How to delete your WhatsApps

Whoever it was that said a picture is worth a thousand words clearly hasn’t read the Daily Telegraph’s ‘Lockdown Files’. After journalist Isabel Oakeshott gave the newspaper access to 2.3 million words worth of WhatsApp messages sent by Matt Hancock during the pandemic, the revelations dominated the news agenda for much of yesterday – with more information set to emerge in the coming days. 

The former health secretary gave Oakeshott access to the messages while she ghost-wrote his book about the pandemic. But unluckily for Hancock, if a journalist who disagreed with you on your lockdown policies says she’ll write your Covid memoirs for free, there’s a risk she might not keep all the information you handed over to herself. Who knew!

WhatsApp prides itself on being an encrypted messaging platform, difficult to hack, but that doesn’t account for a user handing over their phone (and its contents) to a third party. So if you’re a minister reading this – and you’re worried about your WhatsApp history – here’s a handy guide to keep you out of trouble.