HANCOCK: GIVE ME IMMUNITY ON COVID CARE HOME DEATHS

'I didn't break law' says shamed Tory

- MIKEY SMITH

DISGRACED Matt Hancock told lawyers he should be immune from court action over Covid blunders - just days before the WhatsApp scandal broke.

He said he should not carry the can for his department's failure to safeguard care home residents simply because he was Secretary of State and that it should be the whole Government instead.

And the Tory who happily lapped up publicity on I'm A Celeb moaned that lawyers pursuing him "were chasing tabloid headlines" in a talk over his book, Pandemic Diaries.

Mr Hancock has furiously denied claims that his leaked WhatsApp messages show he ignored the advice of Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty to test all people going into care homes.

His department's policy of discharging untested patients into the sites from hospital was ruled unlawful by the High Court in April in a case brought by Dr Cathy Gardner, who lost her father.

The messages leaked to the Daily Telegraph this week by Isabel Oakeshott, the co-author of Mr Hancock's memoir, show he thought committing to testing people coming into care homes from the community including staff - didn't "add anything" and "muddies the waters".

LEAKED