The head of the civil service warned Brits might not listen to "nationally distrusted" Boris Johnson during the pandemic, leaked WhatsApps show.
Top official Simon Case suggested that the public needed to be told to isolate if they had Covid by “trusted local figures, not nationally distrusted figures like the PM”.
The extraordinary comments were made in a WhatsApp exchange between Mr Case and ex-Health Secretary Matt Hancock in October 2020 - only a month after Mr Case was given the top Whitehall job.
In messages leaked to the Telegraph, Mr Hancock writes: "I am going to get stuck in and drive this roll out. The PM is completely right on this. Delegate delegate delegate."
Mr Case agrees: "My concern is that we can figure out how to test, what we don't know how to do is get people to isolate.
"We are losing this war because of behaviour - this is the thing we have to turn around (which probably also relies on people hearing about isolation from trusted local figures, not nationally distrusted figures like the PM, sadly)."
Mr Hancock replies: "Sure - but even with a massive rocket up them the lorries won't roll until late next week - so we can fix the new isolation rules between now and then".
In June 2020, Mr Case also suggested that getting Mr Johnson to focus on daily case numbers "keeps him honest".
The civil service boss has already faced criticism when the leaked messages revealed he joked with ministers about locking travellers up in hotel quarantine.
In February 2021, Mr Hancock said they were planning on "giving big families all the big suites and putting pop stars in the box rooms" when travellers returning to the UK were forced to isolate in Government hotels.
Mr Case replied: "I just want to see some of the faces of people coming out of first class into a Premier Inn shoe box."
A few days later, he asked how many people had been "locked up" in hotels the previous day.
Mr Hancock replied: "None. But 149 chose to enter the country and are now in Quarantine Hotels due to their own free will!" to which Mr Case replied: "Hilarious."
A spokesman for Boris Johnson said: "It is not appropriate to comment on these leaks.
"The public inquiry provides the right process for these issues to be examined."
Mr Hancock has described the leak of more than 100,000 of his WhatsApp messages by journalist Isabel Oakeshott as a "massive betrayal". The pair had collaborated on his pandemic diaries before she shared his WhatsApp history with the Telegraph.
He said the reports provides "a partial, biased account to suit an anti-lockdown agenda."
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