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UK ministers joked about locking up travelers during Covid, leaked messages show
UK Ministers' Leaked Messages: Following this, Simon Case asked how many people had been "locked up" in hotels the previous day.
UK ministers and senior officials joked about locking up travelers arriving in the country in quarantine hotels during Covid pandemic, leaked messages revealed. In one exchange with UK Cabinet Secretary Simon Case in February 2021, the then Health Secretary Matt Hancock said they were "giving big families all the big suites and putting pop stars in the box rooms".
“I just want to see some of the faces of people coming out of first class into a Premier Inn shoe box,” Simon Case replied. Following this, Simon Case asked how many people had been "locked up" in hotels the previous day.
The messages were published by The Daily Telegraph in which Matt Hancock responded, "None. But 149 chose to enter the country and are now in Quarantine Hotels due to their own free will!" to which Simon Case replied: "Hilarious."
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The messages also suggested Matt Hancock wanted to "get heavy with the police" over the enforcement of lockdown rules. On the leaked messages, Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said, “These messages reveal the arrogance and shameful lack of respect that Conservative ministers showed to the public and to the police who they were expecting to do an extremely complex job in difficult circumstances."
“At the same time as they were flagrantly breaking the law themselves with their lockdown parties, they were demanding stronger enforcement by the police on everyone else and joking at the public and police’s expense,” Yvette Cooper added.
