The betrayal of Hancock will be costly

MATT Hancock has learnt at first hand the meaning of the word “betrayal” with the disclosures by journalist and fellow author of the “Pandemic Diaries”, Isabel Oakeshott, relating to the contents of over 100,000 emails when serving as Health Minister during the pandemic.

Prior to the writing of this tome, Ms Oakeshott had signed a non-disclosure agreement, such that she could not reveal the information acquired to anyone.

This she has torn up resulting in a superb coup for the Daily Telegraph, saying that her act was in “the overwhelming national interest”, a by-product being, I am sure, a substantial undisclosed fee.

Nevertheless, this was betrayal, the downside of which is that I doubt that few will share close confidences with her in the future.

The amount of damage caused by this act has yet to be fully quantified. Some have been fascinated by the inside information, but I am not one of those.

Covid was a problem for Government, the like of which no politician had ever seen. I do not blame Mr Hancock for discussing with colleagues the best way to cope, or the terminology employed and I do not imagine for a moment that what was said by any involved would ultimately be disclosed for national consumption.

Every one of us have had debates with friends and colleagues in relation to tricky problems. None of us would ever wish that such discussions would ever be made available for public consumption, they would be in confidence believing that such content would always be sacrosanct.

In this case, a legal agreement was entered into which has been spectacularly broken, a side effect of which has been personal gain. I really do not see national interest here and surely does not qualify as whistleblowing.

Politicians will now be really concerned as to who they can trust. This is very unfortunate, for decision makers must be able to discuss the merits or otherwise of problems that beset them without having to worry that anything that they say may be taken out of context and published. Betrayal can be initially rewarding, but costly in the long term.