Hancock, Cummings and trust

The events of the last couple of days, with the Health Secretary Matt Hancock under fire over his apparent breaching of the social distancing rules with Department of Health non-executive director Gina Coladangelo, have underlined how angry the public can get when senior figures seem to think the rules do not apply to them.

If you listened to the outpouring of rage on Radio 4’s Any Answers - not usually a haven for radical anti-establishment views - you would not give much for Mr Hancock’s chances of surviving in office very long.

The affair reminded me of a passage in Chapter 12 of Always On, which tells the inside story of the project to launch the NHS Covid-19 contact tracing app. At a crucial stage in the development of the first version of the app, which was later shelved, the scandal broke about Dominic Cummings and his trip to Barnard Castle to test his eyesight. NHS insiders told me how it affected both their morale and public trust:

An opinion poll carried out for the Reuters Institute in the last week of May found that less than half of people surveyed trusted the government to give them accurate information about the pandemic, down from two thirds in mid-April.

For a project that was all about persuading more than half the population to trust the government enough to put software on their phones which could in theory be used for mass surveillance, this was deeply concerning. ‘Barnard Castle was a head-in-hands moment – that was when trust was lost,’ a member of the app team told me months later. As May drew to a close, the Health Secretary was still promising a national roll-out in a ‘couple of weeks’, but by now the early enthusiasm on the Isle of Wight was fading, and people were getting restless for news. One of my contacts on the project told me the political environment was not helping – ‘The Cummings scandal will do untold damage.’

Of course, Boris Johnson stuck by Dominic Cummings, just as he has stuck by Matt Hancock, insisting that the matter is closed. It remains to be seen whether that stance will continue as Conservative MPs inboxes fill up with angry messages and the Prime Minister reflects on how his loyalty to his former aide was repaid.

By the way I am speaking live at another great book festival on Sunday. At 10 am I will be interviewed by Simon Lewis, former Buckingham Palace and Downing Street communications chief, at the Proms at St Jude’s Litfest in Hampstead. As well as joining a small, socially distanced audience at the venue, you can buy a ticket to watch online.

We will be talking about the book of course - but I may also try to get Simon’s take on how he would be spinning current events if was in Downing Street.

Oh, and by the way, buy the book!

Always On is available as a hardback, ebook or audiobook here.

And if you want to support your local independent book shop you can order it at Hive.