Former UK Health Secretary, Matt Hancock, has admitted to the Covid inquiry that the UK should have gone into a lockdown three weeks earlier, an action which he says could have reduced deaths during the first wave of Covid by 90%. Hancock also claimed that a “toxic culture” was present in the government as a result of the actions of Dominic Cummings, the Prime Minister’s former chief advisor, who he described as a “malign actor”. During his testimony, Hancock denied claims that he lied to colleagues throughout the pandemic.
Cummings, who left No. 10 Downing Street in 2020 after a disagreement with former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, has criticised Hancock on several occasions. However, when given a chance to respond to these claims, Hancock described them as untrue, and said that Mr. Cummings had subjected Health Department staff to abuse.
Hancock claimed that it was necessary to work with a “toxic culture” when dealing with the Covid pandemic, and criticised Cummings’ efforts to grab power from Johnson while shutting out ministers from key meetings. Additionally, the former Health Secretary argued that there was an “unhelpful” assumption that “when anything was difficult or a challenge, there was somehow fault and blame”.
Hancock resigned in June 2021 after breaking Covid guidance. He was suspended as a Conservative MP after appearing on ITV’s I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here in 2022 and later stated that he would not stand for re-election. Following his resignation, Hancock claimed that many lives could have been saved if the UK government had initiated the first coronavirus lockdown as early as 2 March 2020, as opposed to the 23rd of that month
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