Ministers and senior officials joked about locking up travellers arriving in the UK in quarantine hotels during the Covid pandemic, according to leaked messages revealed on Thursday.
In one exchange with Cabinet Secretary Simon Case in February 2021, the then Health Secretary Matt Hancock said they were "giving big families all the big suites and putting pop stars in the box rooms".
Mr Case replied: "I just want to see some of the faces of people coming out of first class into a Premier Inn shoe box."
A few days later, Mr Case asked how many people had been "locked up" in hotels the previous day.
According to the messages published by The Daily Telegraph, Mr Hancock responded: "None. But 149 chose to enter the country and are now in Quarantine Hotels due to their own free will!" to which Mr Case replied: "Hilarious."
Lib Dem deputy leader Daisy Cooper said: “This lifts the lid on the contempt that Boris Johnson and his Conservative cronies had for the British public during the pandemic.
“They mocked and joked while breaking the rules we were all required to follow.”
The messages also suggested Mr Hancock wanted to "get heavy with the police" over the enforcement of lockdown regulations. After one meeting with Boris Johnson, he informed Mr Case: "The plod got their marching orders."
Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said on Thursday: "These messages reveal the arrogance and shameful lack of respect that Conservative ministers showed to the public and to the police who they were expecting to do an extremely complex job in difficult circumstances.
“At the same time as they were flagrantly breaking the law themselves with their lockdown parties, they were demanding stronger enforcement by the police on everyone else and joking at the public and police’s expense.
"It really was one rule for them and another for everyone else."
Meanwhile care home bosses who lost residents during the coronavirus pandemic have spoken out after messages sent by Mr Hancock were leaked this week.
The texts allege that he did not accept advice from Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty that there should be testing for “all going into care homes” in April 2020.
While Mr Hancock fiercely disputes that he ignored clinical guidance, care home boss Sue Cawthray said his decision had "a terrible impact on so many people".
Teachers have also been left fuming by the leaked messages, hitting out at "unforgivable" comments from ex-Education Secretary Sir Gavin Williamson that unions were looking for an "excuse" not to work during the pandemic.
As talks were underway to reopen classrooms in May 2020, the messages show Sir Gavin wanted to make sure PPE was provided so that schools "can't use [the shortage] as a reason not to open".
In October 2020, Mr Hancock referred to the teaching unions as "a bunch of absolute arses", to which Sir Gavin responded: "They really really do just hate work.”
ASCL President Evelyn Forde, headteacher at Copthall School in north-west London, told the Mirror she was "beyond angry and frankly disgusted" at the messages.
