Please use this megathread to discuss all aspects of the Lockdown Files. Any new articles released should be posted here as a top level comment rather than as their own post.

The full Telegraph report can be found here: [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/lockdown-files/](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/lockdown-files/)

32 comments

  1. I’m still amazed Hancock choose Oakeshott to ghostwrite his book.

    A journo who failed to protect her source leading to the source being imprisoned and one who worked on the Call Me Dave book (the one with the pig fucking comment) – and yet Hancock was like yeah she can have my private messages.

  2. From the little I’ve seen it’s amazing how little these intellectuals actual managed to misunderstand about what they were being briefed on. If anything kinds of makes the case that we need a task force to take over in pandemic times as too many egos in play otherwise.

  3. From what I’ve seen with Oakeshott’s past with other politicion it looks like Hancock made a poor judgement of character to give her access to personal messages

  4. Oh well I’m glad now someone has written a book about it we, media who didn’t challenge anything included, can all talk about the COVID rules being nonsensical and act like we were against them all along. As if anyone should have needed a book to know that or that our government(s) are chronically stupid.

    At least that’s what I’ve gathered will be the case from giving it a glance. Just like the Iraq war that you’ll be hard-pressed to find people supporting *now*

  5. Hancock & Oakeshott are on the same team, & taking orders from the same political group. This entire charade is akin to a trapped animal gnawing its own leg off to escape.

  7. Probably too early and the wrong discussion to raise the prospect of something similar happening around the war in Ukraine in 3 years

  8. Releasing the book was to be a boost for his massive ego but now he simply looks like even more of a d*ck head.

  9. ***Britain’s second lockdown was based on ‘very wrong’ Covid data, Boris Johnson feared***

    *See the leaked text messages here:* [*https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/03/02/boris-johnson-covid-lockdown-wrong-data-hancock/*](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/03/02/boris-johnson-covid-lockdown-wrong-data-hancock/)

    Boris Johnson was worried that he had “blinked too soon” in plunging Britain into a second national lockdown on the basis of data that scientists had warned him was “very wrong”.

    The prime minister made the observation on Nov 1 2020 – one day after he had announced a national lockdown due to come into force on Nov 4. Despite his fears, the lockdown went ahead and lasted for a month.In another exchange, the then prime minister appeared to express a desire to lift the country out of lockdown earlier than planned, but said his media advisers – Lee Cain and James Slack – warned him that such a move is “too far ahead of public opinion”.

    When Mr Johnson broached the subject of opening schools before the summer, his health secretary argued against doing so, saying “everyone’s accepted there won’t be more on schools until September”.

    The exchanges call into question the prime minister’s insistence that lockdown decisions were made on the basis of the best scientific evidence.It also raises the prospect that Britain spent many weeks living under restrictions that could have been avoided.

    The cache of WhatsApp messages obtained by The Telegraph includes group messages between Mr Johnson; Professor Sir Chris Whitty, the Chief Medical Officer for England; Sir Patrick Vallance, the Chief Scientific Adviser; Dominic Cummings, the prime minister’s chief adviser, and Matt Hancock, the then health secretary.In one exchange, on Nov 1 2020, Mr Johnson explained that he had been on a video conference call with scientists Dr Raghib Ali and Dr Carl Heneghan.

    He told the WhatsApp group that Dr Heneghan said “the death modelling you have been shown is already very wrong”, as it was out of date having been drawn up three weeks previously.

    The previous day, Mr Johnson had announced an impending national lockdown and partly justified his decision by showing the public modelling predicting that 4,000 people a day could die if no action was taken.Mr Johnson shared a link with the group that suggests the modelling, which had been drawn up three weeks prior to the press conference, was out by a factor of four. A newer Cambridge study suggested 1,000 deaths a day.

    “The attack is going to be that we blinked too soon,” wrote Mr Johnson – a reference to the idea that he will be criticised for announcing a national lockdown too early.The data Mr Johnson used to justify his decision was modelling that predicted what could happen in the event of no restrictions being ordered.Three weeks earlier – on Oct 10 – separate WhatsApp messages show Mr Hancock asking Baroness Harding to create a “do nothing” death toll.

    Earlier messages show how Mr Johnson was told that lifting lockdown restrictions earlier than planned was not what the public wanted.On June 6 2020, Mr Johnson sent a message to Mr Hancock saying he is “thinking hard about the 15th June”.On June 15, the Government was planning on opening non-essential retail, but Mr Johnson’s messages suggest he wanted to do more.

