Matt Hancock plotted to block funding for disabled children if MP opposed lockdown
Matt Hancock plotted to block funding for disabled children if MP opposed lockdown
PA / UK Parliament
Matt Hancock backed suggestions of blocking the funding of a new disabled support centre if a Conservative MP rebelled against lockdown measures, according to the latest WhatsApp leak.
The former health secretary and an aide spoke about warning Bury North MP James Daly that a new centre for disabled children and adults would be “off the table” if he voted against the Government.
The discussion between Mr Hancock and political aide Allan Nixon came ahead of a vote on December 1 2020 on the introduction of new Covid restrictions in England.
Nixon said they need to “dangle our top asks” over some of the newest MPs who entered Parliament in 2019 through Boris Johnson’s general election victory.
Tory MP James Daly says he never received the threat, but was "appalled" at the messages
GB News
Nixon suggested, for example, “James wants his Learning Disability Hub in Bury – whips call him up and say Health team want to work with him to deliver this but that’ll be off the table if he rebels”.
“These guys’ re-election hinges on us in a lot of instances, and we know what they want. We should seriously consider using it IMO,” he wrote.
Hancock’s response was “yes 100%”.
Speaking to The Telegraph, who have been exclusively publishing the leaked messages for over a week, Tory MP Daly said he was “appalled” and “disgusted” at the suggestion the centre for disabled children and adults would be used as a political bargaining tool but admitted the threat was never made.
Matt Hancock’s plotted to block funding for disabled children if MP opposed lockdown
PA
Daly said: “They were never proposing to give it to me. I still don’t have it. Even though I have repeatedly campaigned for it, Hancock never showed the slightest bit of interest in supporting it.
“I had a number of conversations with Hancock at that time, but I can definitively say the hub was never mentioned.
“I think it is appalling. The fact that they would only give a much needed support for disabled people if I voted for this was absolutely disgusting.”
On the day of the vote, Hancock told Nixon that “James Daly is with us,” to which his aide replied: “If extra hospitality support is forthcoming.”
Daly said it was "absolutely disgusting" support for disabled people could be used as a bargaining tool
GB News
Former Tory party chairman, Jake Berry MP, said even the suggestion of the threat is “an absolute disgrace.
“Hancock should be dragged to the bar of the House of Commons first thing tomorrow morning to be questioned on this.”
Hancock’s spokesman said: “As we’ve repeatedly seen this last week, it is completely wrong to take this entirely partial account and write it up as fact.
“What’s being accused here never happened, demonstrating the story is wrong, and showing why such a biased, partial approach to the evidence is a bad mistake, driven by those with a vested interest and an axe to grind.
“The right place to consider everything about the pandemic objectively is in the public inquiry.”