Thread by @Telegraph

🔴 NEW: The then health secretary and his political aide discussed taking plan for a learning disability hub in Bury ‘off the table’

Read more from #TheLockdownFiles here ⬇️

🔵 Matt Hancock discussed a plan to block funding for a new centre for disabled children and adults as a way of pressuring a rebel Tory MP to back new lockdown restrictions, #TheLockdownFiles show

💬 WhatsApp messages between the then health secretary, and his political aide show they discussed taking a plan for a learning disability hub in Bury, Greater Manchester, “off the table” if James Daly, the Bury North MP, sided against the Government in a key vote

🗣Allan Nixon, Mr Hancock’s political aide overseeing relations with MPs in Parliament, messaged his boss with a suggestion of how to ensure the backing of as many Tory MPs as possible from the 2019 intake who won their seats in the Boris Johnson landslide
telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/03/0…

🔴 Mr Daly told The Telegraph he was “appalled” and “disgusted” that the disability hub, for which he had been campaigning, had been discussed as a way of coercing him into voting for the Government

❌ He said he had never been contacted by the Whips’ Office and no threat to block the scheme had been made

💬On the morning of the vote, Mr Hancock messaged his adviser to say: “James Daly is with us”, but Mr Nixon responded with the caveat: “If extra hospitality support is forthcoming”
telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/03/0…

🔵 In total, 55 Conservative MPs opposed the tiers system, forcing Mr Johnson to rely on Labour abstaining to get the measures through. It was, at the time, the biggest rebellion of the Johnson administration

🔴After revealing that he had not been contacted by the Whips’ Office, Mr Daly said: “It sounds like the whips didn’t bother.”

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telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/03/0…