Five things we’ve learned on day two of Hancock’s lockdown files

More revealing Matt Hancock messages dropped late last night as the Telegraph released another tranche of the former health secretary’s WhatsApps. Here are some of the stand-out lines on day two of the lockdown files: 

1. Hancock mounted a ‘rearguard action’ to close schools

Matt Hancock said that then education secretary Gavin Williamson (who was ‘going absolutely gangbusters’ to keep schools open) was risking a ‘policy crash when the kids spread the disease’ in January 2021. Hancock said that ‘we must now fight a rearguard action for a rational policy’. Williamson has written a column for the Telegraph saying that he was ‘battling’ to keep schools open, and that he thought ‘long and deeply’ about resigning. 

2. Teachers ‘really really do just hate work’, said Williamson

Ministers accused teachers’ unions of being work-shy, with Hancock saying they were a ‘bunch of absolute arses’ and Williamson saying they ‘really really do just hate work’. The then education secretary also said that teachers wanted ‘an excuse to avoid having to teach’.

3. Nicola Sturgeon prompted ministers to introduce masks in schools

Boris Johnson was told that it was ‘not worth the argument’ to not bring masks into schools once Nicola Sturgeon had done so.