Lockdown Files

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.¹⁾

The messages were leaked by journalist Isabel Oakeshott, who was given copies of them while working on Matt Hancock's “Pandemic Diaries” memoir.^{2) 3)} 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 “‘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.”⁴⁾

The Telegraph maintains a page collecting the articles in The Lockdown Files. The following list includes archived versions of each article in chronological order:⁵⁾

• February 28, 2023: The Lockdown Files: How WhatsApp messages offer an unprecedented view of government failings
• February 28, 2023: Far from a ‘protective ring’, WhatsApp messages show care homes were cast adrift by Camilla Tominey
• February 28, 2023: The 2.3 million words that will go down in history by Fraser Nelson
• February 28, 2023: Jacob Rees-Mogg's child got Covid test couriered to family home during huge shortage
• February 28, 2023: Trip of 'just 50 miles' for Covid test shows system is working, health minister said
• February 28, 2023: Matt Hancock feared care homes could 'get in the way' of his ambitious Covid testing target
• February 28, 2023: George Osborne told Hancock bluntly - 'No one thinks testing is going well, Matt'
• February 28, 2023: Matt Hancock was told care home Covid rules were ‘inhumane’ – but kept them
• February 28, 2023: The leaked WhatsApp messages that expose how Britain’s elderly were failed on Covid
• February 28, 2023: I want to hit my target, Matt Hancock said as he called in a favour from George Osborne
• February 28, 2023: I had to release Matt Hancock’s Covid WhatsApp messages to avoid a whitewash by Isabel Oakeshott
• February 28, 2023: The Lockdown Files: Matt Hancock rejected expert advice on care home testing, WhatsApp messages reveal

• March 1, 2023: 'The messages show a blatant disregard for human quality of life'
• March 1, 2023: Matt Hancock claims ‘doctored’ WhatsApp leak ‘fits anti-lockdown agenda’ by Dominic Penna
• March 1, 2023: 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: The Lockdown Files have thrown Westminster into a state of panic by Tom Harris
• March 1, 2023: Whitty and Vallance raised concerns about shielding - yet it remained for months
• March 1, 2023: The Lockdown Files lift the curtain on government by WhatsApp by Camilla Tominey
• March 1, 2023: Boris Johnson proposed giving over-65s choice on Covid shielding
• March 1, 2023: Care homes refused to test staff they feared had Covid
• March 1, 2023: Pupils with false positive Covid tests sent home to avoid ‘unpicking’ policy
• March 1, 2023: Matt Hancock staged ‘rearguard’ action to close schools
• March 1, 2023: No good reason to impose ‘rule of six’ on children - but ministers did it anyway
• March 1, 2023: Famous names react to The Telegraph’s Lockdown Files revelations
• March 1, 2023: English schoolchildren had to wear masks because ministers didn't relish a political row with Nicola Sturgeon
  • Retitled to Face masks introduced in English secondary schools to avoid ‘argument’ with Sturgeon
• March 1, 2023: Teachers looking for 'excuse' not to work during pandemic, said Gavin Williamson

• March 2, 2023: Isabel Oakeshott defends WhatsApp leak: 'Anyone who thinks I did this for money must be utterly insane' by Michael Murphy
• March 2, 2023: WhatsApp leak shows Matt Hancock 'overlooked' school pupils, ex-children's commissioner says by Ewan Somerville
• March 2, 2023: Why The Telegraph revealed Matt Hancock's WhatsApp messages | The Lockdown Files by Camilla Tominey
• March 2, 2023: Dominic Cummings deployed election mastermind to reassure Cabinet hawks of public support for lockdown
• March 2, 2023: 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: 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: I warned that second lockdown data was wrong – but I was ignored by Carl Heneghan
• March 2, 2023: Britain’s second lockdown was based on ‘very wrong’ Covid data, Boris Johnson feared
• March 2, 2023: Piers Morgan has quit – how about we celebrate, asked minister while parties were banned
• March 2, 2023: ‘Get heavy with police’ to enforce lockdown, Matt Hancock told ministers
• March 2, 2023: How Covid turned Britain into a curtain-twitcher’s paradise
• March 2, 2023: 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: Can we lock up ‘pub hooligan’ Nigel Farage, asked Hancock’s team
• March 2, 2023: As police pursued my father during Covid lockdown, my lonely mother endured care home prison by Rachel Johnson
• March 2, 2023: Top mandarin mocked holidaymakers ‘locked up’ in Covid quarantine hotel rooms
  • Retitled to How those in government gloated as travellers went through distress of hotel quarantine

