https://archive.is/ju5LW
Leaked WhatsApp messages reveal how health secretary hoped to shock
public into complying with ever-changing lockdown rules
By
The Lockdown Files Team
4 March 2023 • 9:00pm
Matt Hancock's plan to ‘frighten the pants off everyone’ about Covid
THE LOCKDOWN FILES
Read the full investigation
Throughout the course of the pandemic, officials and ministers wrestled
with how to ensure the public complied with ever-changing lockdown
restrictions. One weapon in their arsenal was fear.
“We frighten the pants off everyone,” Matt Hancock suggested during one
WhatsApp message with his media adviser.
The then health secretary was not alone in his desire to scare the
public into compliance. The WhatsApp messages seen by The Telegraph show
how several members of Mr Hancock’s team engaged in a kind of “Project
Fear”, in which they spoke of how to utilise “fear and guilt” to make
people obey lockdown.
An Imperial College survey of Covid infections in the community – called
the React programme and led by the eminent professor Lord Darzi –
provided “positive” news for Mr Hancock and his team.
The study they referred to appeared to have been a survey showing
“decreasing prevalence” of Covid through May and an R number – the
reproduction rate of the virus – of just 0.57.
The study was in line with an Office for National Statistics (ONS)
survey. But when the media focused on a separate report by Public Health
England and Cambridge University showing a high transmission rate in
some parts of the country - prompting speculation that local lockdowns
could follow - Mr Hancock said: “That’s no bad thing.” Sir Patrick
Vallance, the Government’s Chief Scientific Adviser, agreed. On June 5
2020, there were 1,020 reported daily cases of Covid and 160 deaths.
5 June, 2020
Matt Hancock
Matt Hancock |Health Secretary
👍 Have you seen the v interesting Ara Darzi survey?
15:31
Patrick Vallance
Patrick Vallance |Government Chief Scientific Adviser
Haven’t seen it yet but heard a verbal output a couple of days ago. Will
try to find it now
16:49
Ok seen it now. Very good and consistent with the ONS study. All
pointing in the same positive direction
17:09
Matt Hancock
Matt Hancock
Yep. Just done presser where the media interest is only in the gloomy
Cambridge survey 🤦♂️
17:57
But, if we want people to behave themselves maybe that’s no bad thing
17:57
Patrick Vallance
Patrick Vallance
Agree, suck up their miserable interpretation and over deliver
17:58
With recorded Covid cases now down to just 689, the Government was days
away from reopening pubs, restaurants and hairdressing salons.
But on June 30 2020, Leicester had just gone into a local lockdown. In a
WhatsApp group called “Local Action Committee”, Emma Dean, Mr Hancock’s
special adviser on policy, reported back to the group a rumour that
Milton Keynes may be the next town plunged into a local lockdown.
Jamie Njoku-Goodwin, Mr Hancock’s media adviser, replied that it would
not be “unhelpful” for the public to think they could be next.
Ms Dean appeared to start the conversation by forwarding messages sent
to her about the Milton Keynes rumour. Baroness Harding, who ran the
Test and Trace scheme, replied.
30 June, 2020
Emma Dean
Emma Dean |Department of Health Policy Special Adviser
Hi Jo, there's a rumour going around about an MK lockdown. So far
fending the BBC off by sending them the link to the data. Local radio
also asking
Hi Emma are we aware if there is a problem in MIlton Keynes?
15:34
False?
15:34
Dido Harding
Dido Harding |Executive Chair of NHS Test and Trace
False!
15:34
Emma Dean
Emma Dean
Marvellous
15:34
Jamie Njoku-Goodwin
Jamie Njoku-Goodwin |Department of Health Media Special Adviser
There will be lots of these sort of rumours doing the rounds in the next
few days. It's not unhelpful having people think they could be next, and
so should be responsible and *stay alert* as we approach the 4th July.
15:39
Matt Hancock
Matt Hancock |Health Secretary
When we publish the testing data, on Thursday, and the appendices to the
paper from PHE, people will immediately see the next cities down
15:42
The Government had started publishing a so-called “watchlist” of the
worst-affected areas in the country, not least to justify and explain to
the public the need for local lockdowns.
But on Oct 7 2020, ministers scrapped the list’s publication – the
thinking seemingly being that the numbers were increasing and that it
would cause residents and politicians in places like Leicester to
question why they had been singled out for local lockdowns.
In a WhatsApp group called “MH Top Team” that involved a number of
advisers and civil servants, the group agreed to scrap the surveillance
data watchlist because no such local “interventions” were being planned.
In a conversation with a civil servant, Damon Poole, Mr Hancock’s media
adviser, said that failing to publish the data can be turned to their
advantage because it “helps the narrative that things are really bad”.
7 October, 2020
Civil Servant
Civil Servant
Matt, are you content that we hold publishing the Watchlist tomorrow. I
think would be slightly confusing to publish without following up with
the interventions but it will create a bit of noise if we dont. Assume
we use a line about data going in the wrong direction so urgently
considering interventions.
19:12
She's sent to you.
