Sir Gavin Williamson accused teachers of looking for an “excuse” not to work during the Covid pandemic, according to the latest tranche of leaked messages from Matt Hancock published by the Daily Telegraph.
On October 1 2020, Hancock messaged the then education secretary to congratulate him on his decision to delay A-level exams for a few weeks.
“Cracking announcement today. What a bunch of absolute arses the teaching unions are,” the then health secretary wrote.
Williamson responded: “I know they really really do just hate work.”
Earlier that year, in May, Williamson messaged Hancock asking for his help in securing personal protective equipment (PPE) for schools so they could not use it “as a reason not to open”.
He added: “All of them will, but some will just want to say they can’t so they have an excuse to avoid having to teach, what joys!!!”
Following the publication of the messages, he tweeted that his comments had been “about some unions and not teachers”. He added: “I have the utmost respect for teachers who work tirelessly to support students.”
A spokesman for Hancock said: “Tonight’s revelations are exactly like last night’s. These are partial accounts, obviously spun with an agenda.
“They show Matt was focused throughout on saving lives. The right place for a full assessment is the (official Covid) inquiry.”
The paper also highlighted an exchange between Hancock and one of his aides from December 2020 after Williamson persuaded the then prime minister Boris Johnson that schools in England should reopen as planned at the start of the January term.
He said they needed to fight a “rear-guard action” to prevent a “policy car crash” when children returned to the classrooms and started spreading the disease.
Meanwhile, the journalist behind the leaked messages claims Hancock sent her a “menacing message” after their publication. Isabel Oakeshott, who was given the WhatsApp exchanges by Hancock while they were collaborating on a book about the pandemic, said it was clear he was not happy after she gave him no advance notice about what she was doing.
“I received a somewhat menacing message at 1.20 in the morning,” she told TalkTV’s Piers Morgan Uncensored. “I am not going to repeat what was in the message.
“I think you can easily surmise whether Matt Hancock is my friend at this point.”
Oakeshott confirmed she broke a non-disclosure agreement to pass the messages, but said she believed she was acting in the public interest as it could be years before the official inquiry into the pandemic reports.
“The reality is that this inquiry, which I think is absolutely critical, will likely not come up with any conclusions, left to the Government’s own devices, perhaps for at least a decade or more,” she said. “This resource that I had is an extraordinary way to quickly get to the truth of what happened. I think the public interest is overwhelming.”
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