Matt Hancock is being told he will never sit as a Tory MP again after his leaked WhatsApp messages angered his party colleagues, sources say.
Matt Hancock has so enraged his party over his leaked WhatsApp messages that he will never again be allowed to sit as a Tory MP, senior sources said last night.
They revealed that the former Health Secretary, currently forced to sit as an independent MP after taking part in ITV’s I’m A Celebrity, will not reclaim the party whip.
Friends of Hancock, who was suspended from the party last November, say he was promised last year that he would return to the Tory fold.
But sources told The Mail on Sunday that after more than 100,000 of his WhatsApp exchanges were leaked, “you can forget about getting the whip back.”
Last night Senior Conservative MP and former Justice Secretary Robert Buckland welcomed the move, saying: “I’m afraid your leaked WhatsApp messages have caused so much concern that it would be very surprising if the Conservative whip were returned to you.”
Friends of Hancock, who was suspended from the party last November, say he was promised last year that he would return to the Tory fold.
Friends of the West Suffolk MP, who is due to retire at the next election, also noted that Conservative MP Nadine Dorries was restored to the party’s whip after taking part in I’m A Celebrity.
However, Hancock’s allies insisted that tracing of WhatsApp messages sent by the former health secretary during the pandemic had not revealed a “smoking gun”.
That despite claims the texts exposed the practice of ‘Government by WhatsApp’ and with a message apparently showing Mr Hancock discussing how the Alpha Covid variant could be used to ‘scare everyone’ into encouraging lockdown compliance. .
Friends of the West Suffolk MP, who is due to retire at the next election, also noted that Conservative MP Nadine Dorries was restored to the party’s whip after taking part in I’m A Celebrity in 2012.
Hancock’s allies insisted that tracing of WhatsApp messages sent by the former health secretary during the pandemic had not revealed a “smoking gun”.
Conservative MPs are furious that comments from other ministers have also been exposed in the leak, not just those of Mr Hancock (Robert Buckland, former Attorney General).
But party colleagues insist that any promise to return ‘to the Dorries’ predates the ‘total fiasco’ of the leaked messages.
Last week, texts suggested that Mr Hancock discussed threatening to lock down a disability center to pressure a Tory MP into accepting Covid restrictions, prompting former Tory chairman Jake Berry to call his behavior ” negligible”.
Mr Hancock’s spokesman said: “What has been alleged never happened.”
However, Conservative MPs are furious that comments from other ministers have also been exposed in the leak, not just Mr Hancock’s.
But a Hancock ally pointed out that he didn’t leak WhatsApp messages in the first place.
