Gone was that Tiggerish bounce... he looked fed up

THERE was a resigned look about Matt Hancock as he arrived at yesterday’s news conference. His mouth was drawn, his feet dragged. Here was a man you thought looked fed up.

And to think he came armed with a few slivers of decent news. There had been no Covid deaths in Northern Ireland in a single day for the first time since March 18. Deaths in the UK overall were at their lowest levels.

We heard also about remdesivir, the ebola drug the Health Secretary described as the ‘biggest step forward’ in treating Covid-19 since the outbreak spiralled out of control – a treatment that may speed up recovery time.

To cap it all, the Government had just signed a contract to make two billion items of PPE in the UK. Lord Deighton, smoothychops mastermind of the London Olympics recently appointed to help with this issue, was finally bringing home the bacon.

‘We are no longer simply keeping up with demand,’ chirped Hancock. ‘We are now beginning to replenish our stockpiles.’ On any other occasion, he would probably have allowed himself a little polish of the nails after announcing such news, a metaphorical puff of the cigar as if to say: ‘Yes, I am Matt Hancock and I am delivering for the country.’

Remember that victory dance he did when he was able to announce he had hit his ambitious target of 100,000 tests a day? It made Sally Field’s ‘You like me!’ Oscar acceptance speech look positively modest.

But instead we saw an uncharacteristic bashfulness. Hancock’s tone was meek. Gone was his usual Tiggerish bounce. And after the weekend the Government had endured, who’d blame him?

The Dominic Cummings business now dominates every discussion. Yesterday’s questions to Hancock were about nothing else. First up,

a query from the public. ‘We don’t see these questions in advance,’ Hancock announced, unnecessarily. A dog-collared chap from Brighton called Martin had an excellent question as to whether penalty charges imposed on families for travelling during the lockdown to obtain childcare could be reviewed following the Cummings incident.

‘I think that’s perfectly reasonable, especially coming from a man of the cloth,’ Hancock replied, buying himself time. He promised to discuss the matter with his Treasury colleagues but pledged to give an answer about it from the podium soon. Which rather suggested the Government had already thought to agree to it.

The BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg reminded Hancock that he had informed the public the lockdown rules ‘weren’t advice – they were instructions.’ She’s right: I remember how bossily he spoke into camera as he did so.

Interestingly, at this point, Hancock began talking about ‘Mr Cummings’, as though he barely knew him.

Ed Balls did the same thing about damian McBride when Gordon Brown’s ex-henchman resigned in disgrace, as I recall. ITV’s Robert Peston asked why, when Hancock and his wife tested positive for coronavirus and with three small children, they chose to stay at home while Cummings did not. What is the relevant difference between the Hancocks and the Cummings?

Hancock: ‘The relevant difference was that we had childcare while Cummings didn’t. Thanks very much.’

Zoik! Peston was dispatched from the television screen.

There is a rather brutal practice during these briefings where the technical staff now cut reporters off before they can squeeze in a follow-up question.

Today, the Prime Minister faces a grilling from the public liaison committee. Tory MP and chairman Sir Bernard Jenkin is no fan of Mr Cummings, nor of the PM. So we can expect plenty more on the controversy this afternoon. Where will it end?

There’s an old saying that when your life raft’s sinking, it might be an idea to throw the heaviest person overboard.

Each day this saga rolls on, the PM’s aide is looking increasingly like a dead weight.