Matt Hancock has dropped a number of bombshells in his shameless Covid diaries. The 'I'm a Celebrity' star discusses a number of topics in his juicy novel including his social distance-busting affair, reports the Mirror.
After missing Parliament for nearly five weeks, the disgraced former Health Secretary is back to promote Pandemic Diaries, giving his account of what happened at the top of government during the pandemic. We have combed through the all 592 pages of Mr Hancock’s diaries and here are the best bits.
Claiming he flagged the ‘loss of smell’ symptom early on
During May 2020 the government added a loss of taste/smell to an official list of Covid isolation symptoms. However, Hancock claims he knew of the symptom months before then.
On March 18, 2020, he writes: “Nadine [Dorries], as ever in the vanguard of the epidemic, says she’s lost her sense of smell and taste and everyone she’s infected has got the same thing.
“Strange: that’s not one of the official symptoms. I’ll ask the Prof to see if we need to add it to the list.”
Trying to claim he knew Eat Out scheme would go wrong
Matt Hancock says he was “torn” over, now Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak ’s ‘Eat Out To Help Out' campaign. The proposal was meant to be drive business to eateries by giving diners a £10 discount.
However, despite being a roaring success on a business level, it was blamed for a spike in infections during July 2020. Hancock wrote: “I did my best to sound supportive and refrained from expressing disapproval at his photo op.
“…but in truth I’m worried that it might backfire and lead to a spike in cases.” Despite his worries over the scheme the day it was announced, he supported the campaign.
At the time, he tweeted: “Fantastic work from Rishi Sunak to support restaurants with the Eat Out To Help Out policy. Our plan for jobs will stimulate the economy and protect people’s livelihoods.”
Flip-flopping over face masks
On April 21, 2020, Matt Hancock told LBC radio that face masks should be reserved for settings like healthcare and “the evidence of the use of masks by the general public, especially outdoors, is extremely weak".
However, on April 24, 2020, he wrote: SAGE has completely changed its tune on masks and now recommends face coverings in enclosed spaces where social distancing is not possible.
“I think it’s the right decision, but explaining such a spectacular U-turn is going to take some serious verbal gymnastics.”
How his affair began
The first reference of his current lover, Gina Coladangelo is on January 8, 2020. But despite that he kept his cards close to his chest on when their sexual relationship began.
On May 4, 2021, Hancock wrote: “My relationship with Gina is changing. Having spent so much time talking about how to communicate in an emotionally engaged way, we are getting much closer.”
The infamous kissing video of the married pair cheating on their partners was filmed just two days later.
Boris Johnson vowed to back him - then tried to claim credit for him quitting
When the video was leaked, Matt Hancock asked the Prime Minister, at the time. Boris Johnson for advice. He told the PM he had “recently fallen in love, and fallen in love very deeply”
Hancock then claims Johnson “assured me my private life should not affect my public position”. He alleges the PM added: “Well, you haven’t broken the law.
"The guidelines aren’t binding - they’re recommendations. So I will stand by you.”
Yet after Mr Hancock quit, the PM said the kiss undermined Covid guidance. Hancock wrote: “that’s why when I saw the story on Friday we had a new secretary of state for health in on Saturday.”
Boris Johnson filmed his resignation video
Hancock revealed Boris Johnson filmed his resignation video over the affair after he visited the PM at Chequers. He wrote: "The great machinery of the state was nowhere. It was just me and the PM fumbling around with an iPhone.
“He stood on the grass, holding the phone while I said my piece. It took a few goes to get right.
"He nodded sympathetic encouragement so much throughout the first take that the camera waved up and down.”
Telling his wife about the affair
Hancock recalled the 'dread' after his affair was made known to the public and how he told his wife that he had cheated. He felt "terrible black dread" at the prospect of his affair with Gina being revealed,.
The former health secretary recalled the "devastating implications of our feelings for each other". He says the moment when he told his wife about the affair as the "very worst conversation of my life.”
Boris Johnson thought Covid would 'probably go away'
Matt Hancock claims the ex-PM was not keen to discuss Covid when it first came to mainstream attention as a potential threat. He claims Johnson said: "You keep an eye on it. It will probably go away."
Hancock says he warned Johnson that while it might still be possible to contain the virus, it was "more likely we're going down". Mr Johnson apparently replied: "Bash on."
He thought Dominic Cummings was the lockdown leaker
The book makes it very clear that there is no love lost between Matt Hancock and ex-No10 aide Dominic Cummings. He was quick to blame his old enemy for leaking the news of the second lockdown in November 2020 before it was announced.
Hancock wrote: "My money is firmly on Dominic Cummings via his acolytes. The agenda?
"To bounce the PM into announcing the lockdown sooner [rather] than later and stop him U-turning. If they got me sacked into the bargain, that would be a bonus."
PM tried to palm off big ‘lockdown’ announcement onto Hancock
The night before Boris Johnson announced the first lockdown in March 2020, he met Matt Hancock in the cabinet room. Hancock says he told the ex-PM said: “We are going to have to tell everyone to stop all unnecessary social contact.”
He claims Johnson replied: “Well, you better go out and tell them, then.” Mr Hancock wrote: “I’d be happy to of course, but really? Doesn’t this need to come from their Prime Minister?”
