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Mar 4 10 tweets 5 min read
⏰Inside Matt Hancock’s 41-hour scramble to save his career after Gina Coladangelo affair revealed

Messages uncovered in #TheLockdownFiles show the former health secretary forever changing his statement on the affair as he tried to rescue career

Thread👇
telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/03/0… Inside Matt Hancock’s 41-hour scramble to save his career
🔴 It was 1am when the pictures were published online of Matt Hancock and his aide Gina Coladangelo in an intimate embrace in his ministerial office.

Just three minutes later the health secretary and aides began a frantic scramble to save his political career
📞Hancock had been expecting the news to break, having received a call from Victoria Newton, the editor of the Sun at 6.53pm on June 24

📕In his book he says he phoned Mr Johnson to inform him of the affair before setting off home to tell his wife, Martha, and their children
💬Messages reveal he was also discussing media strategy with Damon Poole, his special adviser

As they wait to see the story, they note that the newspaper will be printing pictures of the couple
telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/03/0… Messages between Matt Hancock and Damon Poole on 24 June, 20
📰As soon as he sees the front page at 1am, Mr Hancock seems to think that the revelations are not as bad as anticipated and asks to “keep the focus on the appointment” of Ms Coladangelo as a non-executive director [NED] in his department
telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/03/0… WhatsApp messages between Matt Hancock and Damon Poole revea
⏰ At 6am the same day, Hancock set up a WhatsApp group called “Crisis Management” with Mr Poole and Ms Coladangelo
telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/03/0… WhatsApp messages between Matt Hancock, Damon Poole, and Gin
🔴 Beth Rigby, Sky’s political editor, messaged Mr Poole with questions about social distancing rules, which Hancock says he doesn’t want to acknowledge breaking
💬 Mr Poole sends over a link about the law at the time, when Britain was Step 2, and Mr Hancock says that their affair was “arguably charitable”, which was one of the exemptions
telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/03/0…
📞It is only during a Zoom call with his “boss” Boris Johnson that he suggests apologising for the first time
telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/03/0…
Read all the messages from the 41 hours between the affair being revealed and Matt Hancock posting his resignation video in #TheLockdownFiles ⤵️
telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/03/0…

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More from @Telegraph

Mar 4
🔴NEW: Leaked WhatsApp messages reveal how health secretary hoped to shock public into complying with ever-changing lockdown rules

Read this front page story here ⬇️
#TheLockdownFiles #LockdownFiles
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Latest from the Telegraph’s
#TheLockdownFiles:

🔴 Inside Hancock’s 41-hour scramble to save his career after affair revealed

🗣 Was I right to leak Hancock's messages? | Oakeshott

📷 The picture that shows No 10 champagne gathering

The latest ⤵️
telegraph.co.uk/news/lockdown-…
🔴 Inside Hancock’s 41-hour scramble to save his career after affair revealed

WhatsApp messages show former health secretary forever changing his statement on the affair as he tried to rescue career

The latest ⤵️

telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/03/0…
🗣 'Was I right to leak Matt Hancock's WhatsApp messages? Here's what you told me'

'Since the Lockdown Files were published, the reaction from ordinary people has been astonishing' | Writes Isabel Oakeshott

The latest ⤵️

telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/03/0…
Read 4 tweets
Mar 3
Your latest stories from the Telegraph’s #TheLockdownFiles:

⏰ Matt Hancock: 'We didn't break the f---ing law'

🔴 The WhatsApp messages that expose Rishi Sunak and Matt Hancock’s lockdown power struggle

🗣 Hancock hoped Covid could propel career ‘into next league’
Follow the latest revelations here ⤵️
telegraph.co.uk/news/lockdown-…
⏰ It was 1am when the pictures were published online of Matt Hancock and his aide Gina Coladangelo in an intimate embrace in his ministerial office.

Read more ⤵️
telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/03/0…
Read 5 tweets
Mar 3
🔴 NEW: The WhatsApp messages that expose Rishi Sunak and Matt Hancock’s lockdown power struggle

#TheLockdownFiles #LockdownFiles

Thread 🧵⤵️
telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/03/0…
🔴 Matt Hancock sought to enlist the Cabinet Secretary, Simon Case, in a plan to outflank Rishi Sunak during repeated rows over Covid restrictions.

Read more ⤵️
telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/03/0…
🔴 Mr Hancock and Mr Sunak were at odds during the pandemic over the extent of lockdown measures, with the then health secretary in favour of tighter restrictions than the then chancellor.

Read more ⤵️
telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/03/0…
Read 5 tweets

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