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Matt Hancock reportedly wanted to ‘celebrate’ Piers Morgan’s dramatic Good Morning Britain exit during the pandemic.
The broadcaster left the ITV breakfast show following backlash over his comments about Meghan Markle, and it’s now been claimed the disgraced former Health Secretary – who left his position after having an affair and breaking his own guidelines – was open to celebrating the occasion.
Hancock has had a series of WhatsApp messages leaked this week by Isabel Oakeshott, who exposed them to the Daily Telegraph after ghostwriting his memoir.
On Thursday evening’s episode of Piers Morgan Uncensored on TalkTV, the 57-year-old host appeared to show correspondence between Hancock and Helen Whately during the pandemic.
Whately wrote: ‘How about we celebrate the departure of Piers at/after our team meeting tomorrow pm? Just a thought.’
Hancock replied: ‘Perfect.’
Piers Morgan has responded to the messages (Picture: TalkTV)
Matt Hancock was allegedly planning to ‘celebrate his GMB exit (Picture: TalkTV)
Responding to the messages, Piers said to his viewers: ‘Perfect – it would have been if they had had a big party to celebrate me losing my job after actually holding people like those two to such rigorous account for the previous year.
‘Only one problem, if they did have that party – and we don’t know – lockdown restrictions at the time would have meant that kind of party to celebrate me losing my job would have been strictly prohibited, illegal.’
Speaking to Piers on the show, Isabel claimed that while searching Hancock’s messages on WhatsApp, she found so many mentions of the broadcaster that she ‘had to give up’ looking for his name.
Hancock has described the leaked messages as a ‘breach of trust’ (Picture: AP)
Isabel Oakeshott worked with Hancock on his book (Picture: Andrew Parsons / Parsons Media)
She claimed MPs were ‘obsessed’ with him, and ‘overjoyed’ when he left GMB.
Hancock has repeatedly denied breaking the law during lockdowns, and said that the restrictions the government put in place were guidance.
And in a statement yesterday regarding the leaked messages, he said: ‘I am hugely disappointed and sad at the massive betrayal and breach of trust by Isabel Oakeshott.
‘I am also sorry for the impact on the very many people – political colleagues, civil servants and friends – who worked hard with me to get through the pandemic and save lives.
‘There is absolutely no public interest case for this huge breach. All the materials for the book have already been made available to the Inquiry, which is the right, and only, place for everything to be considered properly and the right lessons to be learned.’
Metro.co.uk has contacted a representative for Matt Hancock for comment.
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The broadcaster has responded to the messages.