Rishi Sunak is facing claims of a "cover up" after leaked WhatsApps suggest concerns were raised in Government about whether his flagship 'Eat out to Help out' scheme was fuelling the spread of Covid.
Messages between Matt Hancock and top civil servant Simon Case in August 2020, published by the Telegraph, show the ex-Health Secretary saying the initiative was "causing problems" in some areas but he had "kept it out of the news".
Mr Case asked if he'd informed Mr Sunak, who was Chancellor at the time, the WhatsApps suggest.
Mr Hancock replied: "Yes we’ve told treasury - we’ve been protecting them in the comms & thankfully it’s hasn’t bubbles up."
He admitted he had taken up the discount scheme himself, saying: "Yes it was a joy using it and being thanked by the other diners!"
In a separate exchange in December 2020, Mr Hancock joked to his aide: "He [Sunak] hasn’t launched another eat out to help the virus get about has he?"
It comes as part of a massive leak of more than 100,000 of Mr Hancock's WhatsApps by journalist Isabel Oakeshott, who worked on the former Health Secretary's pandemic diaries.
The allegations are the first time Mr Sunak has been dragged into the latest row over the Government's handling of the pandemic.
His state-backed discount scheme in August 2020 allowed diners to claim 50% off meals at the start of the week as part of efforts to prop up the economy during the pandemic.
It came under fire at the time after research from Warwick University suggested in October 2020 that the scheme drove a "significant" uptick in in new Covid infections.
The Lib Dems called on Mr Sunak to "come clean" on what he knew and when, while Labour accused the Government of a "cover up".
Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner said: “We now know that Rishi Sunak’s Treasury was made aware of the evidence that his Eat Out to Help Out scheme was spreading Covid and risking public health.
“These disturbing exchanges show the Prime Minister may have been complicit in a cover up when he was Chancellor to protect his own PR stunt at the expense of public safety.
“He must now own up to what he knew and when about the risks, and explain why the warnings were apparently ignored and evidence concealed.”
Liberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper said: "These messages paint a picture of a bitterly divided and chaotic government, when families were making huge sacrifices.
"Rishi Sunak must come clean about what he knew and when, and Treasury policy making should be closely investigated in the Covid inquiry."
Asked if it was a cover up, Cabinet Minister Chris Heaton-Harris told the BBC: "Well it depends in what context that message was sent.
"Eat Out to Help Out was a scheme to keep a whole sector of industry going at one point in time because we also wanted to protect the economy.
"We were trying to protect the NHS, protect the economy, protect Britain from a pandemic and we were doing exactly the same, similar things, other countries were at different times.
"There was no playbook for fighting a pandemic of this nature in modern day British British society."
A Government source said: “Many European countries experienced an uptick in transmission at the same time as the UK, including those without similar schemes.”
Mr Hancock has described the release of tens of thousands of his WhatsApp messages as a "massive betrayal" and said there was no public interest for the huge data breach.
"As we have seen, releasing them in this way gives a partial, biased account to suit an anti-lockdown agenda," he said in a statement this week.
