Tony Blair lobbied Hancock to take UAE off red list 'as he does business there' ... trends now
Tony Blair personally lobbied Matt Hancock to get the UAE removed from the travel red list because 'he does a lot of business over there', the former health secretary has claimed.
Mr Hancock also allowed the former prime minister to dodge quarantine on his return from a signing ceremony at the White House in America.
The Pandemic Diaries reveal Mr Blair regularly contacted the Cabinet minister during 2020 to ask for favours or to discuss policy.
In one exchange in July 2020, Mr Blair protested that the United Arab Emirates was still on the quarantine red list, claiming they were only reporting hundreds of cases per day 'because they do so much testing'.
Mr Hancock said he had to 'resist the urge to ping back an eye-roll emoji at that old chestnut'. Mr Blair then argued 'the disease is well under control there', because 'virtually all the cases are in the migrant worker community and are asymptomatic'. 'Hmm', Hancock wrote in his diary.
Tony Blair personally lobbied Matt Hancock to get the UAE removed from the travel red list because 'he does a lot of business over there', the former health secretary has claimed
At the time, travellers from all countries bar selected 'low risk' exemptions – which included some European holiday destinations during the summer months – were required to isolate at home for two weeks.
But the former health secretary did allow Mr Blair to avoid spending 14 days in quarantine on his return from the US where he attended an event at the White House in September 2020.
The ex-PM had been invited to go to a signing ceremony for the peace treaty between Israel and the UAE, but the Foreign Office had refused to grant an exemption.
Mr Blair contacted Mr Hancock directly to say 'he's literally going in for the ceremony and flying straight out again', and that 'if he were a government minister, he'd have a diplomatic exemption'.
The Pandemic Diaries reveal Mr Blair regularly contacted the Cabinet minister during 2020 to ask for favours or to discuss policy
Mr Hancock writes: 'I cannot believe the FCDO [Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office] is messing him around in this way. He's not a junior minister: he's a former prime minister.
'I told him that of course he should have an exemption and that I'd sort it right away. He sounded relieved and grateful.'
A month later when news of Mr Hancock's intervention hit the Press, he wrote: 'I make no apology: Blair may no longer be in government but he's a former prime minister and was quite clearly on diplomatic business. Even junior ministers are exempt from quarantine for such purposes.'
The 14-day self-isolation rule
