London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Friday, Sep 19, 2025

Matt Hancock mocked Eat Out To Help Out amid concerns about spread of Covid-19

Matt Hancock mocked Eat Out To Help Out amid concerns about spread of Covid-19

The former Health Secretary branded the scheme ‘eat out to help the virus get about’

Matt Hancock mocked Rishi Sunak’s “Eat Out To Help Out” scheme and expressed concern that it would fuel the spread of Covid-19, according to leaked WhatsApp messages.

The former Health Secretary dubbed the scheme “eat out to help the virus get about” amid fears that the increase in indoor dining sparked a second wave of the virus.

Eat Out To Help Out was among a package of measures announced by Mr Sunak to kickstart the economy in summer 2020.

Under the Treasury scheme, diners received a 50 per cent discount on food and non-alcoholic drinks at participating restaurants from Monday to Wednesday. It launched on August 3, 2020, when social distancing measures were relaxed following the first national lockdown.

WhatsApp messages published by the Telegraph as part of its Lockdown Files investigation reveal that Mr Hancock was privately anxious over the scheme.

In a message to Cabinet Secretary Simon Case dated August 24, 2020, he wrote: “Just want to let you know directly that we have had lots of feedback that Eat our (sic) to help out is causing problems in our intervention areas. I’ve kept it out of the news but it’s serious. So please please lets not allow the economic success of the scheme to lead to its extension.”

Asked by Mr Case whether he had informed Mr Sunak of his concerns, the ex-Health Secretary replied: “Yes and we’ve told treasury – we’ve been protecting them in the comms & thankfully it hasn’t bubbles up (sic).”

Mr Case noted that restaurants were “insanely packed” from Monday through to Wednesday but “totally deserted” in the second half of the week.

In a message to an aide in December 2020, Mr Hancock also referred to the scheme as “eat out to help the virus get about”.

Eat out to Help Out was a flagship policy of Rishi Sunak’s Treasury


The Standard was not able to independently verify the messages.

A study conducted by Warwick University, published in October 2020, found that the scheme had “caused a significant rise in new infections”. By September 14, the Government had introduced a six-person limit on socialising and later imposed a 10pm curfew on pubs and restaurants.

One exchange, from June 2020, came as the Government considered how to relax restrictions. The messages show that Mr Hancock wanted cafes and restaurants to keep a register of customers’ details for NHS Test and Trace, urging that guidance would read “should” as opposed to “can”.

The latter phrasing, according to the messages, was preferred by then-business secretary Sir Alok Sharma.

“The language on customer logs has just gone from ‘should’ to ‘can’. Grateful if you can fix – we can’t reverse this at the last minute!” Mr Hancock said.

Mr Case replied: “Alok blocking ‘should’. Will need to fix after this meeting.”

Later, he said: “If Alok mad enough to raise it, PM will probably be clear again.”

Mr Hancock, responding, says that the “question I can’t understand is why Alok is against controlling the virus. Strange approach”.

“Pure Conservative ideology,” Mr Case responds.

The Telegraph has obtained more than 100,000 WhatsApp messages between Mr Hancock, ministers and officials over the course of the pandemic. They were passed to the newspaper by journalist Isabel Oakeshott, who ghost-wrote Mr Hancock’s memoir.

Ms Oakeshott, who has described lockdowns as a “disaster”, said she was releasing the messages as the official Covid inquiry would take “many years” and could be a “whitewash”.

In response, a spokesperson for Mr Hancock accused Ms Oakeshott and the newspaper of twisting the messages to fit an “anti-lockdown agenda”.