• March 3, 2023: Former police chief rejects Matt Hancock's Covid 'marching orders' in leaked WhatsApp texts by Ewan Somerville
• March 3, 2023: I broke the lockdown rules – and pipsqueak Matt Hancock couldn’t stop me by Nigel Farage
• March 3, 2023: 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: Matt Hancock ridiculed Rishi Sunak’s Eat Out to Help Out scheme
• March 3, 2023: 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: Time for the lockdown nostalgics to confront the true horror of what Britain lived through by Camilla Tominey
• March 3, 2023: The WhatsApp messages that expose Rishi Sunak and Matt Hancock’s lockdown power struggle
• March 3, 2023: Matt Hancock said worst he and Gina could be accused of was kissing ‘before they legalised hugs’
• March 3, 2023: Revealed: George Osborne’s advice to Matt Hancock on affair with Gina Coladangelo
• March 3, 2023: Inside Matt Hancock’s 41-hour scramble to save his career after Gina Coladangelo affair revealed

• March 4, 2023: Was I right to leak Matt Hancock's WhatsApp messages? Here's what you told me by Isabel Oakeshott
• March 4, 2023: The Lockdown Files: 10 things we’ve learned so far
• March 4, 2023: Matt Hancock ‘not at all happy’ as Michael Gove made ‘a play for his job’
• March 4, 2023: What Sunak and Hancock really thought of Dominic Cummings
• March 4, 2023: Matt Hancock's campaign to remove NHS chief revealed
• March 4, 2023: How Matt Hancock plotted to have 'useless loudmouth' Covid scientist sacked
• March 4, 2023: Leak reveals how Boris Johnson veered from lockdown sceptic to zealot
• March 4, 2023: ‘Project Fear’ authors discussed when to ‘deploy’ new Covid variant
• March 4, 2023: Matt Hancock's plan to ‘frighten the pants off everyone’ about Covid

• March 5, 2023: The hidden tensions between Matt Hancock and his ‘wacky’ Covid vaccines tsar
• March 5, 2023: Inside Matt Hancock's desperate bid to be known as 'Mr Vaccine'
  • Retitled to How Matt Hancock sought to hog the Covid vaccine limelight
• March 5, 2023: The inconvenient questions the Covid inquiry must answer by Esther McVey
• March 5, 2023: Matt Hancock covered up inviting Gina Coladangelo to G7 dinners
• March 5, 2023: Matt Hancock cracks joke about Bill Gates Covid conspiracy
• March 5, 2023: Project Fear’s ‘psychological warfare’ must never be repeated, say lockdown rebels by Dominic Penna
• March 5, 2023: Leak reveals Simon Case's private warning about Boris Johnson
  • Also titled “Simon Case’s private warning about Boris Johnson”
• March 5, 2023: Matt Hancock rejected advice to cut Covid isolation as it would ‘imply we’ve been wrong’
• March 5, 2023: I worked with Matt Hancock on vaccines - he's a headless chicken by Clive Dix
  • Retitled to I know what it's really like to work with Matt Hancock
• March 5, 2023: How Matt Hancock chose saving face over ending unnecessary ‘pingdemic’
  • Retitled to The leaked messages that reveal how Matt Hancock chose saving face over cutting Covid quarantine