    The prime minister then wrote: “At the moment we could do non-essential retail, some more for families, a bit of outdoor hospitality and announce that we can’t do all primary schools by July,” comments that suggest he believed opening these areas before the set date of mid-June.

    However, Mr Johnson followed this by saying that James Slack, his official spokesman, and Lee Cain, his director of communications, “still think the whole package will be too far ahead of public opinion”.Mr Hancock responded by saying the reproduction rate – known as R – is “very close to one” and therefore “I think Slackie and Lee have a point”.

    The then health secretary continued: “I think it’s too soon for outdoor hospitality – and they’re not expecting it until next month.”On schools, he added: “Everyone’s accepted there won’t be more on schools until Sept.”The health secretary concluded that: “My view is the public are right and we need to hold our nerve.

    ”After being warned it was not what the public expected, the Government did not allow outdoor hospitality to open until July 4. However, he told the public that this was because it was as early as the evidence allowed.“The next set of changes – step three – will not begin until the 4th July at the earliest, as the evidence allows,” he told a press conference.

    Messages appear to be in contrast to public statementsThe comments in the WhatsApp messages appear to be in contrast to what the Government said publicly.Two days later – on June 8 2020 – in response to a question about the opening of schools, the then health secretary said there were “very difficult policy judgments based on the best available science, always guided by that science”.

    Four days later, on June 10 2020, the then prime minister gave the impression that the Government was not opening schools before September for scientific reasons – in contrast to Mr Hancock saying over WhatsApp that Mr Johnson should not be looking at schools again because “everyone’s accepted there won’t be more on schools until Sept”.

    Responding to a question by Laura Kuenssberg, the BBC journalist, about schools, Mr Johnson said: “Of course we would have liked to have been in a position where we could have got the rest of primary back for a couple of weeks before the summer holidays, we wanted to do that if that was going to be possible.”

    **See more:** [**https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/03/02/boris-johnson-covid-lockdown-wrong-data-hancock/**](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/03/02/boris-johnson-covid-lockdown-wrong-data-hancock/)

  10. So let me get this right. Matt Hancock asked a journalist who is known for betraying her sources, starting the David Cameron pig rumour and being openly critical of his own lockdown policies to ghostwrite his book. And now he’s genuinely shocked this hasn’t worked out for him.

    I think the real story here is how anyone with this level of foresight was allowed to be our health Secretary in the first place.

    EDIT: As if that wasn’t enough, she’s also in a relationship with the leader of a rival political party.

  12. Hancock is either being a genius here and burning the barn while he tries to escape with the horses or he might well be the dumbest man who ever lived.

  13. Kind of annoying because no one outside of the Tory clique has had this kind of access (and I mean seriously, who just lets someone else have complete access to their WhatsApp? Wtf?) we’re only ever going to have this information after its been picked through by the likes of Oakshott and other lockdown “skeptics” at places like The Telegraph.

    Predictably the focus is on trying to show that the lockdowns were unnecessarily punitive and reignite that whole “debate”, rather than, I don’t know little things really I suppose, like the billions upon billions of pounds dished out through highly opaque processes like [Hancock’s former pub landlord](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9753299/Pub-landlord-won-Covid-contract-lobbying-pal-Matt-Hancock-buys-1-3-million-manor.html), [systematic corruption and nepotism](https://goodlawproject.org/mps-daughter-threatened-to-sue-for-vip-lane-commission/) in the handling of vitally critical PPE supplies [while established suppliers were left in the dark](https://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/news/hull-east-yorkshire-news/inside-story-how-arco-snubbed-7906386), that [the government’s own minister](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-60117513) responsible for pursuing fraud in the covid loan schemes was so aghast at the scale of the issue and lack of interest from Westminster in chasing this that he resigned.

    No we’ll keep debating whether or not any precautions were even needed at all following a crisis that even with restrictions managed to kill three times as many British civilians as were killed in the war. Much more important that we make sure that one is properly hashed out… Again…

  14. Isabelle Oaksharte. The very definition of an unbiased and balanced journalist, who absolutely, definitely, unquestionably has no agenda….

  15. They’re the perfect example how they put the party before the country, only caring about public opinion instead of what the science/experts say while also using them to justify anything they say while not following the advice.

  16. All this drama feels like the uk government trying to put the public opinion in a different matter of what the currently one is: Post Brexit state of the country and the fact that the PM is praising the benefits of a single market in NI.

