Matt Hancock says 'Boris Johnson's dithering sparked winter lockdown' trends now
The winter lockdown would never have been needed if Boris Johnson had listened to Matt Hancock's pleas for tougher measures, the former health secretary has claimed.
Mr Hancock claimed he proposed the tough tiers system of restrictions six weeks before it was finally introduced after weeks of 'dithering' from the then-prime minister.
Although piecemeal regional restrictions had been used during the summer, the formalised tier system was only introduced on October 12, 2020.
In his diaries, Mr Hancock said that people had their 'heads in the sand', including the prime minister, and that the national lockdown, in place from November until the spring, could have been avoided.
Mr Hancock claimed he proposed the tough tiers system of restrictions six weeks before it was finally introduced after weeks of 'dithering' from the then-prime minister
He wrote in his diaries on October 12: 'In the six weeks since I proposed the tiers system, there's been delay and watering down at every stage – while the virus has grown faster than the worst-case scenario.
'What's most frustrating is that I'm being portrayed as the one who's pushing for lockdown, whereas actually it's those with their heads in the sand who will lead us to a full-blown national lockdown.'
The tiers system was first proposed at the end of August, according to Mr Hancock's account, when he said he would 'get Boris to buy in'.
But his diaries record that the prime minister was still 'dithering over tiers' on September 15, just as the first signs that cases were rising appeared.
Ten days later Mr Hancock reported 'losing the argument' over tighter restrictions despite the spread of the virus hovering around the Government's worst-case scenario.
The winter lockdown would never have been needed if Boris Johnson had listened to Matt Hancock 's pleas for tougher measures, the former health secretary has claimed
On September 29, the PM agreed to tiers,
