Care homes have told Matt Hancock to stop “hiding from the truth” after The Telegraph revealed he rejected the Chief Medical Officer’s advice to test all residents for Covid. 

A huge leak of 100,000 WhatsApp messages showed that Prof Sir Chris Whitty told the then health secretary early in April 2020, about a month into the pandemic, that there should be testing for “all going into care homes”.

But Mr Hancock did not follow that guidance, telling his advisers that it “muddies the waters”. 

Instead, he introduced guidance that made testing mandatory for those entering care homes from hospital, but not for those coming from the community. 

Prior to the guidance, care homes had been told that negative tests were not required even for hospital patients. The guidance stating that those coming in from the community should be tested was eventually introduced on Aug 14.

'Hiding from the truth'

Between April 17 and August 13, 2020, a total of 17,678 people died of Covid in care homes in England.

Following this newspaper’s investigation The Lockdown Files, the first instalment of which was published on Tuesday night, care home chiefs have reacted with fury and rounded on Mr Hancock. 

Nadra Ahmed, the executive chairman of the National Care Association, the leading group representing small and medium sized care providers, told The Telegraph: “The facts continue to emerge confirming the reality of the nightmare care homes went through at the outset of the pandemic. 

“The lies that emerged about a ‘protective ring’ were an insult to those who put their own lives at risk to protect the residents in our services. 

“This highlights once again that expert advice was ignored and the only mantra was to to ‘protect’ the NHS. There is no hiding from the truth!”

'Shameless charlatan'

Rachel Clarke, an NHS palliative care doctor who was a vocal critic of Government policy during the pandemic, wrote on Twitter:

In the first two years of the pandemic, there were more than 40,000 Covid deaths in care homes in England, as the most vulnerable in society bore the brunt of the fatalities.

Mr Hancock himself later told MPs that transmission from the community – particularly from staff - was the “strongest route” for Covid into care homes.

The tranche of WhatsApp messages leaked to this newspaper, running to 2.3 million words, also reveal that Mr Hancock expressed concerns that expanding testing in care homes could “get in the way” of his self-imposed target of 100,000 Covid tests per day,

In a separate exchange, Helen Whately, then the social care minister, warned Mr Hancock personally in October 2020 that restrictions on visitors to care homes were “inhumane” – but residents remained isolated until July 2021. 

Charities including Age UK and the National Care Forum said in February 2021 that opening care homes up for visits was fundamental to residents’ “human rights”, with husbands and wives kept apart for months. 

A spokesman for Mr Hancock claimed he was told on the same day as the April 14 messages that it "was not currently possible to test everyone entering care homes".

The spokesman added: “It is outrageous that this distorted account of the pandemic is being pushed with partial leaks, spun to fit an anti-lockdown agenda, which would have cost hundreds of thousands of lives if followed.

“What the messages do show is a lot of people working hard to save lives. The full documents have already all been made available to the inquiry, which is the proper place for an objective assessment, so true lessons can be learned.”