covering what is said to be an often casual approach that officials took over decisions such as shutting schools, face mask policy and testing.
But they also raise questions about the role of advisers, the way the country is run and the checks on power.
Do the messages published by the Daily Telegraph tell the full story?
Clearly not. The newspaper has published only a few dozen of the 100,000 WhatsApp messages sent between Matt Hancock and other ministers and officials.
The paper, which has questioned the Covid lockdowns, will have selected messages which are of most interest to its readers and which suit its editorial agenda.
This means they only offer a partial account of what happened.
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It not clear whether this information would have come to the notice of the Covid Inquiry had it not been handed to the Telegraph by Isabel Oakeshott who obtained them after working with Hancock on his Pandemic Diaries.
The relatives of those who died during the pandemic will want the Inquiry to examine all the communications, not just those published by the media.
What do the WhatsApp messages tell us about how the Tories run the country?
Matt Hancock’s exchanges shine a light on the “old boys network” operating at the heart of the establishment.
Favours are called for and returned. Friends in high places helped out other friends in high places.
At one point Hancock messaged Evening Standard editor and ex Chancellor George Osborne, his former boss, begging for positive coverage of the testing programme.
Another text reveals that - a time when testing was in short supply - a Covid test was couriered to Cabinet colleague Jacob Rees-Mogg so his son could be tested.
The communications will add to the impression there was one rule for the Tory elite and another for everyone else.
What are problems with Government by WhatsApp?
Matt Hancock will not have been the only Government minister firing off thousands of WhatsApp messages.
WhatsApp has become the default method of communicating in Whitehall and Westminster.
Ministers will argue it allows decisions to be made quickly - especially useful at a time of emergency.
But it also allows politicians to bypass civil servants, avoid scrutiny and twist the rules.
It means there are no official minutes of discussions and people who could raise objections or offer good advice are kept out the loop.
There is greater potential for poor decision making and cosy back-room deals.
Should Sir Chris Whitty have resigned?
The Chief Medical Office was placed in a difficult, some would say, impossible position.
The leaked messages suggest his advice on testing of care home residents was not followed by the Government. If this turns out to be the case it blows apart claims by ministers at the time that they were guided by the science when making decisions on Covid.
We do not know if this was an isolated incident or if Whitty’s advice was ignored on other occasions.
As a diligent civil servant he might have concluded that it would have irresponsible to resign in the middle of the worst health emergency for more than a century.
Ultimately, his job is to advise and for politicians to make the decisions.
What does it tell us about Matt Hancock’s judgement?
The messages point to a Health Secretary who seemed to care more about getting positive media coverage than tackling the pressing problems caused by Covid.
Despite claiming the Government’s response was led by the science, he reportedly failed to follow the advice of Whitty.
He handed the WhatsApp messages to Oakeshott so she could ghost-write his Pandemic Diaries - a self-serving defence of his time in government.
By giving private government communications to a third party he may have breached data protection laws.
