The WhatsApp messages that expose Rishi Sunak and Matt Hancock’s lockdown power struggle

Matt Hancock sought to enlist the Cabinet Secretary, Simon Case, in a plan to outflank Rishi Sunak during repeated rows over Covid restrictions.

Mr Hancock and Mr Sunak were at odds during the pandemic over the extent of lockdown measures, with the then health secretary in favour of tighter restrictions than the then chancellor.

WhatsApp messages published by The Telegraph show how Mr Hancock and Mr Case appeared to share frustrations over Mr Sunak’s stance.

Mr Case messaged the then health secretary to tell him that Mr Sunak and Sir Alok Sharma, then the business secretary, were opposing a policy telling hospitality venues to keep customers’ details for contact tracing purposes. Mr Case told Mr Hancock that Mr Sunak was “going bonkers” about the policy and that Sir Alok would be “mad” to oppose it.

When Mr Hancock questioned Sir Alok’s “strange approach” to the issue, Mr Case suggested it was “pure Conservative ideology” on the part of the then business secretary.

The exchanges may raise awkward questions for Mr Case, not only because he now answers directly to Mr Sunak but also because, as the head of the Civil Service, he is duty-bound to be politically neutral.

The latest Lockdown Files messages released by The Telegraph lay bare the tensions in the Cabinet over lockdown restrictions, pitting Mr Hancock directly against Mr Sunak.

Both Mr Hancock and Mr Sunak had ambitions for higher office, and messages seen by The Telegraph suggest a level of paranoia from Mr Hancock over the then chancellor’s access to Boris Johnson.

In one message, Mr Hancock worries – mistakenly – that Mr Sunak is “in the room” with Mr Johnson, and in another he suggests Mr Sunak’s caution over a second national lockdown was a way of “showing ankle to the hard right”.

In October 2020, when Mr Johnson was about to announce a second lockdown, Mr Hancock told Mr Case in a message: “I am very worried about a rearguard action that has screwed us all over too often.”

Mr Hancock and his aides also complained that the Treasury was briefing against him and his department. He messaged Mr Sunak to say: “Stop your ‘allies’ from briefing against me.”

Messages disclosed on Friday also include a WhatsApp conversation from January 2020, at the very beginning of the pandemic, in which Mr Hancock shared a memo from a “wise friend” telling him the pandemic could propel his career “into the next league”.

In another message, he responds to a poll on the popularity of different Cabinet ministers by saying: “f--- that’s good.”

It comes as, writing for The Telegraph, John Edwards, the Information Commissioner, says the Lockdown Files investigation “exposes how WhatsApp messages were used to discuss and decide key government business during the pandemic”, and that it “underlines the importance of maintaining a public record of these private transcripts for transparency, accountability and lesson learning in the future”.

He adds that it shows “in reality that much of this information rests on people’s personal phones, or within personal accounts, and that it is rarely properly documented and archived”.

In June 2020, months into the first national lockdown, ministers were arguing over when restrictions should be lifted, and to what extent.

One Cabinet row centred on whether restaurants, pubs and cafes would need to keep a register of customers’ details for NHS Test and Trace when they reopened after the lockdown.

Mr Hancock wanted hospitality venues to be told they “should” keep a register, but Sir Alok wanted that to be watered down to “can”. Mr Case, who at the time was permanent secretary in charge of the Covid response, messaged Mr Hancock during a meeting to inform him that Sir Alok was “blocking ‘should’”: 

Mr Case then told Mr Hancock that the issue “is about to be resolved in Cabinet” before adding: “If Alok mad enough to raise it, PM will probably be clear again.”

Mr Hancock then puzzled over Sir Alok’s motivations. “Question I can’t understand is why Alok is against controlling the virus. Strange approach,” he said, to which Mr Case replied: “Pure Conservative ideology.”

Mr Sunak also became embroiled in the “should” versus “can” row, siding with Sir Alok. In a WhatsApp message to Mr Hancock, Mr Case informed the then health secretary: “Rishi going bonkers about ‘should’ right now too.”

Mr Hancock ultimately won the day. When hospitality businesses reopened on July 4, 2020, government guidance said they “should” keep contact details for customers for a period of 21 days so they could be contacted by NHS Test and Trace if anyone who had been in a venue later tested positive for Covid.

The guidance descended into farce as so many customers were contacted out of the blue that it was dubbed the “pingdemic”. 

In July 2021, it ceased to be a legal requirement for venues to record customers details or ask them to check in with the NHS app. However, it was only in February 2022 that guidance asking venues to do so was totally withdrawn.

The Lockdown Files show further behind the scenes rows in the run-up to the second national lockdown at the beginning of November 2020.

After The Telegraph had published a story in which Mr Sunak had warned against “rushing to another lockdown”, Mr Hancock told a close aide: 

Just over two weeks later, the day before newspapers reported that a second lockdown was imminent, Mr Hancock expressed his concern that Mr Sunak was in a room with Mr Johnson while he was being forced to dial in because of rules that Cabinet ministers should not meet face to face.

As it transpired, Mr Sunak was also dialling in rather than being physically present. The conversations show that he was trying to keep non-essential retail businesses open through the month-long “circuit breaker”.

Mr Case, who by that time had been promoted to Cabinet Secretary, told Mr Hancock in a WhatsApp message that Mr Sunak had “already resigned himself to the choice ahead”: 

Non-essential shops in England were forced to shut on Nov 5, five days after the conversation and despite Mr Sunak’s protestations.

With the vaccine programme starting to roll out in December 2020, Mr Sunak raised the possibility of coming out of restrictions – known as non-pharmaceutical interventions – by February after he had been informed of the “emerging thinking” from the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), the body that informed ministers.

Mr Hancock urged caution, telling the Chancellor: “Not in Feb – I said we have to hold firm in Jan and feb. And this is NOT a SAGE call – it’s a political call.”

Non-essential retail premises were only allowed to reopen on April 21, 2021.