Archive July 2, 2025

Former Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Matt Hancock made an attempt to end his relationship with campmates while appearing on I’m a celebrity… get me out of here! A different perspective has now emerged.

Matt Hancock’s shocking text messages reveal a disturbing truth about how he perceived the care home patients he claimed were “protected” during the pandemie.

In a bad-tempered exchange at the Covid Inquiry today, the former Health Secretary struggled to justify his earlier claim that he’d put a “protective ring” around care homes – instead saying he “tried”.

Hancock also revealed text messages exchanges with former Care Minister Helen Whately.

Whately cautioned Hancock that care home death rates were “not good” in texts from April 2020, shortly after the UK was plunged into strict lockdown measures. He simply said, “OK.”

READ MORE: Matt Hancock loses his cool as he’s confronted over Covid care home ‘lies’

Between March 2020 and July 2022, 43, 000 deaths related to Coronavirus were recorded in what has been referred to as “generational slaughter” by grieving families.

In March 2020, Hancock, one of the most well-known figures in the government’s response to the pandemic, asserted that care homes had been given a “protective ring.” However, after leaving the hospital, no one was tested for infection or isolated.

The inquiry has since heard that on March 17 2020, hospitals were ordered to prioritise getting people out of wards, with Hancock asserting that he’d picked the “least bad” option when faced with an “impossible choice”.

The 46-year-old’s contentious 2022 stint in the I’m A Celebrity jungle will be too well known for how much his pandemic defense has evolved since the show.

The stars addressed the “elephant in the room” – his handling of the pandemic as he sat beside the I’m A Celebrity campfire in November 2022, and emotions were still raw among viewers and campmates as he sat next to the I’m A Celebrity campfire.

Hancock defended his senior position by defending the lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) that forced some medical staff members to improvise with bin bags in the beginning.

When pressed about the topic of care homes, he replied: “So with PPE for instance, you know, I know, of course, I saw what happened to it. But that’s because we suddenly needed masses more PPE, and so did everybody else in the world.

And care homes, there are justifications for the actions taken, which ultimately resulted in problems that were caused by the virus rather than by those who were trying to solve the issue.

As Hancock showed his fellow stars an image of a well-intentioned politician facing impossible odds as he opened up to them. His attitude, however, quickly changed during the Covid inquiry. Hancock criticized Public Health England and local authorities today, pointing the finger at the wrong places.

Hancock sneered at him and said, “You don’t have to tell me how difficult the challenges were.” There were no adequate PPE and testing. The incorrect doctrine and attitude were adopted by the public health authorities. We took every precaution possible to fix all of these things, and we did so one by one.

Hancock lashed out when asked about the messages that were exchanged between him and Whately, telling the inquiry that local authorities had oversaw the planning of a pandemic’s impact on care homes, causing a significant shift in blame.

He also asserted that he had been “horrified” after seeing the plans in place. It was a truly shocking moment, Hancock once said. They were completely unassailable, it wasn’t long before they realized it.

The shamed former MP’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic sparked widespread outcry in the UK. In a flagrant violation of social distancing laws he himself had passed down, his time in office will likely be forever immortalized in CCTV images of him passionately kissing adviser Gina Coladangelo.

The then-married father-of-three stepped down amid ridicule in what was a mortifying moment for the Conservative Party and a grim precursor to the outrageous revelations of partygate.

Whether through concern for others or fear of having severe repercussions, it was undoubtedly an insult to those who had remained isolated throughout the shared public ordeal.

Back in 2021, former No. 10 aide Dominic Cummings told MPs: “I think that the Secretary of State for Health should have been fired for at least 15-20 things, including lying to everybody on multiple occasions in meeting after meeting in the cabinet room and publicly.”

Cummings continued, “I don’t know about that because I don’t know what the laws are… but I think that many senior people performed far, far, disastrously below the standards the country has a right to expect,” while expressing his opinion that Hancock should be held accountable for his role in the “disaster.”

“I believe that the Health Secretary belongs to one of those categories. I’ve repeatedly called on the Prime Minister to resign. Many other senior citizens and the Cabinet Secretary were among them.

Which tale will be remembered in history is still to be seen. It’s undisputed that Hancock’s behavior is very different from the repentant lovelorn everyman who has been shown to us on I’m A Celebrity.

Do you have a tale to tell? Contact me at julia@gmail.com. banim@reachplc.com

READ MORE: ‘This is the London hotel where celebs stay before events – the views are incredible’

Following a prestigious seven-week trial in New York, music executive Sean “Diddy” Combs was found not guilty of racketeering and sex trafficking on Wednesday. He was also found guilty of a lesser prostitution charge.

Combs was found guilty of two prostitution-related charges by the jury, each of which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, after 13 hours of deliberation spread over three days.

Combs, 55, applauded the verdict as it was read out.

As they left the courtroom, he greeted one of his attorneys and thanked the eight-man, four-woman jury members.

Before dismissing the jury, Judge Arun Subramanian also thanked them for their service.

He said, “You listened, you worked together, you were here every day, rain or shine.” You answered the call of the public service with no reward other than the reward of your actions.

A jury had reached the verdict at the conclusion of a trial against Combs, who had been accused of being the head of a foretold criminal organization that had ordered loyal employees and bodyguards to commit numerous offenses against their will.

For example, there were alleged crimes against women, including drug distribution, kidnapping, bribery, witness tampering, obstruction, and arson.

Jurors had to establish that Combs had organized a criminal enterprise and that it had committed at least two of the crimes in order to convict him of racketeering.

Late on Tuesday, jurors announced a partial verdict and claimed they were in a deadlock over the racketeering charge despite receiving an order from Judge Subramanian to continue.

Combs, who was once one of the most influential figures in the music industry, had vehemently refuted every charge.

‘Untouchable’ 

After the judge gave them nearly three hours of legal advice on how to apply the mountain of evidence and testimony in the case, jurors began deliberating on Monday.

Thousands of pages of phone, financial, and audiovisual records were present at times, along with disturbing testimony.

Casandra Ventura, a singer, and a woman who gave evidence under the pseudonym Jane, were accused of trafficking sex with Combs.

Both had long-term relationships with the hip-hop powerhouse and entrepreneur, and they both went into engrossing detail about coercive sex.

Both of them claimed that they felt compelled to engage in Combs-directed sexual marathons with hired men.

Combs’ attorneys argued that the sex was mutual. They acknowledged that his relationships were complicated by domestic violence; one harrowing instance of him beating and dragging Ventura was captured on security footage, which was widely shared.

That was disturbing, the defense claimed, but it did not constitute sex trafficking.

In their final argument, Combs’ team was attacked by prosecutors, who they claimed had “controduced the facts endlessly.”