Andrew Marr: Covid inquiry Matt Hancock is a man ‘who has lost his tiggerish bounce and sounds genuinely penitent’
27 June 2023, 18:24
Tonight with Andrew Marr
Matt Hancock may have been a 'cockily self-confident and unapologetic' figure but that doesn't mean his contributions at the Covid inquiry won't help 'sketch out the bigger picture', says Andrew Marr.
Opening LBC’s Tonight with Andrew Marr, the presenter addressed Matt Hancock's statement at the covid inquiry on Tuesday.
He said: "In my time I have heard and observed many Matt Hancocks. I sat opposite him during the pandemic as he reassured me there was a protective ring around care homes. I've seen him bouncily, cockily self-confident and unapologetic after his affair which ended his ministerial career.
"I've seen him being screamed at by a member of the public while he was out walking. I've watched him sweep around the Commons plotting, and blasting Boris Johnson during the Tory leadership contest.
"Between my fingers I observed him eating camel penis, cow's anus and giant cockroaches during his spell in the Jungle on I’m A Celebrity. And I've watched him in the Commons, a rather solitary but still outwardly bouncy figure since losing the Conservative whip in the months since then.
"He was all punch from the shoulder, no shame, no regrets, he did it his way."
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He continued: "Today at the covid inquiry, we saw a different Matt Hancock. I won't say broken because he was eloquent as ever and clear in what he thought - but he seemed humbled, penitent, a man no longer quite so sure of himself."
"You can snort or blow a raspberry. You can say too late. You can say many worse things than that, perhaps. But if there is no place in public life for apologies or remorse or second thoughts, then it's a pretty bleak place.
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"More to the point, Hancock came armed with a central argument which will infuriate his right-wing critics who think the lockdown was a terrible mistake. He thinks the terrible mistake was not doing it earlier and harder.
"The pandemic did have serious medical and social and educational side effects, but the question was whether letting it rip would have killed far more people, devastated far more lives.
"One huge flaw in government planning was that they were thinking about a flu pandemic, not a coronovirus one - but the other was assuming you couldn’t stop it."
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Andrew went on: "And that is certainly one really big issue but we haven’t so far touched on the PPE contracts for Tory chums, for instance.
"I’m not saying Matt Hancock’s now some kind of truth-seeking drone or a hero. As he left the inquiry, the bereaved campaigners quietly turned their backs on him.
"In truth, I've always been a bit sceptical about this inquiry itself - lots of expensive lawyers, lots of self-justifying politicians, would it really get to the heart of anything important?
"But it seems to be heading already to a view that the British state was badly prepared, distracted by Brexit; and remains badly prepared.
"To do better next time we’ll need a stronger and more effective centre of government not just for Covid but much else.
"This is the really big picture; and at the Covid inquiry today, with the help of a former cabinet minister who’d lost his tiggerish bounce and who sounded genuinely penitent and self-questioning, this big picture was perhaps beginning to be sketched out."
