Pandemic Diaries: The inside story of Britain’s battle against Covid

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Chris Heaton-Harris, the government's Northern Ireland secretary, told BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg the messages give "almost a view into the psyche of Mr Hancock rather than into the actual decision-making". As Health Secretary, Matt Hancock was at the forefront of Britain’s battle against the virus, trying to steer the country through the crisis in a world where information was scarce, judgements huge and the roadmap non-existent. Luke Lewin Davies does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment. Hancock has always been open about his dyslexia and whilst it isn't the smoothest reading of a book he does a decent job.

We realised what was happening was of huge consequence that would last for the rest of our lives but … this was an affaire de coeur [affair of the heart] and therefore my political judgment was off. What ultimately stuck in my head however was an oddly poignant account of Hancock driving home through London in mid-February, as the government’s scientific advisers began secretly preparing options for a lockdown, past pubs full of people with no idea their lives were about to turn upside down. Mr Hancock's Pandemic Diaries: The Inside Story Of Britain's Battle Against Covid, is being serialised in the Daily Mail, with the West Suffolk MP set to donate all proceeds to NHS charities and causes supporting dyslexia. Matt concluded that the testing of people leaving hospital for care homes should be prioritised because of the higher risks of transmission, as it wasn't possible to mandate everyone going into care homes got tested.The “total bants” is perhaps less expected in a diary account of a series of events leading to over 200,000 deaths. written on it; the mathematical models outlining just how many could die; the fear of running out of body bags. Dominic Cummings looks like an “odd amoeba you find in jars in school science labs”; Gavin Williamson is dismissed as having all the sophistication and intellect of a seven-year-old.

In the present era of 24-hour news and incessant tweeted Westminster intrigue it’s rare for memoirs to drop something as big – although rumours had swirled for a long time, and you might say that Currie’s 1994 novel A Parliamentary Affair was a rather big hint. When the care plan was published on 15 April, it said the government would "institute a policy of testing all residents prior to admission to care homes", but that that would "begin with all those being discharged from hospital". You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie Preferences, as described in the Cookie Notice. A collection of more than 100,000 messages sent between former Health Secretary Matt Hancock and other ministers and officials at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic have been obtained by the Telegraph. Early on in Hancock’s diaries, we learn that the UK Health Secretary’s first (and I quote) “oh shit” moment was on January 28, 2020, when he was told that the pandemic could lead to up to 820,000 UK deaths.

The book also sees him throwing former Downing Street aide Dominic Cummings under the bus, claiming that Cummings thought, “Covid was a distraction from our official withdrawal from the EU next week. The diary is so enduring and broad in scope that it isn’t merely a report of parliamentary politics, but a social document on pretty much the entire Victorian era. Switching to a five-day testing regime would have transformed the way the country was able to operate during the pandemic. In an exchange on 16 February 2021, Simon Case, who holds the most senior position in the civil service as cabinet secretary, asked Mr Hancock if he knew "how many people we locked up in hotels yesterday".