During his time on I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!, former Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Matt Hancock attempted a redemption arc as he unburdened himself to campmates. Now a different narrative has emerged
Matt Hancock’s shocking text messages paint a stark picture of how he really viewed the care home patients he claims to have ‘protected’ during the pandemic.
In a bad-tempered exchange at the Covid Inquiry today, the former Health Secretary struggled to justify his earlier claim that he’d put a “protective ring” around care homes – instead saying he “tried”.
Text exchanges between Hancock and the former Care Minister Helen Whately were also revealed as he lashed out at local authorities.
In texts from April 2020, shortly after the UK was plunged into strict lockdown measures, Whately warned Hancock that care home death figures were “not good”. He simply replied: “OK”.
READ MORE: Matt Hancock loses his cool as he’s confronted over Covid care home ‘lies’
In what has been termed “generational slaughter” by grieving families, 43,000 deaths related to Coronavirus were recorded between March 2020 and July 2022.
Back in March 2020, Hancock, then one of the most visible faces of the government’s response to the pandemic, insisted that a “protective ring” had been placed around care homes. However, residents were neither tested for infection nor isolated after being discharged from the hospital.
The inquiry has since heard that on March 17 2020, hospitals were ordered to prioritise getting people out of wards, with Hancock asserting that he’d picked the “least bad” option when faced with an “impossible choice”.
Those who tuned into the 46-year-old’s controversial 2022 stint in the I’m A Celebrity jungle will know all too well just how much his pandemic defence has changed since the show.
As he sat beside the I’m A Celebrity campfire in November 2022, emotions were still raw among viewers and campmates alike, and it wasn’t long before the stars addressed the “elephant in the room” – his handling of the pandemic.
Hancock defended his stint in the senior job, including the shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) which left some medical staff forced to improvise with bin bags in the early days.
When pressed about the topic of care homes, he replied: “So with PPE for instance, you know, I know, of course, I saw what happened to it. But that’s because we suddenly needed masses more PPE, and so did everybody else in the world.
“And care homes, there’s reasons for the decisions that were taken, and ultimately, those problems were caused by the virus, not the people who were trying to solve the problem.”
As Hancock opened up to his fellow celebs, he presented a picture of a well-meaning politician faced with insurmountable odds. However, his tone soon changed at the Covid inquiry. Today, Hancock hit out at local authorities and Public Health England, pointing the finger of blame elsewhere.
Losing his cool, Hancock snapped: “You don’t have to tell me how great the challenges were. There wasn’t enough testing, there wasn’t enough PPE. The public health authorities had the wrong attitude and the wrong doctrine. All of these things needed fixing, and one by one, we did everything we could to fix them.”
When quizzed about the messages exchanged between himself and Whately, Hancock lashed out, telling the inquiry that local authorities oversaw the planning of the impact of a pandemic on care homes, in a significant shifting of fault.
He also claimed to have been ‘horrified’ after seeing the plans that had been put in place. Hancock said: “It was a really shocking moment. It didn’t take long to work out they were wholly inadequate.”
The shamed former MP sparked widespread anger across the UK for his handling of the Covid-19 pandemic. His time in office will likely be forever immortalised in CCTV images of him passionately kissing adviser Gina Coladangelo, in a flagrant flouting of social distancing rules he himself had handed down.
The then-married father-of-three stepped down amid ridicule in what was a mortifying moment for the Conservative Party and a grim precursor to the outrageous revelations of partygate.
It was undeniably an insult to those who had isolated themselves throughout the shared public ordeal, whether through care for others or fear of harsh repercussions.
Back in 2021, former No. 10 aide Dominic Cummings told MPs: “I think that the Secretary of State for Health should have been fired for at least 15-20 things, including lying to everybody on multiple occasions in meeting after meeting in the cabinet room and publicly.”
Discussing whether he believed Hancock should face corporate manslaughter charges for his part in the PPE “disaster”, Cummings continued: “I don’t know about that because I don’t know what the laws are… but I think that there is no doubt that many senior people were just terrible… many senior people performed far far disastrously below the standards the country has a right to expect.
“I think the Secretary of State for Health is certainly one of those people. I said repeatedly to the Prime Minister that he should be fired. So did the Cabinet Secretary, so did many other senior people.”
It remains to be seen which narrative will go down in history. However, it’s undeniable that we are seeing a very different Hancock from the repentant lovelorn everyman presented to us on I’m A Celebrity.
Do you have a story to share? Email me at [email protected]
READ MORE: ‘This is the London hotel where celebs stay before events – the views are incredible’