====== Lockdown Files ====== {{ ::screenshot_2023-03-05_at_2.00.35_pm.png?400|}} **The Lockdown Files** is the name of a series of articles published by //[[The Telegraph]]// based on 100,000 [[WhatsApp]] messages allegedly leaked to the outlet.((The Lockdown Files Team. (2023, March 4). //“Project Fear” authors discussed when to “deploy” new Covid variant.// The Telegraph. http://archive.today/2023.03.05-190819/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/03/04/project-fear-covid-variant-lockdown-matt-hancock-whatsapp/)) ===== History ===== The messages were leaked by journalist [[Isabel Oakeshott]], who was given copies of them while working on [[Matt Hancock]]'s "Pandemic Diaries" memoir.((Telegraph Readers. (2023, March 1). //“The messages show a blatant disregard for human quality of life.”// The Telegraph. https://archive.ph/0WwDc)) ((Penna, D. (2023, March 1). //Matt Hancock claims “doctored” WhatsApp leak “fits anti-lockdown agenda.”// The Telegraph. https://archive.ph/HhO6W)) The first Lockdown Files article was published February 28, 2023. Many articles in the series do not list an author. On March 5, [[Mathew Crawford]] shared one of the articles titled "[[https://archive.ph/26dLs|‘Project Fear’ authors discussed when to ‘deploy’ new Covid variant]]", stating "It looks like I was right about omicron being a release, not an emergent strain."((Mathew Crawford [@EduEngineer]. (2023, March 5). //“It looks like I was right about omicron being a release, not an emergent strain.”// [Tweet]. Twitter. http://archive.today/2023.03.05-221707/https://twitter.com/EduEngineer/status/1632181950252298240)) On March 10, [[Liam Sturgess]] warned that the series appeared to be a [[limited hangout]] operation.((Rounding the Earth. (2023, March 10). //Limited Hangout Files - Rounding the News.// Rumble. https://rumble.com/v2cfwx6-limited-hangout-files-rounding-the-news.html)) ===== Articles ===== The Telegraph maintains [[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/lockdown-files/|a page]] collecting the articles in The Lockdown Files. The following list includes archived versions of each article in chronological order:((//The Lockdown Files.// The Telegraph. Retrieved March 5, 2023, from https://archive.ph/4M274)) ==== February ==== === February 28 === * February 28, 2023: [[https://archive.ph/kXhG7|The Lockdown Files: How WhatsApp messages offer an unprecedented view of government failings]] * February 28, 2023: [[https://archive.ph/u6XWC|Far from a ‘protective ring’, WhatsApp messages show care homes were cast adrift]] by [[Camilla Tominey]] * February 28, 2023: [[https://archive.ph/QDicG|The 2.3 million words that will go down in history]] by [[Fraser Nelson]] * February 28, 2023: [[https://archive.ph/3sHYI|Jacob Rees-Mogg's child got Covid test couriered to family home during huge shortage]] * February 28, 2023: [[https://archive.ph/TWNJC|Trip of 'just 50 miles' for Covid test shows system is working, health minister said]] * February 28, 2023: [[https://archive.ph/if9Za|Matt Hancock feared care homes could 'get in the way' of his ambitious Covid testing target]] * February 28, 2023: [[https://archive.ph/tdZwV|George Osborne told Hancock bluntly - 'No one thinks testing is going well, Matt']] * February 28, 2023: [[https://archive.ph/JQkCh|Matt Hancock was told care home Covid rules were ‘inhumane’ – but kept them]] * February 28, 2023: [[https://archive.ph/dAqAm|The leaked WhatsApp messages that expose how Britain’s elderly were failed on Covid]] * February 28, 2023: [[https://archive.ph/GlQY5|I want to hit my target, Matt Hancock said as he called in a favour from George Osborne]] * February 28, 2023: [[https://archive.ph/3UXR7|I had to release Matt Hancock’s Covid WhatsApp messages to avoid a whitewash]] by [[Isabel Oakeshott]] * February 28, 2023: [[https://archive.ph/16wew|The Lockdown Files: Matt Hancock rejected expert advice on care home testing, WhatsApp messages reveal]] ==== March ==== === March 1 === * March 1, 2023: [[https://archive.ph/0WwDc|'The messages show a blatant disregard for human quality of life']] * March 1, 2023: [[https://archive.ph/HhO6W|Matt Hancock claims ‘doctored’ WhatsApp leak ‘fits anti-lockdown agenda’]] by [[Dominic Penna]] * March 1, 2023: [[https://web.archive.org/web/20230302191920/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/03/01/matt-hancock-latest-news-covid-whatsapp-groups-lockdown-care/|The Lockdown Files: Matt Hancock's leaked messages show 'risks' of ministers using WhatsApp, says watchdog]] by [[Jack Maidment]] and [[Dominic Penna]] * March 1, 2023: [[https://archive.ph/2OpZw|The Lockdown Files have thrown Westminster into a state of panic]] by [[Tom Harris]] * March 1, 2023: [[https://archive.ph/NgHyI|Whitty and Vallance raised concerns about shielding - yet it remained for months]] * March 1, 2023: [[https://archive.ph/PiIaD|The Lockdown Files lift the curtain on government by WhatsApp]] by [[Camilla Tominey]] * March 1, 2023: [[https://archive.ph/D593H|Boris Johnson proposed giving over-65s choice on Covid shielding]] * March 1, 2023: [[https://archive.ph/RxyDd|Care homes refused to test staff they feared had Covid]] * March 1, 2023: [[https://archive.ph/tHx0q|Pupils with false positive Covid tests sent home to avoid ‘unpicking’ policy]] * March 1, 2023: [[https://archive.ph/lsn6Z|Matt Hancock staged ‘rearguard’ action to close schools]] * March 1, 2023: [[https://archive.ph/HxqyJ|No good reason to impose ‘rule of six’ on children - but ministers did it anyway]] * March 1, 2023: [[https://archive.ph/R1fNP|Famous names react to The Telegraph’s Lockdown Files revelations]] * March 1, 2023: [[https://archive.ph/bxruv|English schoolchildren had to wear masks because ministers didn't relish a political row with Nicola Sturgeon]] * Retitled to [[https://web.archive.org/web/20230305225638/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/03/01/nicola-sturgeon-boris-johnson-school-face-mask-row-whatsapp/|Face masks introduced in English secondary schools to avoid ‘argument’ with Sturgeon]] * March 1, 2023: [[https://archive.ph/NHqRI|Teachers looking for 'excuse' not to work during pandemic, said Gavin Williamson]] === March 2 === * March 2, 2023: [[https://archive.ph/dcoqJ|Isabel Oakeshott defends WhatsApp leak: 'Anyone who thinks I did this for money must be utterly insane']] by [[Michael Murphy]] * March 2, 2023: [[https://archive.ph/tasAJ|WhatsApp leak shows Matt Hancock 'overlooked' school pupils, ex-children's commissioner says]] by [[Ewan Somerville]] * March 2, 2023: [[https://archive.ph/YYsEX|Why The Telegraph revealed Matt Hancock's WhatsApp messages | The Lockdown Files]] by [[Camilla Tominey]] * March 2, 2023: [[https://archive.ph/bOWOn|Dominic Cummings deployed election mastermind to reassure Cabinet hawks of public support for lockdown]] * March 2, 2023: [[https://archive.ph/zKxUF|Matt Hancock can threaten me all he wants, our nation's children must never suffer this way again]] by [[Isabel Oakeshott]] * Also titled "Matt Hancock sent me threatening message after I leaked WhatsApps" * March 2, 2023: [[https://archive.ph/UqcxT|How Boris Johnson’s desire to lift lockdown was thwarted by public opinion]] * Also titled "Boris Johnson wanted to lift lockdown early – but he was told public ‘wasn’t ready’" * March 2, 2023: [[https://archive.ph/EneCf|I warned that second lockdown data was wrong – but I was ignored]] by [[Carl Heneghan]] * March 2, 2023: [[https://archive.ph/TCOuY|Britain’s second lockdown was based on ‘very wrong’ Covid data, Boris Johnson feared]] * March 2, 2023: [[https://archive.ph/M5ZMQ|Piers Morgan has quit – how about we celebrate, asked minister while parties were banned]] * March 2, 2023: [[https://archive.ph/CXA9k|‘Get heavy with police’ to enforce lockdown, Matt Hancock told ministers]] * March 2, 2023: [[https://archive.ph/UDtr0|How Covid turned Britain into a curtain-twitcher’s paradise]] * March 2, 2023: [[https://archive.ph/yUl8W|Lee Cain and James Slack - the media advisers who helped shape the decisions that changed our lives]] * Also titled "‘Slackie and Lee’ - the media advisers who helped shape the decisions that changed our lives" * March 2, 2023: [[https://archive.ph/cBvKs|Can we lock up ‘pub hooligan’ Nigel Farage, asked Hancock’s team]] * March 2, 2023: [[https://archive.ph/SVdua|As police pursued my father during Covid lockdown, my lonely mother endured care home prison]] by [[Rachel Johnson]] * March 2, 2023: [[https://archive.ph/5aoRY|Top mandarin mocked holidaymakers ‘locked up’ in Covid quarantine hotel rooms]] * Retitled to [[https://web.archive.org/web/20230305230933/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/03/02/matt-hancock-simon-case-quarantine-hotel-covid-whatsapp/|How those in government gloated as travellers went through distress of hotel quarantine]] === March 3 === * March 3, 2023: [[https://archive.ph/ccOUV|Former police chief rejects Matt Hancock's Covid 'marching orders' in leaked WhatsApp texts]] by [[Ewan Somerville]] * March 3, 2023: [[https://archive.ph/gjMEp|I broke the lockdown rules – and pipsqueak Matt Hancock couldn’t stop me]] by [[Nigel Farage]] * March 3, 2023: [[https://archive.ph/hRp3Q|Matt Hancock hoped Covid could propel career ‘into next league’ as virus hit China]] * Also titled "Matt Hancock praised his own pictures in media and hoped Covid crisis would be the making of him" * March 3, 2023: [[https://archive.ph/BgxR8|Matt Hancock ridiculed Rishi Sunak’s Eat Out to Help Out scheme]] * March 3, 2023: [[https://archive.ph/exPjr|Matt Hancock’s expletive-laden outburst as he clashed with Rishi Sunak over lockdown]] * Also titled "Why Matt Hancock labelled Treasury colleagues ‘w---ers’" * March 3, 2023: [[https://archive.ph/DX2RL|Time for the lockdown nostalgics to confront the true horror of what Britain lived through]] by [[Camilla Tominey]] * March 3, 2023: [[https://archive.ph/2pvDg|The WhatsApp messages that expose Rishi Sunak and Matt Hancock’s lockdown power struggle]] * March 3, 2023: [[https://archive.ph/31S3o|Matt Hancock said worst he and Gina could be accused of was kissing ‘before they legalised hugs’]] * March 3, 2023: [[https://archive.ph/7L23I|Revealed: George Osborne’s advice to Matt Hancock on affair with Gina Coladangelo]] * March 3, 2023: [[https://archive.ph/BCc4h|Inside Matt Hancock’s 41-hour scramble to save his career after Gina Coladangelo affair revealed]] === March 4 === * March 4, 2023: [[https://archive.ph/sLQiG|Was I right to leak Matt Hancock's WhatsApp messages? Here's what you told me]] by [[Isabel Oakeshott]] * March 4, 2023: [[https://archive.ph/bllU4|The Lockdown Files: 10 things we’ve learned so far]] * March 4, 2023: [[https://archive.ph/una5f|Matt Hancock ‘not at all happy’ as Michael Gove made ‘a play for his job’]] * March 4, 2023: [[https://archive.ph/joHfr|What Sunak and Hancock really thought of Dominic Cummings]] * March 4, 2023: [[https://archive.ph/Wj0Kp|Matt Hancock's campaign to remove NHS chief revealed]] * March 4, 2023: [[https://archive.ph/YLLdh|How Matt Hancock plotted to have 'useless loudmouth' Covid scientist sacked]] * March 4, 2023: [[https://archive.ph/5wDwy|Leak reveals how Boris Johnson veered from lockdown sceptic to zealot]] * March 4, 2023: [[https://archive.ph/KqbqH|‘Project Fear’ authors discussed when to ‘deploy’ new Covid variant]] * March 4, 2023: [[https://archive.ph/TEbkq|Matt Hancock's plan to ‘frighten the pants off everyone’ about Covid]] === March 5 === * March 5, 2023: [[https://archive.ph/dJ7am|The hidden tensions between Matt Hancock and his ‘wacky’ Covid vaccines tsar]] * March 5, 2023: [[https://archive.ph/guqgE|Inside Matt Hancock's desperate bid to be known as 'Mr Vaccine']] * Retitled to [[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/03/05/matt-hancock-triumph-covid-vaccine-lockdown-files-whatsapp/|How Matt Hancock sought to hog the Covid vaccine limelight]] * March 5, 2023: [[https://archive.ph/8XlCZ|The inconvenient questions the Covid inquiry must answer]] by [[Esther McVey]] * March 5, 2023: [[https://archive.ph/LeY00|Matt Hancock covered up inviting Gina Coladangelo to G7 dinners]] * March 5, 2023: [[https://archive.ph/DxGQr|Matt Hancock cracks joke about Bill Gates Covid conspiracy]] * March 5, 2023: [[https://archive.ph/BxGYa|Project Fear’s ‘psychological warfare’ must never be repeated, say lockdown rebels]] by [[Dominic Penna]] * March 5, 2023: [[https://archive.ph/ZMtDX|Leak reveals Simon Case's private warning about Boris Johnson]] * Also titled "Simon Case’s private warning about Boris Johnson" * March 5, 2023: [[https://archive.ph/0I7pP|Matt Hancock rejected advice to cut Covid isolation as it would ‘imply we’ve been wrong’]] * March 5, 2023: [[https://archive.ph/fsPDl|I worked with Matt Hancock on vaccines - he's a headless chicken]] by [[Clive Dix]] * Retitled to [[https://web.archive.org/web/20230305232805/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/03/05/clive-dix-matt-hancock-headless-chicken-lockdown-files/|I know what it's really like to work with Matt Hancock]] * March 5, 2023: [[https://archive.ph/GX48Q|How Matt Hancock chose saving face over ending unnecessary ‘pingdemic’]] * Retitled to [[https://archive.ph/B7pnB|The leaked messages that reveal how Matt Hancock chose saving face over cutting Covid quarantine]] === March 6 === * March 6, 2023: [[https://archive.ph/kGQan|‘Sex ban’ during lockdown sparked fierce debate, leaked WhatsApp messages reveal]] * March 6, 2023: [[https://archive.ph/s4oDY|Consultants were paid total of £1m a day to work on NHS Test and Trace, leaks reveal]] * March 6, 2023: [[https://archive.ph/IwUWN|Matt Hancock’s secret plan to import French Covid patients]] * March 6, 2023: [[https://archive.ph/vs3BX|Jacob Rees-Mogg: We were denied evidence we needed to make anti-lockdown case]] by [[Daniel Martin]] * March 6, 2023: [[https://archive.ph/WC7ui|Simon Case must take his share of the blame for chaotic lockdown decision-making]] by [[Fraser Nelson]] * March 6, 2023: [[https://archive.ph/JzzXu|How ‘off the boil’ MPs who criticised lockdowns were placed on secret red list]] * Also titled "The secret spreadsheet that targeted MPs critical of lockdown" * March 6, 2023: [[https://archive.ph/pKUaS|Matt Hancock’s plot to block funding for disabled children if MP opposed lockdown]] === March 7 === * March 7, 2023: [[https://archive.ph/tbJeB|Matt Hancock should be arrested for wilful misconduct in public office]] by [[Allison Pearson]] * March 7, 2023: [[https://archive.ph/Zw5IT|How sober, professional WhatsApp conversations descended into chaos]] by [[Camilla Tominey]] * March 7, 2023: [[https://archive.ph/yvkxg|Covid not deadly enough to fast-track vaccines, Chris Whitty advised ministers]] * March 7, 2023: [[https://archive.ph/JRceE|The messages that reveal how Britain was plunged into lockdown]] === March 8 === * March 8, 2023: [[https://archive.ph/C0cM6|MP lobbied NHS chief on behalf of firm that paid him £1,600 a month]] * March 8, 2023: [[https://archive.ph/xpYnc|No one believed the Covid Wuhan lab leak theory – then the world changed its tune]] by [[Sarah Knapton]] * March 8, 2023: [[https://archive.ph/Eymbk|Upsetting China is the Government's biggest taboo, as I found out the hard way]] by [[Isabel Oakeshott]] * March 8, 2023: [[https://archive.ph/5HjWs|Matt Hancock Covid memoirs censored over Wuhan lab leak comments]] === March 9 === * March 9, 2023: [[https://archive.ph/yth3N|Britain may well repeat its lockdown blunders sooner than anyone thinks]] by [[Fraser Nelson]] * March 9, 2023: [[https://archive.ph/q1qBX|Covid variant that ruined Christmas hidden by scientists from ministers for months]] * March 9, 2023: [[https://archive.ph/DQQnZ|Ministers feared 'racist' label if they spoke about Covid spread]] * March 9, 2023: [[https://archive.ph/dtz2i|No 10 to consider Wuhan leak theory after backlash to 'entirely coincidental' remark]] * March 9, 2023: [[https://archive.ph/Mho80|Lockdown supporters called me a killer – they should be disgusted with themselves]] by [[Karol Sikora]] === March 10 === * March 10, 2023: [[https://archive.ph/0duqU|Scientists dismissed Covid lab leak theory ‘as they feared ban on high-risk experiments’]] by [[Sarah Knapton]] * March 10, 2023: [[https://archive.ph/Ri7xZ|Was Sweden right about Covid all along?]] by [[Fraser Nelson]] * March 10, 2023: [[https://archive.ph/DCCJL|How ministers were warned lockdowns could be worse than Covid itself]] * March 10, 2023: [[https://archive.ph/5vRY5| Simon Case warned Boris Johnson of the ‘terrible’ consequences of lockdown]] ===== External links ===== ==== Videos ==== {{odysee>limited-hangout-files/84d914dcc7e1313a27303f2de75332ed018da2a5?}} ==== Profiles ==== * [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockdown_Files|Wikipedia]]