I’m a palliative care doctor – Matt Hancock betrayed the nation

Of all the revelations this week about Downing Street’s various WhatsApp catfights, foul language, sexism, indolence, ineptitude and indifference during the Covid-19 pandemic, nothing was quite as toe-curling as what we learned about Matt Hancock.

The cricketing skit was bad enough. According to the then deputy cabinet secretary, Helen MacNamara, the nation’s health secretary told her he was “loving” the responsibility of leading the NHS through the worst and most deadly crisis in its history, before taking up a batsman’s stance before her in Downing Street. He mimed knocking Covid for six as he bragged, “They bowl them at me, I knock them away”.

Yet even this was nothing compared to the extraordinary testimony from Simon Stevens, the former CEO of NHS England. In the event that the NHS became overwhelmed, Stevens told the Covid Inquiry, Hancock declared that he – rather than the medical professionals – “should ultimately decide who should live or die”.