Matt Hancock tried to bag a favourable front page from George Osborne when the former chancellor was the editor of The Evening Standard, leaked WhatsApp messages show.
A trove of messages sent by Hancock during his time as health secretary have been leaked by his ghostwriter Isabel Oakeshott, revealing he rejected scientific advice on care homes during the pandemic.
The messages also reveal the Tory MP tried to butter-up Osborne during his time as an editor, with the former chancellor receiving a message asking for a “splash” in The Evening Standard, journalists’ slang for a front-page story.
The request came as Hancock battled to reach his target of 100,000 tests a day.
The messages from Hancock read: “I need to call in a favour tmrw. I currently have 22,000 spare slots tomorrow at my drive thrus. Hence I’ve extended eligibility today.
“Demand just isn’t there. This is obvs good news about spread of virus. But hard for my target.
“So I really could do with a testing splash.”
Osborne replied by telling him that “of course” he could sort out the front page he wanted.
All Hancock had to do was “give some exclusive words to the Standard” and that he would “tell the team to splash it”.
Later on that year, Hancock kicked off with Osborne for supposedly criticising the vaccine rollout.
Osborne took to the airwaves to raise concerns over the testing regime. Hancock messaged the former chancellor, asking: “What was this for?”
Read the exchange in full below:
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