'End of the macabre spectacle': Keir Starmer attacks Matt Hancock over leaked Covid messages

Sign up for Inside Politics email for your briefing free daily on the biggest stories in British politicsGet our free Inside Politics emailPlease enter a valid email addressPlease enter a valid email addressI would like to be notified by email about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice{{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}An error has occurred. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

Keir Starmer has attacked Matt Hancock for 'presenting himself as a hero' during the Covid crisis, as the former Tory health secretary fights for rejecting advice to test care home residents.< /p>

The Labor leader has urged Rishi Sunak to end the 'insulting and macabre spectacle' which saw Mr Hancock pleading his case in a book and leaking messages Whatsapp on his handling of care homes.

Sir Keir has used PMQs to demand the Covid inquiry properly assesses the conduct of ministers and concludes by the end of 2023 to end the families in mourning.

“We don't yet know the truth about what happened. There are too many messages and too many unknowns," Sir Keir said of the claims about Mr Hancock that appeared in The Telegraph.

The Labor leader said: "But families across the country will look into this and the sight of politicians writing books portraying themselves as heroes, or leaking messages selectively will be an insulting and macabre sight to them.

He added: “The Covid investigation has already cost the taxpayer £85m and has yet to hear of a single government. Can the Prime Minister assure the House that there will be no more delays - that the inquiry will have all the support it needs to report back by the end of this year? »

Mr. Sunak insisted that the official coronavirus investigation is the "right way" to investigate the government's handling of the pandemic rather than relying on "fragmentary pieces of information" after the leaked messages from Mr Hancock.

Mr Sunak insisted that the official coronavirus inquiry was the "right way" to investigate the government's handling of the pandemic rather than s press on 'fragmentary bits of information' after Mr Hancock's messages leaked.

The Prime Minister said 'there is a proper process for these things. It is an independent commission of inquiry, it had the resources it needed, it had the powers it needed. And what we should do in this house is let them go on and do their job."

Mr Hancock disputed a report in The Telegraph that he rejected expert advice on Covid tests for people entering care homes in England at the height of the pandemic...