The Daily Telegraph has an analysis of 100,000 leaked texts, which it alleges shows that Matt Hancock rejected expert advice on care home testing when he was health secretary during the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A spokesperson for Mr Hancock has called the report an “outrageous” and “distorted” account of the pandemic, spun to fit what they call an “anti-lockdown agenda”.

The paper also features commentary from Isabel Oakeshott – the journalist who leaked the messages. She obtained them while helping Mr Hancock write his book, Pandemic Diaries. Ms Oakeshott – who has been critical of lockdowns – says she is sharing the trove because she believes the official Covid inquiry is taking too long and that there needs to be a more urgent examination of how official decisions about Covid were made. She claims the messages reveal turmoil within Number 10 and a shift to what she calls “lockdown zealotry”.