forjoining us. the former health secretary, matt hancock, has described the leaking of thousands of his whatsapp messages written during the height of the covid pandemic, as a massive betrayal and breach of trust . he says they were released in a biased account, to suit an anti lockdown agenda . but the journalist, isabel 0akeshott, who revealed the messages, insists she s acted, in the public interest. they suggest mr hancock pushed to close schools during the pandemic, while the education secretary at the time, sir gavin williamson, wanted them to stay open. 0ur political correspondent, jonathan blake, has more from westminster. the impact of the pandemic on education. we are keeping masks on at all times during the day. pupils and teachers wearing masks, schools closed to limit the spread of covid big decisions under new scrutiny. thejournalist, isabel 0akeshott, a critic of lockdown measures, was given access to matt hancock s whatsapp messages to help him write his book.
also on the programme: police who ve been searching for a missing two month old baby say a body found yesterday suggests the child may have been dead for some time. we speak to the journalist who leaked matt hancock s whatsapp messages more than 100,000 of them. isabel 0akeshott says the public interest was overwhelming. and as children are encouraged to read on world book day, the bbc is encouraging them to write. the 500 words story competition is back. 0n bbc london: coming up on the bbc news channel, chip shot fish rinse the town historic run to the quarterfinals is the story of the fa cup so far this season. the inquiry into the manchester arena bombing
to keep the public safe. defending her decision to keep the public safe. defending her decision to to keep the public safe. defending her decision to release to keep the public safe. defending her decision to release messages | her decision to release messages sent by matt hancock the journalist isabel 0akeshott has defended her decision to release whatsapp messages sent by matt hancock during the coronavirus pandemic. she obtained the messages while working on the former health secretary s recent book. ms 0akeshott has been speaking to the bbc s political editor chris mason, who asked her why she had decided to publish the exchanges. (tx sot next) publish the exchanges. it will currently have no deadline whatsoever and the people deserve to know what happened behind the scenes during the pandemic to make critical decisions were taken in the way that they were. decisions were taken in the way that the were. ., ., . ., , they were. how did our politicians decided to approach the
in earlyjanuary, borisjohnson announced that schools in england would close as part of a lockdown. in a commentary piece for the daily telegraph, sir gavin williamson has today said this closure wasn t done for the right reasons. he says he now questions if he should have resigned in protest. the telegraph has obtained these messages from the lockdown sceptic journalist isabel 0akeshott, who helped mr hancock writes his recent book. last night, she told talk tv why she went public. we cannot afford to wait for a decade or more for answers as to what was really going on. so this resource that i had is an extraordinary way to quickly get to the truth of what really happened, why crucial decisions were made that affected millions of lives, that millions of people are still paying the price for today. and the leaked messages seem to show matt hancock and sir gavin williamson discussing teachers.
argument as it would have been come at anywhere in the right place for it to be properly analysed, the public inquiry, he argues. isabel 0akeshott argues, actually, the public inquiry would take far too long and the stuff might never see the light of day and therefore there was a public interest in getting it out. she also in an interview she did last night accused mr hancock of sending her menacing messages. interesting that mr hancock is completely denying that, says it is not true. in a statement he put out this morning, he says he simply asked her. he called her on tuesday night when he heard something was coming saying he was asking her if there were any clues of what it was and when he saw it, he said to her that it was a big mistake, the quote he has provided in a statement. he is denying he said anything menacing. fin