Caught out again, Matt? Grinning Hancock enjoys a spot of cricket just hours after appearing in front of Covid Inquiry where he was confronted by bereaved families – but pointed finger of blame at officials and experts
Matt Hancock enjoyed a serene game of cricket after his torrid appearance at the Covid Inquiry, it can be revealed.
The smiling former health secretary was pictured wielding a bat in south London hours after his bruising three-hour evidence session.
It is understood the game was a ‘long-standing engagement’. ‘Matt loves cricket and often plays in his spare time,’ a spokesman said.
Mr Hancock was confronted by protesters outside the inquiry yesterday, including the wife of an actor who died in a care home.
During the hearing he blamed officials and experts for catastrophic failings as he admitted the UK’s Covid strategy was ‘woefully inadequate’ and said he was ‘profoundly sorry’.
He said Britain must be prepared to impose a ‘wider, earlier, more stringent’ lockdowns if another virus surfaces.
Smiling former health secretary Matt Hancock was pictured wielding a bat in south London hours after his bruising three-hour evidence session
During the hearing Mr Hancock blamed officials and experts for catastrophic failings as he admitted the UK’s Covid strategy was ‘woefully inadequate’ and said he was ‘profoundly sorry’
Outside the building, American actress Lorelei King, whose 72-year-old actor husband Vincent Marzello died in a London care home at the start of the pandemic, wept when she first saw Mr Hancock
Mr Hancock resigned as health secretary in June 2021 after being caught on CCTV breaking coronavirus rules during an affair with his aide, Gina Coladangelo.
He said the 2011 pandemic plan he inherited in 2018 was ‘geared towards how to clear up after a disaster, not prevent it’, something he agreed was a ‘complete systematic failure’.
Mr Hancock repeatedly told Hugo Keith KC, counsel to the inquiry, that the ‘absolutely central problem’ with pandemic planning in the UK was ‘that the doctrine was wrong’.
He said: ‘The doctrine of the UK was to plan for the consequences of a disaster. Can we buy enough body bags? Where are we going to bury the dead? And that was completely wrong.
‘Of course, it’s important to have that in case you fail to stop a pandemic, but central to pandemic planning needs to be: how do you stop the disaster from happening in the first place? How do you suppress the virus?’
Mr Hancock said he was ‘guided by the best available science at the time’ throughout the pandemic. But he said he could not recall ever attending any National Security Council meetings on threats, hazards, resilience and contingencies prior to the pandemic.
And he admitted his department had no idea how many people were in care homes at the start of the pandemic.
Mr Hancock said: ‘It is central to what we must learn as a country that we’ve got to be ready to hit a pandemic hard.
‘That we’ve got to be able to take action – lockdown action if necessary – that is wider, earlier, more stringent than feels comfortable at the time.’
Mr Hancock turned to look directly at the bereaved sat inside the inquiry hearing room in Paddington, west London, when he apologised for mistakes made.
He said: ‘I am profoundly sorry for each death that has occurred. And I also understand why for some, it’s been hard to take that apology from me. I understand that, I get it. But it is honest and heartfelt. I’m not very good at talking about my emotions and how I feel – but that is honest and true.’
Mr Hancock said there ‘isn’t a day that goes by that I do not think about all those who lost their lives to this awful disease or the loved ones they have left behind’.
But his evidence was dismissed as ‘disingenuous’ by grieving families.
Outside the building, American actress Lorelei King, whose 72-year-old actor husband Vincent Marzello died in a London care home at the start of the pandemic, wept when she first saw Mr Hancock.
Ms King, 69, who appeared in the rom-com Notting Hill as the publicist for Julia Roberts’ character, said: ‘It’s really important that all the witnesses that are called [to the inquiry] are open and honest, even if that means they have to acknowledge their own failures.
‘I didn’t see a lot of that today. He used the phrases ‘I was told, I was assured, I was reassured’ a lot and suggested the problems were not what he did or didn’t do, but were rather structural.
Mr Hancock was confronted by protesters outside the inquiry yesterday
‘I don’t believe it was a sincere apology. I don’t accept it. I don’t think any of the bereaved accepted it.’
Jean Adamson, whose father Aldrick Adamson died in an Essex care home aged 98 in April 2020, added: ‘I felt it was disingenuous.’
Elkan Abrahamson, who is representing the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK group, said: ‘It has been shocking for them to hear that the person with overall responsibility for the health of the nation was asleep at the wheel.
‘We all deserve better from a secretary of state as he so catastrophically failed in his duty to protect the public.’
Mr Hancock was told by inquiry chairman Baroness Heather Hallett that he will be summoned to answer questions about his decision-making during the pandemic. The inquiry continues.
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