Matt Hancock has been accused of neglecting to tell the Prime Minister about a major report with hopeful conclusions about vaccine effectiveness against the Indian COVID variant at a crucial meeting before ministers chose to delay lifting restrictions.
The claims in a newspaper outlet pile more pressure on the beleaguered Health Secretary after axed Number 10 advisor Dominic Cummings revealed that Boris Johnson had branded his response to the pandemic as hopeless.
Questions about the effectiveness of vaccines in stopping COVID hospitalisations caused by the Indian strain were at the heart of the minister’s decision last week to delay Freedom Day until July 19.
That decision was taken after a gathering of the quad of Boris Johnson, Chancellor Rishi Sunak, Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove and Matt Hancock on June 13, but critics now claim that the data proves the decision to delay wasn’t needed and argue that Freedom Day should be brought forward to July 5 because, they suggest, surging coronavirus cases won’t result in a surge of hospitalisations that would overwhelm the NHS.
The Health Secretary is believed to have known about a study produced by Public Health England (PHE) into the AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccines on June 10.
The data in the report notes that the two vaccines were more effective at preventing hospitalisations from the now dominant Indian variant than with earlier strains.
PHE also gave a written report on the data which they sent to Matt Hancock on June 12, but the information wasn’t shared with the Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak or Michael Gove during their meeting on Sunday that led to the postponement of June 21.
Sources told a news outlet that the study wasn’t even included in briefing papers at the meeting.
Cabinet minister Robert Buckland swatted away allegations that Matt Hancock withheld the important information, telling Trevor Phillips on Sky News that sadly he was afraid that report was wrong. He also criticised calling Matt Hancock hopeless after Boris Johnson’s damaging messages about the Health Secretary were revealed by Dominic Cummings, adding that to bandy around words like that doesn’t do anybody any service at all, and it was said that he’d been a most valuable and effective Health Secretary who enjoyed their full support.
Reminded that they were the Prime Minister’s words, Robert Buckland said that he wasn’t going to get into text messages or WhatsApp message sent between people and then disclosed in a somewhat unfortunate way.
But seriously folks, it’s a bit like Hancock’s half-hour – another one who appears to be enjoying this crisis and the limelight.
But Boris Johnson is complicit also because they’re both parroting the World Economic Forums slogan “build back better”, as are Joe Biden and Justin Trudeau – the World Economic Forum who eagerly predict that in the near future, you will own nothing and you will be happy, and yet they will own everything.
Boris Johnson is an amateur – he’s a chancer always looking for the next bandwagon to hop on, and what we must remember is that Boris only cares about Boris.
Matt Hancock is incompetent and Boris Johnson knows this but Matt Hancock is there to take the fall while Boris Johnson slides away blaming others for his actions, and Matt Hancock is undoubtedly the most obnoxious, nasty, bullying and inept politician to infest parliament, but in the meantime, it’s drinks, barbecues and good times all around and they’re laughing us and our compliance.
And the etymology of Matt Hancock’s name is synonymous with how he’s treating the public – with his c*ck in his hand, taking the p*ss out of the public with his dismissal performance.
