Was I right? Your support makes it seem so

WAS it right to reveal the truth about the way we were governed during the pandemic, or should I have sat on Whatsapps I received from Matt Hancock, because I owed him a duty of confidentiality? Is it my job as a journalist to keep politicians’ secrets and protect their reputations – or uncover what they’d prefer to hide, if it’s in the public interest?

I know what I think, but since the former health secretary accused me of “massive betrayal” for handing more than 100,000 messages to The Daily Telegraph I have faced a barrage of hostile questions about ethics.

However, the astonishing number of letters and emails I have also received from ordinary people thanking this newspaper for publishing The Lockdown Files is the only answer I need. Here is a tiny selection of the reaction to our investigation.

“Dear Isabel, my son committed suicide after lockdown as he missed school and gained a lot of weight. He died in December 2021 and was an indirect victim of lockdowns. This government is criminal. Good on you, keep going!”

“As the daughter of an ex-care home resident who suffered immeasurably, I really can’t thank you enough. But I also offer thanks on behalf of thousands of care home residents and their families who equally suffered.” – Amanda Hunter, chair of social care at the Together Association/co-founder of Unlock Care Homes.

“In the long term this will prove the politicians have no hiding place from their incompetence and power-mad behaviour. Thank you again.”

“It’s time we got to the bottom of the incompetence that left children in homeschooling after schools closed. The most deprived children paid a heavy price and it can never be allowed to happen again.”

“I’ll never forgive them for what they did to my six-year-old son, who after months of being isolated from his friends told me he ‘couldn’t feel anything any more’.”

“If it’s in “public interest” to leak Hancock’s messages, why drip-feed the revelations?”

“My father died alone of congestive heart failure, unable to be visited by anyone despite neither he nor they testing positive for Covid. A man with family and friends numbering in the dozens had 12 people at his funeral.”

“I thank you from the bottom of my heart. At the start of the pandemic I saw my grandchildren through a kitchen window, seeing their tears at not being able to hug me. That memory will last with me a long time.”

“Dear Isabel, As an NHS doctor I would like to add my support to you in publishing the Hancock messages. I know that I am not alone in my department in being opposed to lockdowns and a lot of the policy decisions that were taken around Covid. And those are just the ones … brave enough to say so. Over and above this, as a product of a working class family, I am devastated about the effect this will have on social mobility through education and achievement. Keep doing what you are doing.”

“Children didn’t ‘pay a terrible price’ during the lockdown. Most enjoyed it, I saw my child and his friends study and play together using Teams. Classes continued as normal, they learnt new skills, to work remotely and are now far more computer literate than any other generation.”