Matt Hancock. (Alamy)
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Leaked messages have allegedly proven that Matt Hancock rejected recommendation to check and segregate residents getting into care properties for Covid on the peak of the pandemic whereas serving as well being secretary.
The Telegraph, which says it has obtained 100,000 of Hancock’s WhatsApp messages through the pandemic, claims that former the well being secretary ignored the recommendation of chief medical officer Sir Chris Whitty on care house Covid testing.
The report claims Hancock mentioned increasing testing to care house residents may “muddy the waters” and in addition “get in the way in which” of the 100,000 checks a day goal he set himself early within the pandemic.
A spokesperson Hancock has mentioned: “These stolen messages have been doctored to create a false story that Matt rejected scientific recommendation on care house testing. That is flat flawed.”
A supply near Hancock informed PA: “Having not been approached prematurely by the Telegraph, we’ve got reviewed the messages in a single day.
“The Telegraph deliberately excluded reference to a gathering with the testing group from the WhatsApp. That is vital, as a result of Matt was supportive of Chris Whitty’s recommendation, held a gathering on its deliverability, informed it wasn’t deliverable, and insisted on testing all those that got here from hospitals.
“The Telegraph have been knowledgeable that their headline is flawed, and Matt is contemplating all choices out there to him.
“This main error by Isabel Oakeshott and the Telegraph reveals why the right place for evaluation like that is the Inquiry, not a partial, agenda-driven leak of confidential paperwork.”
Responding to the story, then well being minister Lord Bethell informed BBC Radio 4’s At present programme: “The factor that held us again was not a dispute concerning the scientific recommendation, it was merely the operational potential to manage checks.”
The federal government’s Covid inquiry has begun wanting into the administration of the pandemic, with points over testing of sufferers discharged into care properties – the place there have been a excessive variety of Covid deaths – set to be one of many key areas being investigated.
Rishi Sunak nonetheless staving off again bench insurrection on ‘Windsor framework’
The Prime Minister seems to be persevering with to avert open revolt from Tory again benchers over his Northern Eire deal, 48 hours after he introduced the ‘Windsor framework’ with European Fee president Ursula von der Leyen.
In a optimistic signal for Sunak, main Brexiteer and former chief negotiator of the now defunct Activity Pressure Europe Lord Frost has mentioned that whereas the deal is a “bitter capsule to swallow” he believes “it’ll assist” and in addition “take away the underlying tensions”.
“This deal softens the appliance of the Protocol, however doesn’t take away it,” Frost wrote.
“It’s the most effective we may persuade the EU to do as a result of we weren’t ready to make use of the Protocol Invoice and the EU knew it’.”
On Tuesday PoliticsHome reported that allies of Sunak are more and more optimistic that the prime minister has managed to keep away from open revolt from the ultra-Brexit wing of his occasion.
Nonetheless, Sunak will not be out of the woods but – with the small print of a gathering of the staunchly Brexit European Analysis Group (ERG) of MPs on Tuesday night time but to emerge; the DUP can also be nonetheless but to challenge its verdict on the deal.
The deal, which can ease the movement of products between Nice Britain and Northern Eire, and in addition curtail among the European Courtroom of Justice’s (ECJ) affect, has been typically welcomed by Westminster on each side of the home.
NHS Lacking Covid backlog targets
The Home of Commons’ public accounts committee has mentioned the federal government is already lacking its targets for its £14bn three-year restoration programme – warning outcomes for most cancers therapy are “particularly worrying”.
The brand new report finds solely 62 per cent of most cancers sufferers are being handled throughout the first 62 days of pressing care referral by a GP when the determine ought to have been 85 per cent.
Elsewhere, the report says that the plan to extend elective care exercise to 129 per cent is now “unachievable” – warning sufferers are “struggling the unacceptable penalties of ready too lengthy”.
The committee says it now has “severe doubts” that the tip factors of the federal government’s NHS restoration plan will likely be reached on time, describing the assumptions from NHS England concerning the first 12 months of the plan as “over-optimistic”.
It additionally warns the general technique for elective and most cancers ready occasions “lacks element on how and when these programmes will mix to create further capability and at what value”.
Amongst its suggestions is growing the capability of grownup social care to enhance the movement by means of hospitals, and a strategic method to making sure “a productive healthcare workforce of the precise measurement”.
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