Thread by @IanDunt

Not the most important thing but that room really is dreadful. It's like the background for a really boring 90s daytime quiz show.

Hancock asked whether it's true he protected care homes from the start and "did you or did you not" tell Downing Street people leaving care homes would be tested?

Hancock answer interesting. "We committed to building the testing capacity to allow that to happen... and then we were able to introduce the policy, but we could only do that when we had the testing capacity.2

That's slightly different to shielding a care home. It concedes there was a period where they did not shield care homes.

Also note that's the second time today Hancock has been specifically asked about what he told Downing Street and the second time he has refused to answer.

ITV: Did you tell the Pm that everyone going from hospital to care home would be tested?

Hancock: "Of course I committed to getting the policy in place, but it took time to build the testing."

Right so that's the thing he's relying on: the gap between committing to testing and committing to building the testing capacity.

Sky: Cummings said you categorically said in March people would be tested before going into care homes. Did you make the statement in March they'd be tested?

Hancock: "My recollection of events is I committed to delivering that testing when we could do it. I then went away and built the testing capacity."

So far he has dodged saying anything twice, then shifted what it was he was supposed to have said, and then framed it by saying "my recollection".

I doubt we'll ever get to the bottom of this, because it's ultimately a he-said-she-said thing. But the manner in which Hancock has dodged, shofted and caveated it does not bode well.

Sorry I had to fuck off for a bit, catching up now.

Pippa Crerar absolutely ruined him.

"We have developed and improved our policy on care homes". Quite a lot of things implied in that sentence.

Crerar got another question in at the end: "Why, when there clearly wasn't sufficient testing capacity, did you sign off the discharge plan?"

Hancock appears not to have understood the question. In reality, I suspect he chose not to understand it. "Since the challenge was the testing capacity, why did you have the plan? You've got to build the testing capacity. And that;s what they did."

This looks much worse for Hancock after the press conference than it did beforehand.

Firstly, he's shifty and evasive as fuck. This is not the behaviour of a man who is confident about his case.

Second, he is shifting the ground, but I'm not sure the area he's chosen is as stable as he thinks.

How many tests were available? Why were they not dedicated to those leaving hospital to care homes? Why were any people authorised to go from hospitals to care homes if the tests weren't there?

Third: It sounds very much like he did make that commitment to Downing Street.