Covid inquiry chair refutes journalist’s fear of ‘colossal whitewash’
The Guardian says The Covid-19 public inquiry’s chair has insisted the investigation will not be a “whitewash”, after a journalist claimed that concern over the inquiry’s integrity prompted her to publish private messages shared with her by Matt Hancock.
Isabel Oakeshott leaked 100,000 WhatsApp messages involving the former health secretary from the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, which are claimed to show he dismissed expert advice to test anyone entering a care home for coronavirus.
The massages were shared with her by Hancock while the pair were working on his memoir, Pandemic Diaries, but Oakeshott said she gave them to the Daily Telegraph because the Covid inquiry would take “many years” and could be a “colossal whitewash”.