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The Guardian - UK

Politics

Why Matt Hancock is (almost) to be pitied

Matt Hancock Marx Isabel Oakeshott

Isabel Oakeshott sitting in a chair in a TV studio — Isabel Oakeshott, the journalist who leaked Matt Hancock's WhatsApp messages. Photograph: David Mirzoeff/PA

Much as I detest Tories on principle, I think Isabel Oakeshott’s behaviour has violated every notion of journalistic integrity, and in this instance Matt Hancock is almost to be pitied (Ministers rally behind Covid inquiry after Hancock WhatsApp revelations, 1 March). Then I remembered that Oakeshott is a Tory too, so my principle appears to hold good.
Philip Clayton
London

• The letter from Jane Harding (1 March), wondering where Mark Spencer, the minister for food, might do his shopping, reminded me of a debating society motion when I attended Leeds University in the 1950s. This read: “This house has got more from Marks & Spencer than it has from either Marx or Spenser.” As I recall, the motion was carried.
Tony Ingham
Goosnargh, Lancashire

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