The former health secretary, Matt Hancock, and a senior civil servant mocked people in quarantine hotels during lockdown, leaked WhatsApp messages appear to show.
Day three of The Lockdown Files, published in the Telegraph, reveal that Cabinet Secretary Simon Case joked about quarantine hotels being a “premier inn shoe box”.
The texts, part of 10,000 messages sent between ministers and officials during the pandemic, also disclose how ministers had given police officers “marching orders” while insisting at the time that the government operationally independent from the police.
The leaked messages, which have not been verified by CityUniversityNews, also show that Hancock shared a Sky News story with former prime minister Boris Johnson about two people being fined £10,000 for failing to quarantine after returning from Dubai. Johnson replied: “Superb.”
The latest revelations comes after journalist Isabel Oakeshott defended her decision to leak the messages after she was given access to them in order to help Mr Hancock write his book, Pandemic Diaries.
Ms Oakeshott called the decision in the “overwhelming national interest”. On BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme, she stated that “anyone that thinks I did this for money must be utterly insane.”
Hancock has since called the decision “a massive betrayal and breach of trust”, and apologised to those whose messages had been leaked as part of the files.
“I am also sorry for the impact on the very many people – political colleagues, civil servants and friends – who worked hard with me to get through the pandemic and save lives,” Mr Hancock said.