Matt Hancock's right-hand man reveals near cat-astrophe

Sarah Thompson discuses how, at the beginning of the first lockdown, the mass culling of all pet cats was considered by the conservative party.

Sarah Thompson
24th April 2023
Image credit: Wikimedia commons
Lord James Bethell, the deputy health minister to Matt Hancock, recently revealed an early pandemic plan that included a cull of all domestic cats in the UK.

At a time where Matt Hancock is being slated for contents of his leaked WhatsApp messages, Bethell came to the rescue with a spotlight stealing story.

In the video Bethell defended this stating “What we shouldn’t forget is how little we knew about this disease… for a moment there was a bit of evidence around that, so that had to be investigated and closed down”.

“What we shouldn’t forget is how little we knew about this disease”

The evidence in question comes in the form of a Siamese cat that tested positive for the virus in Surrey in July 2020. The public were advised not to kiss their pets on the mouth. A concern which was later dismissed as the cat did not spread the virus to other occupants of the house, furry or otherwise.

Did not spread the virus to other occupants of the house, furry or otherwise.

This news comes in the wake of a flurry of criticism towards the health departments actions during the pandemic. This comes after the leak of tens of thousands of Hancock’s private messages by journalist Isabel Oakeshott.

Oakeshott is both famously anti-lockdown and a partial author of Hancock’s memoir Pandemic Diaries.

The leaked messages include correspondence between Hancock and Chief Medical Officer Chris Witty. Of particular interest to the public has been messages concerning the safety of care home residents.

Alleged advice from Witty heavily advised testing of all residents before they entered care homes, which was not executed. Hancock instead set a president whereby only residents returning from hospital require testing, those from the community did not.

A spokesperson for Hancock has come out in response, alleging that Oakeshott manipulated the correspondence “to fit an anti-lockdown agenda”.

However, much of the UK public applauded the transparency, feeling that the public have a right to know. With one Twitter user commenting, “Of course Matt Hancock’s WhatsApp messages are in the public interest.... I want to know why my grandmother was locked up in her care home left to rot”.

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