Matt Hancock ‘pretended to bat away challenges like cricketer,’ says Helen MacNamara

A former civil servant has said that Matt Hancock displayed “nuclear levels” of overconfidence and pretended to be a cricketer batting off challenges during the coronavirus pandemic.

Helen MacNamara, who served as deputy cabinet secretary, told the Covid inquiry on Wednesday, 1 November, that she witnessed a “jarring” episode in Downing Street in April 2020.

Ms MacNamara wrote in her statement that she tried to reassure Mr Hancock it must be “very hard” to be health secretary, to which he responded: “They bowl them at me, I knock them away” according to her testimony.