‘Hopeless’ Matt Hancock not off the hook yet over Dominic Cummings’ allegation he lied to PM, says Jeremy Hunt amid claims that the Health Secretary will be cleared by MPs
Jeremy Hunt today played down reports that Matt Hancock is to be cleared of lying to Boris Johnson at the height of the pandemic.
Dominic Cummings made the bombshell allegation about the Health Secretary when he appeared before MPs a fortnight ago as part of a tirade of attacks on the senior minister.
Mr Cummings, the Prime Minister’s now estranged former consigliere, accused Mr Hancock of being a serial liar who misled Mr Johnson over issues including care homes, PPE and pandemic preparedness. The Health Secretary denies the claims.
Following a new Cummings Twitter spree of revelations yesterday – including WhatsApp messages where the PM called Mr Hancock ‘f***ing hopeless’ – Mr Hunt gently pointed out that they showed Mr Johnson’s ‘frustration’ but were not proof of lying.
This sparked headlines this morning that Mr Hancock would be cleared by the joint investigation by the Commons’ science and health committees.
But Mr Hunt said that was the wrong conclusion to make, tweeting: ‘The joint select committee report into lessons learned from Covid has not been written, let alone seen by any committee member. To say that some of the most serious (Dominic Cummings) allegations have not been substantiated at this stage is quite different.’
The committees gave Mr Cummings a deadline last week to substantiate his claims about Mr Hancock’s behaviour, which he missed.
Dominic Cummings made the bombshell allegation about the Health Secretary when he appeared before MPs a fortnight ago as part of a tirade of attacks on the senior minister.
The Prime Minister’s now estranged former consigliere, accused Mr Hancock of being a serial liar who misled Mr Johnson over issues including care homes, PPR and pandemic preparedness. The Health Secretary denies the claims.
Mr Hunt today played down headlines that Hancock would be cleared for want of hard evidence.
Mr Hancock today brushed off Boris Johnson’s ‘f****** hopeless’ jibe today, telling journalists he was ‘just off to deliver more vaccines’.
The Health Secretary tried to style out the storm over private messages revealed by Dominic Cummings as he left his London home this morning.
Meanwhile, a minister risked inflaming the row today by insisting he had ‘no idea’ whether the PM thinks the health secretary is ‘hopeless’.
However, after initially appearing unwilling to take sides in his round of interviews, Jesse Norman then switched to stress that Mr Johnson is a ‘massive supporter’ of Mr Hancock.
The extraordinary messages revealed by the maverick former No10 chief included brutal assessments by Mr Johnson at the height of the pandemic in March and April last year – repeatedly branding Mr Hancock ‘hopeless’ over PPE and testing and suggesting Michael Gove would have to take over.
Mr Cummings levelled his latest allegations in a lengthy substack blog post today minutes before the weekly PMQs
In an exchange with Boris Johnson from March 27 last year Dominic Cummings criticised the Health Secretary over the failure to ramp up testing
Mr Cummings gave a brutal assessment of the performance of the government during an exchange of messages in April 2020
On April 27, Mr Johnson apparently messaged Mr Cummings to say that PPE was a ‘disaster’
Downing Street has declined to deny that the messages are genuine, with the PM’s spokesman merely insisting he has full confidence in Mr Hancock.
Asked in a round of interviews this morning if Mr Johnson regarded Mr Hancock as hopeless, Mr Norman said: ‘I have no idea what the Prime Minister thinks about these matters.
‘I can tell you what we’ve been presented with is one side of a snapshot of a conversation, I have no idea if it’s true or false, in the middle of the worst economic, social and public health crisis we’ve had for 100 years.
‘So would it be surprising if the odd snapshot portrayed in a certain light gave a certain view to people?’
But later it seemed Mr Norman had rethought – or been told to rethink – his lukewarm backing for Mr Hancock.
‘I think this is some of the biggest nonsense I’ve heard,’ he said on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
‘The Prime Minister obviously, as anybody would detect, is a massive supporter of the Health Secretary, he’s coming firmly behind him. There can be no question of loss of confidence.’
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