PRISONERS were being considered for early release by the government at the start of the pandemic under a “bonkers plan”, Matt Hancock has revealed in a new tell-all book.
The ex-Cabinet Minister divulges a madcap Ministry of Justice proposal to free offenders just days before the first national lockdown.
The mind-blowing matter was discussed at the highest levels of government and exposed for the first time in the I’m A Celebrity star’s diary of the pandemic.
Hancock, then Health Secretary, claims he was under huge pressure to let the offenders roam free as the virus first started ripping through the country.
He says that he fought hard against the plans despite persistent pressure from officials in Whitehall for two weeks saying he was in “in the hot seat” during the crisis.
The memoir also highlights the rifts at the heart of government with Boris Johnson and the then Chancellor Rishi Sunak at the centre of decision-making.
Writing in his diary on March 17, he says: “A bonkers proposal from the Ministry of Justice to let prisoners out, as they’d be easier to manage if they’re not in prison.
“Yes, really: they actually thought this might be a goer. I was emphasising [my opposition] so hard that all of a sudden my chair could take the strain no longer and ripped, tipping me unceremoniously on to the floor.”
Hancock recounts how it appeared a Cabinet colleague pushed for the prisoners’ release plan as he recounts being at the heart of the virus response in his Pandemic Diaries book, serialised in the Daily Mail.
In a further entry on April 3, he writes: “Officials are still insisting that Justice Secretary Rob Buckland wants to release thousands of non-violent prisoners to take the pressure off the system.
“I keep writing “NO” in large letters on submissions asking me to sign this off. It’s obvious the public won’t wear it, yet the idea keeps going back and forth on paper.
“After about the third iteration, I called Rob Buckland, who to my astonishment told me he’d been advised that I was the one who wanted to release them.
“Unfortunately, this still wasn’t the end of the matter. Clearly someone in Whitehall still thought it was a good idea and kept pushing it, to the point that the PM asked to talk to us both. I made my views crystal clear.
“We cannot lock up literally everyone in the country except prisoners, who we instead release, I spluttered.”
The book also reveals how he fell “deeply” in love with ex-aide Gina Coladangelo – with the secret affair first exposed in The Sun in June 2021.