  17. I’m sure if there is also any information on other things such as PPE contracts it will be divulged in the interests of the public and not just the excerpts that “back up” the journalists prevailing personal views, right? Right…?

  19. Betray trust of many people: check.

    Break NDA: check.

    Anti-lockdown: check.

    Brexiteer: check.

    Shill: check.

    Rumourmonger: check.

    Damn this so called journalist has little integrity.

  20. Telegraph publish the story.
    WhatsApp leaked messages stun nation.
    Anger at the government.
    Tories making up false statements to obfuscate.

  25. **Was I right to leak Matt Hancock’s WhatsApp messages? Here’s what you told me – Writes Isabel Oakeshott in The Telegraph ⤵️**

    “Was it right to reveal the truth about the way we were governed during the pandemic, or should I have sat on WhatsApps I received from Matt Hancock, because I owed him a duty of confidentiality? Is it my job as a journalist to keep politicians’ secrets and protect their reputations – or uncover what they’d prefer to hide, if it’s in the public interest?
    “I know what I think, but since the former Health Secretary accused me of “massive betrayal” for handing more than 100,000 messages to the Telegraph, I have faced a barrage of hostile questions about journalistic ethics.
    “However, the astonishing number of letters and emails I have also received from ordinary people thanking the Telegraph for publishing the Lockdown Files is the only answer I need. Here is a tiny selection of the reaction to our investigation.”

    **Continue reading this article, for free, here ⤵️**

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/03/04/right-leak-matt-hancocks-whatsapp-messages-what-told/

  26. **Rishi Sunak urged to ‘come clean’ over flagship Eat Out To Help Out scheme**

    Rishi Sunak is under pressure over his flagship Eat Out To Help Out scheme amid claims of a “cover up”.
    The Lockdown Files show Matt Hancock’s disdain for the initiative and worry that it was contributing to the spread of the virus.
    The scheme, which was aimed at encouraging the public to return to restaurants, formed part of a package of measures launched by Mr Sunak, the then chancellor, in the summer of 2020.
    In August 2020, while the scheme was still operating, Mr Hancock mentioned his concerns about it in messages to Simon Case, the then Downing Street permanent secretary in charge of the Civil Service response to Covid.
    Mr Hanock told Mr Case that the scheme was driving up Covid cases in some of the worst hit areas and that the problems it was causing were “serious”. But he added that he had “kept it out of the news”.
    The then health secretary said the Treasury had been informed about the “problems” the scheme was causing in Covid “intervention areas”.
    “We’ve been protecting them in the comms,” he said, adding that “thankfully” it has not yet “bubbled up”.
    Eat Out to Help Out offered diners 50 per cent off food and non-alcoholic drinks on Mondays to Wednesdays in August, capped at £10 per head. The final total cost to the taxpayer was £849 million – far in excess of the £500 million original forecast by the Treasury.
    The Prime Minister has now been urged to “come clean” about what he knew about the risks of the scheme and explain why “warnings were apparently ignored and evidence concealed.”
    Angela Rayner, Labour’s deputy leader, said: “We now know that Rishi Sunak’s Treasury was made aware of the evidence that his Eat Out to Help Out scheme was spreading Covid and risking public health.
    “These disturbing exchanges show the Prime Minister may have been complicit in a cover up when he was Chancellor to protect his own PR stunt at the expense of public safety.
    “He must now own up to what he knew and when about the risks, and explain why the warnings were apparently ignored and evidence concealed.”
    Meanwhile, Lobby Akinnola of the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group said Mr Hancock’s messages “confirm what many have suspected for a long time – saving lives was not the priority for our Government”.
    He added: “It is now laid bare before us; instead of listening to scientific experts, acting urgently to save lives when it was proven that Eat Out to Help Out was risking lives… our Government chose to treat the pandemic as a vanity project to garner political points.”
    A study by Warwick University, published in October 2020, concluded that the scheme had “caused a significant rise in new infections… accelerating the pandemic into its current second wave”.
    Academics claimed the scheme contributed between eight and 17 per cent of new Covid infections at the time.
    Daisy Cooper, the Liberal Democrat deputy leader, said: “These messages paint a picture of a bitterly divided and chaotic Government, when families were making huge sacrifices.
    “Rishi Sunak must come clean about what he knew and when, and Treasury policy making should be closely investigated in the Covid inquiry.”
    A Government source said: “Many European countries experienced an uptick in transmission at the same time as the UK, including those without similar schemes.”
    **Read more here:** https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/03/04/rishi-sunak-come-clean-eat-help-risks-matt-hancock/

  27. [Matt Hancock aide criticised Dominic Cummings in expletive-laden tirade](https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/mar/04/matt-hancock-aide-criticised-dominic-cummings-expletive-laden-tirade).