19:13
Damon Poole
Damon Poole |Department of Health Media Special Adviser
It helps the narrative that things are really bad if we don’t publish
19:14
Matt Hancock
Matt Hancock |Health Secretary
Yes. No publication tmrw
19:17
Boris Johnson, then the prime minister, had promised that families would
be reunited at Christmas – the first since the pandemic struck in early
2020. He said foregoing long-awaited reunions “would be inhuman and
against the instincts of many people in this country”.
But behind the scenes, his ministers and officials were increasingly
aware that vast swathes of the public faced a grave disappointment and
that the Johnson administration would take the blame for their frustration.
The solution in December was “to frighten the pants off everyone” with a
declaration of a new strain of Covid-19, known as the Alpha or Kent variant.
In a conversation between Mr Hancock and Mr Poole on Dec 13, the pair
discussed how to survive the coming backlash and storm. On the day,
there were 18,409 cases of Covid recorded and 410 deaths. Five days
later, on Dec 18, Mr Johnson would scrap his planned five-day Christmas
amnesty in an about turn.
R RATE HAD ALREADY PEAKED WHEN LOCKDOWNS 2 & 3 WERE INTRODUCED Infection
transmission rate across UK, R rate
1.5
Upper bound
1.0
0.5
Lower bound
Lockdown
2
3
0
May
2020
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
Jan
2021
SOURCE: PHE/GOV
The conversation started with a discussion about a fear that Sadiq Khan,
the London Mayor, could attack the Government for plunging the capital
into its own lockdown - just as Andy Burnham, the Mayor of Greater
Manchester, had waged a battle in his city a few months earlier.
The pair discussed a withering leader in the Mail on Sunday, before Mr
Hancock seemingly expressed a worry that bad news on the new variant
might be knocked off the top of the agenda by wrangles over Brexit.
That led them into a discussion about when to “deploy” the new variant,
although Mr Hancock was seemingly wary that it could have led to closing
schools.
13 December, 2020
Matt Hancock
Matt Hancock |Health Secretary
Sounds like Sadiq is lining up to being Burnham
10:51
Damon Poole
Damon Poole |Department of Health Media Special Adviser
Yep
10:51
Tory MPs also furious already about the prospect
10:52
MOS leader trying to warn us off it too
10:52
Rather than doing too much forward signalling, we can roll pitch with
the new strain
11:15
Matt Hancock
Matt Hancock
We frighten the pants of everyone with the new strain
11:17
but the complication with that Brexit is taking the top line
11:17
Damon Poole
Damon Poole
Yep that’s what will get proper bahviour change
11:17
Matt Hancock
Matt Hancock
When do we deploy the new variant
11:35
Damon Poole
Damon Poole
Been thinking more about this and think we need to be more cautious
12:49
The strain that is
12:50
Think you made the point earlier but we need to keep schools off
paperwork / agenda
13:45
Matt Hancock
Matt Hancock
Yes
14:24
Damon Poole
Damon Poole
Worth doing a bit about no leaking at the top I think
16:34
Big risk with the variant, right wing papers go for a renewed push for
let it rip on the basis the vaccines strategy is undermined.
19:16
Matt Hancock
Matt Hancock
That's why we reassure on the vaccine
19:47
Read full chat (16 messages)
In Jan 2021, Britain is in a third national lockdown, with schools shut
and people told to work from home.
Four days later, on Jan 10, Mr Hancock and Simon Case, the Cabinet
Secretary and therefore the country’s most powerful civil servant,
discussed more stringent measures that they could introduce.
They agreed that minor adjustments, such as banning angling, would be
“parodied galore” - so decided that “fear” and/or “guilt” were vital
tools in ensuring compliance.
They discussed making mask-wearing mandatory in “all settings” because
it had a “very visible impact”.
Another example given is the reopening of the Nightingale hospital in
London, which had been built hurriedly at the start of the pandemic for
a rush of Covid patients. In reality, the Nightingale hospitals across
the UK were barely used. The one in London re-opened on Jan 12 2021 for
non-Covid patients, but only a handful were admitted.
10 January, 2021
Simon Case
Simon Case |Permanent Secretary at No 10
More mask-wearing might be the only thing to consider. Effectively free
and has a very visible impact? Wear masks in all settings outside home
and in more workplaces?
12:17
Am not sure that got us much further, did it? Basically, we need to get
compliance up
14:20
We actually ought to be careful with stuff like angling - we should sort
them, but quietly. We will be parodied galore if it looks like we have
suddenly decided fishing is the first step towards tier 5!
14:21
Matt Hancock
Matt Hancock |Health Secretary
yep. I think the problem is that the levers not in the hands of No10 &
DHSC are harder to pull
14:21
I honestly wouldn't move on any small things unless we move on a lot.
14:22
The only big reamaining things are nurseries and workplaces
14:23
Simon Case
Simon Case
I agree - I think that is exactly right. Small stuff looks ridiculous.
Ramping up messaging - the fear/guilt factor vital
14:23
I suspect London Nightingale coming into use will feel like a big public
moment. Especially as I guess it will be full with a couple of days
(based on current data)
19:14
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