Matt Hancock implemented the tier 3 Covid restrictions despite knowing they would not work, the Covid inquiry has heard.
In the former health secretary’s evidence to the probe on the measures which saw pubs, restaurants and bars closed, Mr Hancock said: “I was in despair that we had announced a policy that we knew would not work.”
The submission was read out by Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham, who used his appearance to slam the Westminster government’s “London-centric” approach to the pandemic.
Mr Burnham was responding to minutes of a government meeting in which he was described as “behaving appallingly” and “being obstructive”.
The meeting was called before the region was plunged into tier 3, which also banned meetings between friends and family.
Mr Burnham told the inquiry: “It was not me that was behaving appallingly, it was the people in that room … because they were about to impose a policy on Greater Manchester which they knew did not work.”
The regional mayor told the inquiry it made him “angry on behalf of the people of Greater Manchester” and stressed that ministers had been told by the emergency Sage committee that the policy would not necessarily reduce the transmission of Covid.
He proceeded to read out a section of Mr Hancock’s written evidence, not yet seen by the inquiry, in which the ex-health secretary said: “I was in despair, that we had announced a policy that we knew would not work.”
Matt Hancock said he knew the tier 3 restrictions would not work when the government introduced them
A spokesman for Mr Hancock declined to comment on the revelation, but said he “will respond to all questions when he gives his evidence” on Thursday and Friday.
Mr Burnham had already attacked Boris Johnson’s London-centric decision-making, saying it left Greater Manchester “stuck” with a higher case rate.
He said the first national lockdown was lifted “too early” for Manchester, which was closer to its peak than London was at the time, and said he would have argued against the decision if he had been consulted.
He said: “I think they were looking more at the picture in London and they were more concerned with that than where we were.”
And Mr Burnham told the inquiry about the lack of communication between Westminster and local leaders, saying “all hell broke loose” when Greater Manchester was first placed under local restrictions in July 2020.
Mr Burnham described the announcement as “as chaotic as it gets”. “They were putting these restrictions on us … [Mr Hancock] gave me an hour to talk to our local leaders,” he said.
He added: “What I remember is that about eight o’clock that night, the health secretary made a very cursory announcement to a TV camera in 4 Millbank that we would be going under these restrictions, and then all hell broke loose.”
Andy Burnham also lashed out at former Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon in his evidence to the Covid inquiry
Mr Burnham also claimed Mr Johnson was not aware of the restrictions imposed in Greater Manchester during a telephone conversation in October 2020.
The conversation took place on the eve of tier 3 restrictions being introduced in the region, Mr Burnham said.
The Greater Manchester mayor added: “[Boris Johnson] was saying ‘we just need you to agree to these tier 3 restrictions and (financial) packages’. I said ‘we can’t, it is not enough’.
“He said ‘what do you mean?’ I said ‘we have been under restrictions since July. You do know about that, don’t you?’
“To me, it didn’t seem that he did know about that. He wasn’t aware that we have been struggling all that time.”
Mr Burnham also lashed out at former Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon, who he said banned travellers from Manchester from travelling north of the border without any notice.
He described an extraordinary call during a BBC phone-in in which he was told a Bolton resident’s walking holiday in the Scottish Cairngorms mountain range had been cancelled.
“We discovered that the Scottish Government had to put a ban on Bolton, people travelling to Scotland without any notification or information,” he told the inquiry.
“It was bizarre if I’m honest,” he said.
He added: “In the days that followed, we pointed out that the case rates in Scotland had gone higher than in Manchester, Salford and Bolton.
“And it wasn’t long before the travel ban was removed. And it was another example of the lack of UK coordination.”