Covid worst-case scenario predicted 820,000 deaths
Hancock describes a startling meeting in January 2020 where Chief Medical Officer Professor Chris Whitty delivered a bombshell prediction.
He wrote: "In his characteristically understated way, sitting at the back peeling a tangerine, Chris Whitty quietly informed everyone that in the reasonable worst-case scenario, as many as 820,000 people in the UK may die."
"The transmission is so high that almost everyone would catch it. The whole room froze. We are looking at a human catastrophe on a scale not seen here for a century."
SAGE started working on lockdown ideas 41 days before it happened
On February 11, 2020, he writes, “SAGE has started working on what lockdown options might have the biggest impact if they’re needed.
“They think there’s not much point stopping large public gatherings… people gather more closely and frequently in pubs and restaurants. Religious services and family gatherings are the biggest risk of all.”
Ministers were role-playing 'burial pits in Hyde Park'
On February 12, 2020, there was a worst-case scenario planning meeting between ministers. Hancock says there was a number of questions raised in the meeting about the drastic plan.
He wrote: "Where in Hyde Park would the burial pits be? Who would dig them? Have we got enough body bags?”"
PPE warehouse only had one door
On March 17, 2020, Hancock claims there was a big pile of PPE with a billion items that couldn't be accessed because the warehouse only had one door.
He wrote: “Only one lorry can pull up at a time. Shame nobody looked at Amazon’s warehouses for inspiration - they have dozens of lorry bays. What a classic government fail.”
Blaming care home staff for spread of virus
Matt Hancock defended his controversial decision to release care home residents from hospital without testing. Many blamed it for the reason behind thousands of deaths.
He said the "vast majority of infections were brought in from the wider community, mainly by staff" . Hancock also suggested that the then chief executive of NHS England Simon Stevens had pushed for elderly hospital patients who did not need urgent treatment to be discharged.
Hancock then writes that he received a "startling note" suggesting most cases in care homes were brought in by staff with the virus whose managers allowed them to continue working.
He opposed 'bonkers' plan to release prisoners before lockdown
Mr Hancock claims the Minister of Justice wanted to bring in a "bonkers" plans to release "thousands" of non-violent prisoners before the first lockdown “as they'd be easier to manage if they're not in prison. He said "yes, really: they actually thought this might be a goer” and that he made his opposition clear to Boris Johnson.
Claiming No10 asked RAF jet to fly one person to Newcastle for a Covid test
On February 28, 2020, Hancock claims the Defence Secretary, Ben Wallace, was frustrated after being bombarded with requests for the RAF to move around Covid passengers. He wrote: “This morning No10 asked him to fly a single individual from Northern Ireland to Newcastle for testing.
"He said no… the RAF is not some kind of private jet service.”
Tory peer Michelle Mone sent 'extraordinarily aggressive' emails about PPE contracts
The former health secretary claims that Michelle Mone used "extraordinarily aggressive" lobbying tactics for a company bidding for Covid contracts. Hancock says he was left 'stunned' by Baroness Mone's emails about the problems the firm was facing to land the deal.
He wrote: "She claims the firm, which makes lateral flow test kits, ‘has had a dreadful time’ trying to cut through red tape and demanded my ‘urgent help’ before it all comes out in the media. ‘I am going to blow this all wide open,’ she threatened."
Partygate
The infamous incident only gets the vaguest of mentions in the book. Hancock confesses to being at one event at No10, that being the ‘cheese and wine’ drinks in the No10 garden on May 15, 2020.
He wrote: “After today’s Downing Street press conference, I went back to the Thatcher Room to pick up my stuff and ask the team how they thought it went, then along to the PM’s office to download as I usually do.”
“He wasn’t there but the duty clerk said I’d find him in the garden, so we all went through. Gina came too, the first time she’d been in the Downing Street garden. Most of the No. 10 team were sitting around in small groups.”
Advisor knew people would think his TV weeping was fake
Matt Hancock famously broke down inn tears on live TV after confirming the news that the first Covid jab had been administered on December 8, 2020.
He wrote: "Gina and [my Special Advisor] Damon accompanied me to the broadcast studios. 'You need to relax' was Gina's advice, by which she meant: 'Stop being so buttoned up.'
"What she did not mean was that I should lose it altogether, which unfortunately is exactly what happened." As the footage of the first vaccine rolled, he "completely lost it, blubbing away" live on TV.
Hancock added: “‘So long as they don’t think it was faked’, said Damon.” The former health secretary insisted his emotion displayed on TV was real.
"I was at the centre of events"
Hancock did not hold back to his own self importance during the turbulent time period. He wrote: “I was in the hot-seat.”
"From the first warning signs in Wuhan through to the massive national response, I was at the centre of events. It was the most important thing I have done in my life and I gave it my all.”
The diary was not actually written as it happened
Matt Hancock openly admits that the diary wasn’t actually written at the time. He said: “Of course, I didn’t have time to keep a detailed diary amid of the maelstrom, nor would it have been right to do so.”
The account has been “pieced together from my formal papers… contemporaneous notes and voice memos, my communications with ministerial colleagues, interviews with many of the participants".
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