UK’s Sunak Backs Official COVID-19 Inquiry After 100,000 WhatsApp Messages Released to Newspaper

UK’s Sunak Backs Official COVID-19 Inquiry After 100,000 WhatsApp Messages Released to Newspaper
British Health Secretary Matt Hancock in May 2021. Yui Mok/PA
Owen Evans
Alexander Zhang
Updated:

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has defended an official COVID-19 inquiry as the “right way” to scrutinise the handling of the pandemic after former Health Secretary Matt Hancock’s WhatsApp messages were published in a British newspaper.

Based on a trove of more than 100,000 WhatsApp messages, The Daily Telegraph newspaper claimed on March 1 that England’s Chief Medical Officer Sir Chris Whitty advised Hancock in April 2020 that everyone going into care homes should be tested for COVID-19.

Owen Evans is a UK-based journalist covering a wide range of national stories, with a particular interest in civil liberties and free speech.
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