Watch again: Matt Hancock defends record as health secretary at Covid inquiry
Watch again as Matt Hancock gives evidence to the Covid inquiry on Thursday, 30 November.
The former minister is expected to defend his record as health secretary during the pandemic.
His appearance comes after a former senior civil servant accused him of displaying “nuclear levels” of overconfidence and a pattern of reassuring colleagues the pandemic was being dealt with in ways that were not true.
Helen MacNamara, who served as deputy cabinet secretary, said she witnessed Mr Hancock adopt a cricket batsman’s stance in Downing Street.
According to her testimony, Mr Hancock said “They bowl them at me, I knock them away.”
Earlier this week, WhatsApp messages shared with the inquiry revealed that Dominic Cummings repeatedly pushed Boris Johnson to fire Mr Hancock.
The former top Number 10 advisor claimed Mr Hancock had “lied his way through this and killed people and dozens and dozens of people have seen it”.
Mr Hancock previously told the inquiry he is “profoundly sorry” for every death caused by Covid-19, adding that it was a “colossal” failure to assume the spread of the virus could not be stopped.
Subscribe to Independent Premium to bookmark this article
Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies