Matt Hancock claims he worked from his children’s treehouse at height of Covid pandemic
Mr Hancock’s book is out just a week after he won £400k for coming third on I’m A Celebrity
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Former Health Secretary Matt Hancock has claimed he worked from his children’s treehouse during the height of the Covid pandemic.
In a bizarre diary about his time as health secretary, Mr Hancock has published The Pandemic Diaires just a week after winning £400k for eating maggots on I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here.
The controversial book tells of his experience working as the UK’s health secretary during the Covid-19 pandemic.
In it, he claims that he had to work in his kids’ treehouse after having issues with his broadband connectivity in his rented Suffolk home during the lockdown.
And the former health secretary picked up on the irony of the fact he was the minister responsible for broadband rollout.
In an entry of the book marked August 24, 2020, Mr Hancock claimed: “Perhaps the Gods think I am becoming too self-important, because they have delivered a new humiliation: I am having to work from the kids; treehouse.
“When we moved into our rented constituency house in Suffolk, I happened to be the minister responsible for broadband rollout. By happy coincidence, soon after, Openreach upgraded the whole village to full fibre.”
He added a further claim that the internet crashed and so was advised to hotspot off his 4G. The only issue was he didn’t have much connectivity in his house, and the best place to go was his garden.
Mr Hancock continued, claiming: “Annoyingly, it crashed today, and despite the best efforts of the department’s IT team it proved impossible to reconnect me.
“As a stopgap, the team wearily suggested that I use an iPhone hotspot instead. Unfortunately, I only get 4G in the garden, and even there, it’s patchy.
“Ridiculously, the best spot is twelve feet up an old ash tree in the treehouse I painstakingly built with the kids last year. Behold the temporary new offices of the Secretary of State for Health.”
Mr Hancock has revealed a number of details about his time as health secretary during the Covid years in his book, Pandemic Diaries: The Inside Story Of Britain’s Battle Against Covid, which is also being serialised in the Daily Mail and The Mail+.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments