Jacob Rees-Mogg admits Covid test was couriered to his home during shortage

Jacob Rees-Mogg has admitted a Covid-19 trial for his lad was couriered to his location during a nationalist shortage.

He accepted it mightiness beryllium deemed "special treatment" but defended the statement owed to his workload arsenic a furniture curate astatine the time.

WhatsApp messages leaked to the Telegraph look to amusement erstwhile wellness caput Matt Hancock's advisor helped nonstop the trial successful September 2020.

The Telegraph has obtained much than 100,000 of Mr Hancock's messages.

The insubstantial has published messages it says were sent connected 10 September, 2020 by Allan Nixon, Mr Hancock's governmental peculiar advisor astatine the time.

One suggests an archetypal trial for 1 of Mr Rees-Mogg's children had been mislaid by the laboratory.

It goes connected to accidental "we've got a courier going to their household location tonight, kid volition instrumentality the test, and courier volition instrumentality it consecutive to the lab. Should person effect time am".

Responding connected his GB News chat amusement connected Wednesday, Mr Rees-Mogg said "one of my children needed a trial and that enactment everybody into quarantine".

When helium was informed his child's archetypal trial had been lost, "it was raised with the section of wellness and they decided to nonstop maine a trial to a subordinate of my family", helium said.

"So if I received peculiar treatment, it wasn't due to the fact that I had requested it, but really it allowed a authorities curate to get backmost to enactment with a kid who didn't person Covid successful the archetypal place," the erstwhile concern caput said.

He said the Covid investigating strategy had not been moving but "I judge it wasn't moving for different radical too".

Labour has urged the authorities to find whether Mr Rees-Mogg received peculiar attraction and not to "hide" down the Covid inquiry.

A spokesperson for Labour person Sir Keir Starmer said: "The authorities is much than susceptible of answering those questions present and ensuring that we tin person clarity and transparency connected those issues."

The Liberal Democrats person written to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to inquire him what helium knew and erstwhile regarding claims that ministers had entree to "priority testing".

The party's lawman person Daisy Cooper said: "These reports are conscionable much grounds that it's 1 regularisation for Conservative ministers and different for everyone else.

"The authorities indispensable urgently people precisely however galore Conservative ministers, MPs and their families had entree to precedence investigating erstwhile the nationalist faced a nationalist trial shortage. The nationalist deserves to cognize the truth."

During Prime Minister's Questions connected Wednesday, Mr Sunak said the enquiry was "the close mode for these things to beryllium looked at" and that helium would not remark connected "piecemeal bits of information".

Around the clip of the Rees-Mogg messages, Sarah Marsh, manager of investigating astatine NHS Test and Trace, tweeted "heartfelt apologies to anyone who cannot get a Covid trial astatine present".

In the aforesaid month, media reports said authorities investigating laboratories crossed the UK were facing a backlog of 185,000 Covid tests. Under the rules astatine the time, radical had to isolate until a antagonistic trial was recorded.

Mr Hancock said it could instrumentality weeks to resoluteness issues astir Covid investigating and admitted determination were "operational challenges" related to a surge successful demand.

The Telegraph has been handed much than 100,000 WhatsApp messages linked to Mr Hancock's clip arsenic wellness caput astatine the tallness of the pandemic.

The substance messages were passed to the paper by writer Isabel Oakeshott, who has been captious of lockdowns. Ms Oakeshott was fixed copies of the texts portion helping Mr Hancock constitute his book, Pandemic Diaries.

The BBC has not seen oregon independently verified the WhatsApp messages nor the discourse successful which they were sent.

Mr Hancock's spokesperson said the Telegraph had published "partial leaks" that presented a "distorted relationship of the pandemic" designed to "fit an anti-lockdown agenda".

The spokesperson said the messages had been made disposable to the nationalist enquiry into the government's effect to the pandemic.

"Instead of spinning and leaks we request the full, broad inquiry, to guarantee we are arsenic good prepared arsenic we tin beryllium for the adjacent pandemic, whenever it comes," the spokesperson said.