Hancock accused of ‘breathtaking contempt’ as travel chiefs voice fury
Tom ParryTravel chiefs have voiced their fury at Matt Hancock after new leaked WhatsApp messages revealed the former health secretary joked about hotel quarantine and scorned airlines as the industry struggled amid the Covid crisis.
More than 100,000 WhatsApp messages sent and received by Hancock were handed to The Telegraph by journalist Isabel Oakeshott and are being revealed as part of the newspaper’s Lockdown Files.
In a conversation on 5 February 2021 with Simon Case, the UK’s most senior civil servant, Hancock said airlines and airports “are totally offside” and “completely unhelpful”.
“Don’t get that there’s a war on,” he added, before conceding: “And of course v hard for them as they’re going bust,” Case replied: “Yes, tough for them, but they are just so horribly self-serving. I can’t summon much sympathy for them any more when I see them.”
In a conversation between the pair almost a fortnight later, Hancock joked about the government’s hotel quarantine policy.
“We are giving big families all the suites and putting pop stars in the box rooms,” he said. Case replied: “I just want to see some of the faces of people coming out of first class and into a premier inn shoe box.”
While replying to a question from Case asking him: “Any idea how many people we locked up in hotels yesterday?”, Hancock said: “None. But 149 chose to enter the country and are now in Quarantine Hotels due to their own free will!”
Case branded Hancock’s reply “hilarious”.
In response, Iata director general and ex-British Airways boss Willie Walsh accused Hancock and Case of “breathtaking contempt” for the aviation sector, its staff and passengers.
“Far from being ‘self-serving’, airlines were rightly questioning the scientific rationale for the stop-start testing and quarantine measures that caused misery for millions. We were inundated with heartbreaking stories of families kept apart by the cruel and unjustified quarantines,” he told The Telegraph.
“While ministers joked on WhatsApp and had parties at No10, travel and tourism businesses went to the wall and hundreds of thousands of jobs were put at risk. Lives and livelihoods meant nothing to these people.
“The Telegraph’s story shows it is essential that the inquiry into Covid decision-making gets to the bottom of the reasons why the science was so politicised. More importantly, lessons must be learned so that better decisions are taken when the next health crisis emerges.”
Meanwhile Advantage boss Julia Lo Bue-Said said the exchange between Hancock and Case made “for very uncomfortable reading”.
“I am personally shocked and disappointed that a cabinet minister could be so flippant and mocking of those in hotel quarantine when people were dying from Covid-19 and unable to visit their loved ones,” she said.
“We are coming up to the three-year anniversary of Covid and whilst the industry has made great strides in its recovery, many businesses continue to bear the scars of what was the trade’s most challenging period on record. Remarks of this nature, at a time when the travel industry was in such a state of distress, quite frankly leaves me speechless.”
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