They insisted that an inquiry remains “the right place for an analysis of what happened in the pandemic”.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Massive Strikes in France Pressure Macron and New PM on Austerity Proposals
Trump Seeks Supreme Court Permission to Remove Fed Governor Lisa Cook
Hillary Clinton’s Reckless Rhetoric Fuels Division After Charlie Kirk’s Assassination
NASDAQ Rises to Record as Intel Soars More Than 20%, Nvidia Gains 3%
Nvidia’s $5 Billion Bet on Intel Reshapes AI Hardware Landscape
Trump and Starmer Clash Over UK Recognition of Palestinian State Amid State Visit
Trump’s Quip on Biden and Google Lawsuit Revives Debate Over Antitrust Legacy
Macron and his wife to provide 'scientific photographic evidence' that she is a real woman
US Tech Giants Pledge Billions to UK AI Infrastructure Following Starmer's Call
Saudi Arabia cracks down on music ‘lounges’ after conservative backlash
DeepMind and OpenAI Achieve Gold at ‘Coding Olympics’ in AI Milestone
SEC Allows Public Companies to Block Investors from Class-Action Lawsuits
Saudi Arabia Signs ‘Strategic Mutual Defence’ Pact with Pakistan, Marking First Arab State to Gain Indirect Access to Nuclear Strike Capabilities in the Region
Federal Reserve Cuts Rates by Quarter Point and Signals More to Come
Effective and Impressive Generation Z Protest: Images from the Riots in Nepal
European manufacturers against ban on polluting cars: "The industry may collapse"
Sam Altman sells the 'Wedding Estate' in Hawaii for 49 million dollars
Trump: Cancel quarterly company reports and settle for reporting once every six months
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
US Launches New Pilot Program to Accelerate eVTOL Air Taxi Deployment
Christian Brueckner Released from German Prison after Serving Unrelated Sentence
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
Hong Kong Industry Group Calls for HK$20 Billion Support Fund to Ease Property Market Stress
Joe Biden’s Post-Presidency Speaking Fees Face Weak Demand amid Corporate Reluctance
Charlie Kirk's murder will break the left's hateful cancel tactics
Kash Patel erupts at ‘buffoon’ Sen. Adam Schiff over Russiagate: ‘You are the biggest fraud’
Homeland Security says Emmy speech ‘fanning the flames of hatred’ after Einbinder’s ‘F— ICE’ remark
Charlie Kirk’s Alleged Assassin Tyler Robinson Faces Death Penalty as Charges Formally Announced
Actor, director, environmentalist Robert Redford dies at 89
The conservative right spreads westward: a huge achievement for 'Alternative for Germany' in local elections
JD Vance Says There Is “No Unity” with Those Who Celebrate Charlie Kirk’s Killing, and he is right!
Trump sues the 'New York Times' for an astronomical sum of 15 billion dollars
Florida Hospital Welcomes Its Largest-Ever Baby: Annan, Nearly Fourteen Pounds at Birth
U.S. and Britain Poised to Finalize Over $10 Billion in High-Tech, Nuclear and Defense Deals During Trump State Visit
China Finds Nvidia Violated Antitrust Laws in Mellanox Deal, Deepens Trade Tensions with US
US Air Force Begins Modifications on Qatar-Donated Jet Amid Plans to Use It as Air Force One
Pope Leo Warns of Societal Crisis Over Mega-CEO Pay, Citing Tesla’s Proposed Trillion-Dollar Package
Poland Green-Lights NATO Deployment in Response to Major Russian Drone Incursion
Elon Musk Retakes Lead as World’s Richest After Brief Ellison Surge
U.S. and China Agree on Framework to Shift TikTok to American Ownership
London Daily Podcast: London Massive Pro Democracy Rally, Musk Support, UK Economic Data and Premier League Results Mark Eventful Weekend
This Week in AI: Meta’s Superintelligence Push, xAI’s Ten Billion-Dollar Raise, Genesis AI’s Robotics Ambitions, Microsoft Restructuring, Amazon’s Million-Robot Milestone, and Google’s AlphaGenome Update
Le Pen Tightens the Pressure on Macron as France Edges Toward Political Breakdown
Musk calls for new UK government at huge pro-democracy rally in London, but Britons have been brainwashed to obey instead of fighting for their human rights
Elon Musk responds to post calling for the murder of Erika Kirk, widow of Charlie Kirk: 'Either we fight back or they will kill us'
Czech Republic signs €1.34 billion contract for Leopard 2A8 main battle tanks with delivery from 2028
USA: Office Depot Employees Refused to Print Poster in Memory of Charlie Kirk – and Were Fired
Proposed U.S. Bill Would Allow Civil Suits Against Judges Who Release Repeat Violent Offenders
Penske Media Sues Google Over “AI Overviews,” Claiming It Uses Journalism Without Consent and Destroys Traffic
×