London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Friday, Aug 22, 2025

Covid: Matt Hancock responds to Dominic Cummings's care homes remark

Covid: Matt Hancock responds to Dominic Cummings's care homes remark

Matt Hancock has denied claiming during the early stages of the pandemic that people discharged from hospitals were being tested for Covid before going back to care homes.

But the health secretary admitted he had said residents "would" be tested once adequate capacity was in place.

The comments follow criticisms of him by the PM's former adviser, Dominic Cummings, last month.

He accused the minister of lying and said he should have been fired.

But Mr Hancock told BBC One's Andrew Marr Show that he had been honest and straightforward with people during the pandemic.

He added that "we brought in the policy of wanting to test everybody who went into a care home as soon as we had those tests available".

Mr Hancock is due to appear at a joint hearing of the House of Commons health and science committees later this week, as part of their inquiry into "lessons learnt" from the pandemic.

In total, 127,840 people in the UK have died within 28 days of testing positive for coronavirus.

More than 40,000 of these deaths have happened in care homes in England, according to the Office for National Statistics.

During a seven-hour hearing by the science and health committees last month, Mr Cummings said: "We were told categorically [by Mr Hancock] in March [last year] that people would be tested before they went back to care homes. We only subsequently found out that that hadn't happened.

"Now all the government rhetoric was 'We put a shield around care homes' and 'Blah, blah'. It was complete nonsense.

"Quite the opposite of putting a shield round them, we sent people with Covid back to the care homes."

Mr Cummings, who was forced out of Downing Street last autumn following a power struggle, also said the health secretary "should have been fired for at least 15 to 20 things, including lying to everybody on multiple occasions in meeting after meeting in the Cabinet Room and publicly".

Dominic Cummings was highly critical of Matt Hancock when he addressed MPs last month

Mr Hancock has previously said the claims against him were "not true".

Appearing on the Andrew Marr Show on Sunday, he was asked whether, in March last year, he had said "that people sent from hospitals into care homes were being tested when you knew they weren't".

Mr Hancock replied: "No, I did not."

He also appeared to draw a distinction between much of the reporting since then of Mr Cummings's remarks and the actual words used.

Mr Hancock was asked: "So it's a question of tenses? You didn't tell the prime minister that people were going from hospitals into care homes without being tested?"

Mr Hancock said: "Well, ironically, here I did exactly what is alleged, which is [say] we would bring in testing when the testing capacity was available."

He added that there had not been "enough tests available to test everybody" at the start of the pandemic.

The clinical advice had been that "hospital is a dangerous place for people who might end up getting Covid after they'd taken the test" and that "what matters is that you had the infection prevention control when you're in the care home".

He also said that "everybody" - including in Scotland, Wales and "around Europe" - had "a challenge in care homes".

Mr Hancock added: "But at the time... we didn't have the testing capacity and I built that testing capacity, put in place the 100,000 (per day testing) target and we got the tests and then we could implement the policy."

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
After 200,000 Orders in 2 Minutes: Xiaomi Accelerates Marketing in Europe
Ukraine Declares De Facto War on Hungary and Slovakia with Terror Drone Strikes on Their Gas Lifeline
Animated K-pop Musical ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ Becomes Netflix’s Most-Watched Original Animated Film
New York Appeals Court Voids Nearly $500 Million Civil Fraud Penalty Against Trump While Upholding Fraud Liability
Elon Musk tweeted, “Europe is dying”
Far-Right Activist Convicted of Incitement Changes Gender and Demands: "Send Me to a Women’s Prison" | The Storm in Germany
Hungary Criticizes Ukraine: "Violating Our Sovereignty"
Will this be the first country to return to negative interest rates?
Child-free hotels spark controversy
North Korea is where this 95-year-old wants to die. South Korea won’t let him go. Is this our ally or a human rights enemy?
Hong Kong Launches Regulatory Regime and Trials for HKD-Backed Stablecoins
China rehearses September 3 Victory Day parade as imagery points to ‘loyal wingman’ FH-97 family presence
Trump Called Viktor Orbán: "Why Are You Using the Veto"
Horror in the Skies: Plane Engine Exploded, Passengers Sent Farewell Messages
MSNBC Rebrands as MS NOW Amid Comcast’s Cable Spin-Off
AI in Policing: Draft One Helps Speed Up Reports but Raises Legal and Ethical Concerns
Shame in Norway: Crown Princess’s Son Accused of Four Rapes
Apple Begins Simultaneous iPhone 17 Production in India and China
A Robot to Give Birth: The Chinese Announcement That Shakes the World
Finnish MP Dies by Suicide in Parliament Building
Outrage in the Tennis World After Jannik Sinner’s Withdrawal Storm
William and Kate Are Moving House – and the New Neighbors Were Evicted
Class Action Lawsuit Against Volkswagen: Steering Wheel Switches Cause Accidents
Taylor Swift on the Way to the Super Bowl? All the Clues Stirring Up Fans
Dogfights in the Skies: Airbus on Track to Overtake Boeing and Claim Aviation Supremacy
Tim Cook Promises an AI Revolution at Apple: "One of the Most Significant Technologies of Our Generation"
Apple Expands Social Media Presence in China With RedNote Account Ahead of iPhone 17 Launch
Are AI Data Centres the Infrastructure of the Future or the Next Crisis?
Cambridge Dictionary Adds 'Skibidi,' 'Delulu,' and 'Tradwife' Amid Surge of Online Slang
Bill Barr Testifies No Evidence Implicated Trump in Epstein Case; DOJ Set to Release Records
Zelenskyy Returns to White House Flanked by European Allies as Trump Pressures Land-Swap Deal with Putin
The CEO Who Replaced 80% of Employees for the AI Revolution: "I Would Do It Again"
Emails Worth Billions: How Airlines Generate Huge Profits
Character.ai Bets on Future of AI Companionship
China Ramps Up Tax Crackdown on Overseas Investments
Japanese Office Furniture Maker Expands into Bomb Shelter Market
Intel Shares Surge on Possible U.S. Government Investment
Hurricane Erin Threatens U.S. East Coast with Dangerous Surf
EU Blocks Trade Statement Over Digital Rule Dispute
EU Sends Record Aid as Spain Battles Wildfires
JPMorgan Plans New Canary Wharf Tower
Zelenskyy and his allies say they will press Trump on security guarantees
Beijing is moving into gold and other assets, diversifying away from the dollar
Escalating Clashes in Serbia as Anti-Government Protests Spread Nationwide
The Drought in Britain and the Strange Request from the Government to Delete Old Emails
Category 5 Hurricane in the Caribbean: 'Catastrophic Storm' with Winds of 255 km/h
"No, Thanks": The Mathematical Genius Who Turned Down 1.5 Billion Dollars from Zuckerberg
The surprising hero, the ugly incident, and the criticism despite victory: "Liverpool’s defense exposed in full"
Digital Humans Move Beyond Sci-Fi: From Virtual DJs to AI Customer Agents
YouTube will start using AI to guess your age. If it’s wrong, you’ll have to prove it
×