Matt Hancock was warned it was 'inhumane' to impose restrictions on visiting care homes

A former social care minister warned Matt Hancock that visitor bans in care homes during the Covid pandemic were 'inhumane', leaked WhatsApp messages reveal. Helen Whately voiced her opposition at the strict visitor rules in residential homes to the then-Health Secretary in October 2020 The messages show Health Secretary Matt Hancock advised against any sudden changes to the visiting rules, as the government sought to improve its monthly targets The MP denied the 'distorted account' with a spokesman alleging the messages leaked by journalist Isabel Oakeshott after she worked on his Pandemic Diaries memoir have been 'spun to fit an anti-lockdown agenda'. Other leaked messages seemingly showed Mr Hancock rejected the Chief Medical Officer's call to test all residents going into English care homes for Covid at the start of the pandemic. Matt Hancock and Boris Johnson, then Health Secretary and Prime Minister, pictured during a visit to Bassetlaw District General Hospital on November 22, 2019 The leaked texts also include exchanges between the former Health Secretary and then Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who revealed he was going 'quietly crackers' about the UK's shortage of test kits In his pandemic diaries, serialised by the Daily Mail last year, Mr Hancock claimed hospital discharges were not to blame and instead pointed the finger at 'infections were brought in from the wider community, mainly by staff'.