Cathy Gardner’s case is referenced in the last paragraph. – Owl

Matt Hancock has accepted that his claim the government threw a “protective ring” around care homes “from the start” of the pandemic was misleading.

Ruby Lott-Lavigna www.opendemocracy.net

On 15 May 2020 at a Downing Street press conference, Hancock said: “Right from the start. It’s been clear that this horrible virus affects older people most. So right from the start, we’ve tried to throw a protective ring around our care homes.”

At the time, however, patients with Covid were discharged back into care homes without being tested, leading to the death of over 20,000 residents in the first wave of the pandemic.

“I entirely understand why people feel strongly about this,” Hancock told the Covid inquiry today. “I then went on to explain what I meant – that we put over £3bn into the care sector in March and April, that we’ve released free PPE, that we’ve put in place infection control guidance based on the scientific advice, etc.”

“In that press conference, I went on to list the different things that we were doing… I was trying to simply summarise that we had taken action,” he added.

But Hancock agreed this was misleading when the words of a top government scientist were put to him. Jonathan Van-Tam said in his written evidence statement a ring is a “circle without a break in it”.

“However you describe the protective processes you put in place around the care sector, they did not form an unbroken circle, did they?” lead counsel Hugo Keith asked Hancock.

“It is quite clear from the evidence that Professor Van-Tam is right,” he said.

Hancock’s own advisers were also concerned about some of his care home claims.

A message shown to the inquiry from Jamie Njoku-Goodwin, Hancock’s media adviser at the time, said: “We might have some issues with you telling the PM we ‘locked down’ care homes before the rest of the country.”

When challenged, Hancock said: “It depends on how you define lockdown.”

Care homes were not “locked down” before the country. Government guidance setting out restrictions on care home visits was published in April 2020.

A document revealed by openDemocracy shows the government knew, at least by the autumn of 2020, that it had prioritised the NHS “at the detriment” of care homes.

And in 2022, the discharge of Covid patients back into care homes without testing was ruled to have been illegal.

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