Lockdown started ... when? It may be time Hancock invested in a diary

He did indeed make a statement on March 16 in which he ‘advised’ against unnecessary social contact

During the lockdown, it was so easy to lose track of time. Routines disrupted, schools closed, offices shut, holidays cancelled, weddings put on hold, the dreary monotony of all those months spent cooped up at home. Frankly, sometimes it was hard to remember what day of the week it was.

Perhaps that’s what’s happened to

Matt Hancock. He’s simply lost track of time. Little wonder, if so – after all, he’s been working so hard, and under such pressure, and no doubt missing a lot of sleep. So, in the circumstances, he’s bound to get things a little muddled now and again.

That, at any rate, is the kindest explanation I can think of for the Health Secretary’s extraordinary comments in the Commons yesterday.

Labour’s Jonathan Ashworth had just asked him an awkward question. It was about comments made earlier in the day by Sir Patrick Vallance, the Government’s Chief Scientific

Adviser, to the Commons science and technology committee. According to Sir Patrick, scientists had advised the Government to impose lockdown “as soon as possible” on either March 16 or March 18.

So why, asked Mr Ashworth, did the Government not impose lockdown until March 23? Why the delay?

A tricky one. Yet Mr Hancock didn’t seem in the least fazed. If anything, he seemed scornful.

“March 16,” he retorted, “is the day that I came to this House and said that all unnecessary social contact should cease. That is precisely when the lockdown started!”

Labour MPS seemed bewildered. Had they all misheard? Just to make sure, Zarah Sultana (Lab, Coventry South) asked Mr Hancock to clarify. Yes, she said, he’d made a statement on March 16 “advising people to practise social distancing. But that is not the same as imposing lockdown.”

Mr Hancock waved her airily away. He picked up his phone, and read aloud from his March 16 statement. “What I said was, ‘Today we are advising people against all unnecessary social contact with others and all unnecessary travel.’ That, that,” he said, with emphasis, “is when the lockdown truly started.”

Poor Mr Hancock. What an unfortunate mix-up. He did indeed make a statement on March 16 in which he “advised” against unnecessary social contact. But “advice” is all it was.

As he will find out if he cares to Google it, the Government allowed pubs and restaurants to remain open until the end of that week – and so, not unsurprisingly, people continued to visit them. “Lockdown” – as in, severe restrictions enforced on the public by law, as opposed to mere “advice” – was not announced until the evening of March 23, in a televised address by the Prime Minister.

No doubt this was merely an innocent slip on Mr Hancock’s part. He’ll feel so silly when his colleagues point it out.

Then again, the Prime Minister did confirm this week that there will be a public inquiry into the pandemic. So perhaps, if it’s not too late, Mr Hancock should invest in a diary.