No one thinks testing is going well, Osborne warned Hancock

GEORGE OSBORNE told Matt Hancock that “no one thinks testing is going well” in a Whatsapp message sent in the depths of the Covid pandemic.

In a November 2020 radio interview the former chancellor urged Boris Johnson to make testing his “absolute number one priority”, which Mr Hancock took as a personal slight.

“What was this for?” Mr Hancock messaged Mr Osborne, referring to an enclosed tweet promoting the interview. Mr Osborne, who was at the time editor of the London Evening Standard, replied: “Trying to spread the responsibility from you to Number 10 – I’ve said it before.”

The ever-optimistic Mr Hancock retorted: “Ok but mass testing is going v well – I fear this looks like you asked for me to be overruled…”

Mr Osborne did not sugar-coat his response. “No one thinks testing is going well, Matt,” he said. “If I wanted a test today I can’t get one, unless I fake symptoms – and XXXX [redacted by The Telegraph] is still waiting test results from 3 weeks ago (XXXX went private in the end).

“My point has been that DS [Downing Street] has not thrown the weight and resources of government behind your heroic efforts. And that’s why we entered second lockdown. And btw thousands of civil servants are still working on lorry parks in Kent because this government has no sense of priority.” Mr Hancock said: “Hmm I don’t think this is right but I can see where you’re coming from.” When Mr Osborne was shadow chancellor, Mr Hancock worked as his chief of staff and since then Mr Osborne has been something of a mentor to his former colleague.

NHS Test and Trace was launched in May 2020, but faced problems over lack of kit and appointments until the following year.

In his Times Radio interview, Mr Osborne had disclosed that Sir John Major, David Cameron, Gordon Brown and Sir Tony Blair had all written privately to Mr Johnson in July 2020 about the need to get a grip on testing.

Mr Osborne said the former prime ministers told Mr Johnson that testing was “the absolute number one overwhelming priority facing the country”.

Instead of becoming a Downing Street priority, Mr Osborne said: “I still feel it’s been too much something that has been given to the health department, given to the NHS, and the rest of Government has not thrown the full weight of the British state behind it.”

On Nov 10, 2020, the day after the exchange with Mr Osborne, Mr Hancock announced that lateral flow tests – the standard home swab test kit still in use now – would be rolled out across England following a successful trial in Liverpool.

At a televised press conference on Nov 16, Mr Hancock trumpeted that “we’ve already built the largest coronavirus testing capacity in Europe” and said capacity had reached more than half a million tests per day.