A GOVERNMENT minister has revealed that he disagreed with Matt Hancock’s demand that schools should be shut during the Covid pandemic.
Schools Minister Nick Gibb was commenting on the publication of leaked WhatsApp messages involving former Health Secretary Matt Hancock.
Mr Gibb told GB News: “Those WhatsApp messages were messages where people were saying things in the heat of the arguments, but I know Gavin Williamson very well and that he respects teachers very highly.
“And of course, there were big decisions that were being made, and very rapidly during that period about whether to keep schools open and so on.
“Ultimately, we rely on the medical evidence coming from the Chief Medical Officer and from the Department of Health in making those very important decisions.
“Well, of course, he wanted to keep schools open for as long as possible, but we also had to deal with this very new crisis.
“So, there were very difficult decisions taken on an hourly basis ,on a daily basis about how to handle this very serious pandemic affecting the world.
Asked if he agreed with Hancock, Mr Gibb said: “I was one of the more cautious ministers but also, I wanted to keep schools open.
“Ultimately, we rely on the evidence from the Chief Medical Officer, but all this will be coming out in the Covid inquiry.
“There’ll be poring over minutes of meetings, they’ll be looking at the evidence supplied by the Chief Medical Officer, as well as discussions between ministers in meetings.”
He added: “The WhatsApp messages just give a very one-sided set of information about what happened during that very intense period of decision making by ministers and by civil servants.
“It doesn’t tell you the whole story and that’s what the Covid inquiry will be looking at and it’s terribly important for future governments to understand how best to handle such a big international crisis.”
