Minister refuses to back Hancock Covid claim of ‘protective ring’ for care homes

Helen Whately declines to endorse former health secretary’s 2020 assertion as pandemic public inquiry begins in earnest

The care minister, Helen Whately, has declined to back Matt Hancock’s claim that the government threw a “protective ring around care homes” at the start of the pandemic.

Whately worked under the former health secretary in the first 18 months of Covid, but she avoided endorsing her former boss’s assertion, which will be tested at the public inquiry which starts in earnest this week.