Humiliated Matt Hancock today insisted he ‘doesn’t think’ he is ‘f****** hopeless’ after Boris Johnson’s devastating private verdict on his performance was revealed.
The Health Secretary tried to shrug off a slew of extraordinary messages that were revealed on social media by maverick ex-No10 chief Dominic Cummings.
The WhatsApps revealed by Mr Cummings included brutal assessments by the PM at the height of the crisis in March and April last year – including repeatedly branding Mr Hancock ‘hopeless’ over PPE and testing and suggesting Michael Gove would have to take over.
As he drove to the Commons in an official car today for a debate on delaying ‘Freedom Day’, a journalists shouted: ‘Are you useless, Mr Hancock?’
‘I don’t think so,’ he replied.
In one exchange from March 27 last year, Mr Cummings criticised the Health Secretary over the failure to ramp up testing.
Mr Johnson replied: ‘Totally f****** hopeless.’ He then tried to call his senior aide three times without managing to get through.
Another from the same day saw Mr Cummings complain that the Department of Health had been turning down ventilators because ‘the price has been marked up’.
Mr Johnson said: ‘It’s Hancock. He has been hopeless.’
On April 27, Mr Johnson apparently messaged Mr Cummings to say that PPE was a ‘disaster’, suggesting that Michael Gove should take charge instead.
‘I can’t think of anything except taking Hancock off and putting Gove on.’
Mr Cummings dropped the incendiary revelations in a lengthy post on the Substack blogging platform just minutes before PMQs.
It included vicious passages condemning Mr Johnson for ‘telling rambling stories and jokes’ instead of chairing crucial meetings properly, and a claim that the PM is intending to quit in order to ‘make money’ rather than serving a full term if he wins the next election.
Inexplicably, Sir Keir Starmer did not pick up on the allegations in his grilling – and although SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford did mention the news Mr Johnson ignored that and answered a different part of the question.
Downing Street declined to deny that the messages were genuine this afternoon. ‘We are not going to get into engaging with individual allegations, so we will leave it there,’ the PM’s press secretary said.
Asked if Mr Johnson has full confidence in Mr Hancock, his spokesman said: ‘Yes.’
In other developments as the feud between Mr Cummings and his former colleagues boiled over:
- The latest UK figures show the number of daily reported cases has risen above 9,000 for the first time since February 25;
- A leaked document gave a glimpse of the UK’s potential ‘new normal’ today with facemasks, working from home and travel quarantine rules set to stay beyond July 19;
- Furious Tories predicted up to 70 MPs could inflict a bloody nose on Boris Johnson in a crunch lockdown vote tonight;
- Over-21s are now being urged to book appointments for their first vaccine dose as the UK’s rollout continues;
- NHS and care home staff are set to be obliged to get vaccinations.