Hancock accused of ‘weaponising disabled children’ with threat to block centre if MP didn’t back COVID curbs

Matt Hancock supported threatening to block a disability centre in a Tory MP’s constituency in a bid to get him to vote for COVID restrictions, leaked messages suggest.

The former health secretary has been accused of “despicable” behaviour following the latest disclosure based on a trove of WhatsApps handed to The Daily Telegraph.

According to the newspaper, texts show Mr Hancock agreed to put pressure on James Daly, the Conservative MP for Bury North, if he failed to vote with the government in 2020.

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Mr Hancock and an aide spoke about warning Mr Daly that a new centre for disabled children and adults would be “off the table” if he did not back a tiered system of COVID curbs.

While the threat was never made, senior Conservative Sir Jake Berry described the messages as an “absolute disgrace” and called for the former cabinet minister to be hauled before the Commons for questioning.

Sir Jake, whose son has disabilities, said: “Once you get to the point that you are weaponising the provision of care to disabled children, I think you have crossed the line.”

Mr Hancock’s team said “what’s being accused here never happened” as they disputed the “entirely partial account”.

‘Off the table if he rebels’

The Telegraph said the discussion between Mr Hancock and political aide Allan Nixon came before a vote on 1 December 2020 on the introduction of new COVID restrictions in England.

At the time Whitehall was scrambling to put measures in place amid a surge of infections, but many Tory MPs were objecting to another lockdown.

Mr Nixon said they needed to “dangle our top asks” over some of the newest MPs who entered parliament in 2019 through Boris Johnson’s general election victory.

As an example, he said: “James (Daly) wants his Learning Disability Hub in Bury – whips call him up and say Health team want to work with him to deliver this but that’ll be off the table if he rebels”.

“These guys’ re-election hinges on us in a lot of instances, and we know what they want. We should seriously consider using it IMO,” he wrote.

Mr Hancock’s response was “yes 100%”.

Mr Daly told the paper he was “appalled” and “disgusted” that the disability hub was discussed as a way to coerce him into voting with ministers.

But he said the threat was never made to him.

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Hancock hits back at ‘biased’ account

Mr Hancock’s spokesman said: “As we’ve repeatedly seen this last week, it is completely wrong to take this entirely partial account and write it up as fact.

“What’s being accused here never happened, demonstrating the story is wrong, and showing why such a biased, partial approach to the evidence is a bad mistake, driven by those with a vested interest and an axe to grind.

“The right place to consider everything about the pandemic objectively is in the public inquiry.”

However, Rossendale and Darwen MP Sir Jake, a former Tory Party chairman, said: “This is an absolute disgrace.

“Hancock should be dragged to the bar of the House of Commons first thing tomorrow morning to be questioned on this.”

On Times Radio, he added: “What he has effectively said is that he wants to weaponise provision of care to disabled children to try and force MPs to vote in a certain way.

“Politics… is full of sort of arm-twisting and leverage and cajoling.

“But I actually think once you get to the point that you are weaponising the provision of care to disabled children, I think you have crossed the line and as a local MP and… a father with a son with additional needs, I know how desperately provision of this sort of care is required in the local area.

“And I just think it’s an absolutely despicable and appalling way for Matt Hancock and his advisers to have behaved.”

PM reiterates inquiry commitment

More than 100,000 WhatsApp messages from Mr Hancock’s phone were provided to the Telegraph by journalist Isabel Oakeshott after she co-authored the former health secretary’s memoir the Pandemic Diaries.

The leaks have sparked renewed questions about the government’s handling of the pandemic, but on Tuesday Downing Street repeated its insistence that Rishi Sunak wants the official inquiry to look at all the relevant issues rather than relying on “piecemeal” information.

The prime minister’s official spokesman said: “Funding decisions are taken in line with strict guidelines to ensure value for money set out in the spending framework and ministers and departments are held accountable for those decisions.”

Asked if the alleged behaviour was not the way Mr Sunak would like his ministers to operate, the spokesman said: “Of course, and there’s rules and guidelines that apply, which I’ve just outlined.”