Isabel Oakeshott, who helped write his bigraphy has leaked 100,000+ of Hancock's WhatsApp messages to The Daily Telegraph (no doubt for a considerable undisclosed sum)
Hancock's performance as Health Minister through the Covid pandemic is already the subject of a public enquiry. But these things take meonths to years to reach their conclusion so Isabel Oakeshott felt it her "social duty" to release the private messages to The Telegraph where they will be edited and released to the public over the coming days.
No doubt a profitable scoop for the paper and for Isabel Oakeshott but is it really in the public's interest?
Hancock was in the unenviable position of having to make spot decisions on the fly, balancing limited resources and medical advice as the pandemic unfolded and I for one doubt that The Telegraph will be interested in context so much as the sensationalism that sells newspapers.
How will all this sensationalism affect the thousands left grieving by the pandemic? No doubt it will stir up the feelings of loss and resentment that have barely had time to settle but trial by newspaper won't give the real answers that can only come from a public enquiry - and there is a reason that those investigations take so long - objective throrughness!
Hancock has faced intense scrutiny and condemnation for having an affair, for doing so in breech of Covid rules, for appearing on I'm a Celebrity and for doing so in receipt of the programme's highest ever celebrity fee so he's quite familiar with being covered in s**t but whether this latest round is justified will only be clear well after the dust has settled and the news cycle has moved on.
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