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Lockdown Files
The Lockdown Files are a series of articles in The Daily Telegraph containing evidence, analysis, speculation, and opinion relating to more than 100,000 WhatsApp messages obtained from former health secretary Matt Hancock that were leaked to them.
The material, relating to the COVID-19 lockdown in the United Kingdom, was given to The Telegraph by Isabel Oakeshott, who had worked with Hancock on his book Pandemic Diaries. Oakeshott said that the release of these messages was motivated by the slow pace of the UK COVID-19 Inquiry and her concern that the findings might be a "whitewash", citing public money being used in legal action to redact the names of officials.
The Telegraph argue that some messages show an intent on the part of Hancock and several members of his team to cause fear in the general public through their messaging in order ensure compliance with public health policy. In response to public rumours about coming local lockdowns following a local lockdown in Leicester, special adviser Jamie Njoku-Goodwin commented that the rumours were not unhelpful since a fear of a local lockdown would encourage individuals to be responsible.
The Telegraph reported that alpha variant was implicated as a cause for higher cases in Kent on December 10, 2020, following a 48-hour rapid investigation. They reported that the variant had been sequenced in September and that a report was created into what was known during this period delivered as "advice to ministers" to avoid freedom of information requests. In December 2020 Hancock and his media advisor Damon Poole discuss when to "deploy" information about a new variant and its likely effect on the right-wing press, behaviour change among the public, and London mayor Sadiq Khan. In January 2021, secretary to the prime minister, Simon Case, said that fear and guilt were vital factor in messaging.
The introduction of face masks in schools during the COVID-19 pandemic took place after then-prime minister Boris Johnson was told it was "not worth an argument" with the then-First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon, who had implemented the policy, despite then-chief medical officer saying there were no very strong reasons to implement masking.
The Telegraph reported that in November 2020, Chris Whitty and other government advisors were in favour of trialing five days of COVID testing as an alternative to 14-days of self-isolation for those who had come into contact with a person infected with COVID-19. The Telegraph reported that Hancock disagreed with this policy because it appeared like a loosening of rules and would suggest that the government had been wrong. When interviewed about the matter on GB News, Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg said that the matter was not briefed to the Cabinet, and that had he known he would have opposed the measures.
Hancock instructed an aide to contact the Home Office to ask them to investigate if Nigel Farage[who?] had violated travel quarantine rules in response to a news story showing Farage at a pub in July 2020. The Telegraph said that messages show Ministers and civil servants discussing "[getting] heavy with the police" to enforce lockdown measures with senior police officers being brought into Number 10 to be told to be stricter with the public.
The Telegraph reported that in messages Hancock had said that one of the reasons for the discharge of hospital patients into care homes without testing in the spring of 2020 was that this testing would "get in the way" of targets of administering one hundred thousand COVID tests a day as part of the NHS testing program. A spokesperson for Hancock said that the story spun about care homes was completely wrong and that the records show that Hancock had pushed for testing and that records related to this had been releasted to the COVID-19 inquiry.
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Lockdown Files
The Lockdown Files are a series of articles in The Daily Telegraph containing evidence, analysis, speculation, and opinion relating to more than 100,000 WhatsApp messages obtained from former health secretary Matt Hancock that were leaked to them.
The material, relating to the COVID-19 lockdown in the United Kingdom, was given to The Telegraph by Isabel Oakeshott, who had worked with Hancock on his book Pandemic Diaries. Oakeshott said that the release of these messages was motivated by the slow pace of the UK COVID-19 Inquiry and her concern that the findings might be a "whitewash", citing public money being used in legal action to redact the names of officials.
The Telegraph argue that some messages show an intent on the part of Hancock and several members of his team to cause fear in the general public through their messaging in order ensure compliance with public health policy. In response to public rumours about coming local lockdowns following a local lockdown in Leicester, special adviser Jamie Njoku-Goodwin commented that the rumours were not unhelpful since a fear of a local lockdown would encourage individuals to be responsible.
The Telegraph reported that alpha variant was implicated as a cause for higher cases in Kent on December 10, 2020, following a 48-hour rapid investigation. They reported that the variant had been sequenced in September and that a report was created into what was known during this period delivered as "advice to ministers" to avoid freedom of information requests. In December 2020 Hancock and his media advisor Damon Poole discuss when to "deploy" information about a new variant and its likely effect on the right-wing press, behaviour change among the public, and London mayor Sadiq Khan. In January 2021, secretary to the prime minister, Simon Case, said that fear and guilt were vital factor in messaging.
The introduction of face masks in schools during the COVID-19 pandemic took place after then-prime minister Boris Johnson was told it was "not worth an argument" with the then-First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon, who had implemented the policy, despite then-chief medical officer saying there were no very strong reasons to implement masking.
The Telegraph reported that in November 2020, Chris Whitty and other government advisors were in favour of trialing five days of COVID testing as an alternative to 14-days of self-isolation for those who had come into contact with a person infected with COVID-19. The Telegraph reported that Hancock disagreed with this policy because it appeared like a loosening of rules and would suggest that the government had been wrong. When interviewed about the matter on GB News, Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg said that the matter was not briefed to the Cabinet, and that had he known he would have opposed the measures.
Hancock instructed an aide to contact the Home Office to ask them to investigate if Nigel Farage[who?] had violated travel quarantine rules in response to a news story showing Farage at a pub in July 2020. The Telegraph said that messages show Ministers and civil servants discussing "[getting] heavy with the police" to enforce lockdown measures with senior police officers being brought into Number 10 to be told to be stricter with the public.
The Telegraph reported that in messages Hancock had said that one of the reasons for the discharge of hospital patients into care homes without testing in the spring of 2020 was that this testing would "get in the way" of targets of administering one hundred thousand COVID tests a day as part of the NHS testing program. A spokesperson for Hancock said that the story spun about care homes was completely wrong and that the records show that Hancock had pushed for testing and that records related to this had been releasted to the COVID-19 inquiry.