Leaked messages reveal Matt Hancock's Eat Out to Help Out concerns

Leaked text messages have revealed the concerns of then health secretary Matt Hancock about the Treasury’s Eat Out to Help Out scheme, which he labelled ‘eat out to help the virus get about’.

The Eat Out to Help Out scheme sought to help hospitality venues following the first national lockdown in August 2020, with the government subsiding 50% of the price of food and drinks at participating hospitality venues.

More than 49,000 businesses made claims amounting to £849m through the scheme, with more than 160 million meals discounted.

Hancock’s statements have come to light after more than 100,000 messages were passed to* the Telegraph* by journalist Isabel Oakeshott who collaborated with Hancock on his memoir, Pandemic Diaries: The inside story of Britain's battle against Covid.

In messages to Simon Case, then permanent secretary in Downing Street, Hancock said the scheme was causing “serious” problems.

A message reads: “Just want to let you know directly that we have had lots of feedback that Eat our [sic] to help out is causing problems in our jntervention [sic] areas. I’ve kept it out of the news but it’s serious. So please please lets not allow the economic success of the scheme to lead to its extension.”

Later in the exchange Hancock said he had used the offer and added: “Yes it was a joy using it and being thanked by the other diners!”

In December 2020 after the second national lockdown had come to an end Hancock referred to the scheme again in messages to aide Jamie Njoku-Goodwin. He said: “he [then chancellor Rishi Sunak] hasn’t launched another eat out to help the virus get about has he?”

Hancock resigned as health secretary in June 2021 after admitting he had breached social distancing regulations by kissing a colleague inside the Department of Health.