MINISTERS’ MOBILES SEARCHED IN ‘ CHATTY RAT’ HUNT

PM’s astonishing bid to nail leaker who bounced him into lockdown

BORIS Johnson sent security experts to the homes of Cabinet Ministers to examine their personal mobile phones as part of a major leak inquiry.

Senior figures, including Matt Hancock and Michael Gove, were told to surrender their phones as No 10 hunted for the mole whose secret briefings forced the Prime Minister to make an early announcement of the new lockdown south of the Border.

In the bid to unmask the ‘chatty rat’, as Government sources have dubbed

the leaker, a number of top advisers were also quizzed.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak was interviewed, too, but was not asked to hand over his phone. According to allies, the investigators had ‘no reasonable grounds to suspect’ his involvement, given that he is a leading anti-lockdown ‘hawk’ in the Cabinet.

The Ministers’ personal messages were examined under the investigation, ordered by a furious Mr Johnson after he was rushed into announcing the English lockdown at a hastily convened press conference last Saturday.

Hawks believe that pro-lockdown ‘doves’ leaked details of the so-called ‘quad’ meeting of Johnson, Sunak, Gove and Hancock the previous day to stop the Prime Minister from watering down the shutdown plans.

It also led to the rushed presentation of dubious predictions, with the projection of up to 4,000 Covid deaths a day by Christmas comprehensively discredited in the days after it was revealed to millions of television viewers.

Last night, UK Health Secretary Mr Hancock categorically denied any involvement in the leak, but declined to comment on the investigation.

Mr Gove’s allies said the Cabinet Office Minister and his advisers were happy to hand over their phones because they had ‘nothing to hide’.

Anti-lockdown Tory rebels, led by former party leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith, called for the mole to apologise personally to the Commons if caught.

The astonishing development came as:

Some of the Tory rebels talked privately about sending letters to Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the backbench 1922 Committee, to try to trigger a leadership contest if Mr Johnson extends the lockdown beyond the promised end date of December 2;

The coronavirus death toll in Scottish hospitals rose to 3,036, with a further 1,596 positive cases in the past 24 hours;

The number of patients being treated in Scotland’s hospitals for coronavirus rose overnight to 1,245, with 106 people now in intensive care; l Top scientists suggested that the second wave had peaked;

Scotland’s ambulance crews have been ordered to treat more patients in their own homes under new plans to cut attendance at A&E, amid fears Covid-19 will exacerbate usual winter demands on the NHS and leave it ‘stretched like never before’;

Preparations were stepped up to roll out the Covid vaccine by early next month;

Britain imposed a ban on non-UK citizens coming in from Denmark amid concerns over a new coronavirus strain that has spread there from mink to humans, infecting 12 people and leading to a cull of 17million animals.

Investigators into the lockdown leak called at Mr Gove’s

West London home and demanded to see his mobile phone, before examining his calls, text messages and WhatsApp conversations.

Mr Hancock is understood to have been subjected to a similar interrogation after a furious Mr Johnson ordered Cabinet Secretary Simon Case to set up the probe.

Lockdown hawks say that Mr Johnson had intended to spend last weekend studying the most recent and accurate data – and discussing it with the rest of the Cabinet – before deciding whether to extend his system of tiered, regional restrictions instead.

Supporters of the lockdown dispute this, and insist that the ‘rat’ merely accelerated the announcement of an inevitable decision.

Mr Johnson sent a WhatsApp message to Tory MPs after the leak to say: ‘Folks – so sorry that you’ve had to hear about all this from the newspapers.’

Meanwhile, a source told The Mail on Sunday last week: ‘Our rat, whoever it is, seems to be very chatty at the moment.’ Last Saturday evening, as the investigators swung into action, Mr Hancock phoned Mr Sunak to deny being the source of the leak – and to ask Mr Sunak if he was making that accusation.

Mr Sunak denied that he was doing so.

One of Mr Gove’s allies said last night: ‘Gove and members of his staff have co-operated fully with the inquiry and were happy to submit their phones for examination, given that they have nothing to hide’.

Mr Gove denied being the rat when he was interviewed last week.

Sir Iain Duncan Smith blamed the leaker for ‘bouncing’ Mr Johnson into the decision, saying: ‘What happened just over a week ago was an outrageous contempt of the Commons and the British people on an issue of the utmost importance to the country.

‘If it turns out to be a Minister, they should of course be forced to apologise to the Commons and then be sacked.

‘But if it’s an official, they should be made to come to the bar of the House and face the anger of MPs and most of all of the Speaker. What they did was appalling because they bounced the Government into taking their action’.

‘If the mole’s a Minister, they should be sacked’