HANCOCK'S 'MENACING' MESSAGE ON LEAKED TEXTS AS ROW GROWS

STORM RAGES OVER 100,000 COVID WHATSAPPS

- Nicholas Cecil and David Bond

THE row over more than 100,000 WhatsApp messages concerning the Government's Covid response deepened today as Matt Hancock was accused of sending a "menacing" late-night message to the journalist who leaked them.

They also sparked concerns over whether too many key decisions in government during the pandemic were made through WhatApps, and raised fresh questions over the closure of schools, and led to new tensions with teachers.

As the former health secretary faced a wave of new allegations, Isabel Oakeshott claimed he sent her a "threatening" message at 1.20am yesterday as news was breaking of The Daily Telegraph's publication of his WhatsApps.

Mr Hancock admitted telling Ms Oakeshott she had made "a big mistake" after she passed on his private messages to the newspaper, having helped him to write his Pandemic Diaries memoir. But he denied the message was threatening and accused her of a "massive betrayal and breach of trust".

He argued: "There is absolutely no public interest case for this huge breach," stressing that the "material for his  book” had already been sent to the official Covid inquiry.

However, she flatly rejected this claim. “He’s making a fool of himself to suggest there’s no public interest in this,” she told Times Radio.

“If Matt Hancock wants to enter into an ugly fight with me, then that would be an interesting judgement on his part, I wouldn’t advise it.”

She appeared to admit she had broken a non-disclosure agreement with Mr Hancock, but defended her conduct.