    >On the same day, Hancock made a reference to Cummings’ widely ridiculed claim that he had driven to Barnard Castle to test his eyesight, saying: “His insight is no better than his eyesight.”

    I genuinely got a pang of nostalgia, being reminded of Dom Cum and Barnard Castle.

  28. Quite the scapegoat there. Who is ths SAGE group? [https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/882722/25-options-for-increasing-adherence-to-social-distancing-measures-22032020.pdf](https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/882722/25-options-for-increasing-adherence-to-social-distancing-measures-22032020.pdf) i think it was termed military level brainwashing at one point.

  30. I’m actually quite surprised this hasn’t generated any real outrage despite the clear implications of the leaks. It’s odd given how much outrage the actions of this government normally cause.

  31. **Matt Hancock’s secret plan to import French Covid patients, from The Telegraph’s Lockdown Files:**

    Matt Hancock planned to bring French Covid patients to the UK for treatment during the second wave of the pandemic, despite national lockdown restrictions in force to protect the NHS.

    Messages between the then health secretary, his advisers and Boris Johnson, then the prime minister, show he hoped to offer “spare” intensive care unit beds to Emmanuel Macron to help the French president deal with a major outbreak in his country in November 2020.

    At that time, Britain was under a second national lockdown that was sold to the public as necessary to prevent the “medical and moral disaster” of an overwhelmed NHS.

    But Downing Street and the Department of Health and Social Care created a secret plan to transfer Covid patients from the busiest French hospitals, bringing more cases of Covid to the UK.

    The plan is not thought to have ever been implemented, but Mr Hancock said: “We may need to make a similar offer to Italy,” despite exponential increases in Britain’s own case numbers.

    On Nov 13, Mr Hancock shared with his top advisers a letter that he planned to send to Olivier Veran, the French health minister, offering to import French Covid patients to the UK for treatment.

    “I have seen the pressure on your hospitals, and that some patients are being transferred abroad,” the letter said. “We have our epidemic largely in the north of England, and some spare capacity in London and the south.

    “We could provide some ICU beds to which you could transfer some patients. Would that be helpful to relieve pressure on your most affected regions? Our countries have always stood by each other in times of need.”

    By this point in the European second Covid wave, the UK was looking to Europe as case numbers exploded in France, Italy and Spain, with a second national lockdown imposed in an attempt to reduce transmission.

    France had already been taken off the UK’s travel corridor list, meaning that any person travelling to Britain from France was required to quarantine for 14 days or face a fine. By late November, France and Britain had similar rates of the virus, with around 275 cases per 100,000 people.

    In an address to the nation on Oct 31, Mr Johnson said that even in the south-west of England, where Mr Hancock had proposed housing French patients, “it is now clear that current projections mean they will run out of hospital capacity in a matter of weeks unless we act”.

    He said that if new measures were not imposed, the growth of Covid numbers would mean that “doctors and nurses would be forced to choose which patients to treat, who would get oxygen and who wouldn’t”, adding: “The overrunning of the NHS would be a medical and moral disaster beyond the raw loss of life.

    “It is crucial to grasp that this general threat to public health comes not from focusing too much on Covid, but from not focusing enough, from failing to get it under control.”

    An earlier WhatsApp conversation between Mr Hancock and Mr Johnson about the idea shows it originated with Lord Llewellyn of Steep, who was then serving as Britain’s ambassador in Paris.

    “I love this idea of Ed Llewellyn’s to offer Macron (privately) to treat some of their cases where they have pressure on the health system,” Mr Hancock wrote to Mr Johnson on Oct 2, 2020. “Because we have a regional problem we also have regional capacity in East Anglia (Cambridge?) or the SW.”

    Lord Llewellyn is now serving as the UK’s ambassador to Italy. He is a former Downing Street chief of staff, serving in Number 10 under David Cameron.

    **Read the messages here:** https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/03/06/french-covid-patients-plan-lockdown-matt-hancock/

  32. I don’t think megathread is such a good idea. There is lots of news that shouldn’t be swept under one forgotten megathread. This is major class fuck up and each leaked bit can be a news worthy by itself. Such as Hancock threatening to remove disable children centre if MP doesn’t vote the way they want. It will go missing here in this thread but should be news rocking subreddit on it’s own https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-64870505

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