Matt Hancock, the former health secretary, has said a report he ignored medical advice to Covid test all people going into care homes at the beginning of the pandemic was “flat wrong” and has been “doctored to create a false story”.

A report in the Daily Telegraph alleged Hancock posted a WhatsApp message on 14 April 2020 saying chief medical officer for England, Sir Chris Whitty, had recommended “testing of all going into care homes, and segregations whilst awaiting result”.

The report alleged Hancock later advised aides to “leave out” a commitment to test all care home visitors and “just commit to test & isolate all going into care from hospital” in guidance published on 15 April 2020.

The report alleged he further commented: “I do not think the community commitment adds anything and it muddies the waters.”

Government guidance advising the testing of all care home visitors was not published until August 2020.

There were 43,256 deaths involving Covid-19 in care homes in England between March 2020 and January 2022, according to the ONS.

Of these, over 17,000 died between April and August 2020.

Helen Wildbore, director of the Relatives & Residents Association, told Caring Times: “We knew all along that the government’s claim to have thrown a ‘protective ring’ around care was nonsense. These revelations are further evidence of that and will be so distressing for the many families who lost a loved one. To hear the government knew that isolating people from their family was inhumane will add to the pain and anger many families feel. We must ensure this isolation never happens again – the government must introduce a new legal right for people needing care to have the support of their family carers across health and care settings.”

A spokesperson for Hancock firmly rejected The Telegraph report, commenting: “These stolen messages have been doctored to create a false story that Matt rejected clinical advice on care home testing. This is flat wrong. On April 14 Matt received a response to his request for advice from the chief medical officer’s that testing was needed for people going into care homes, which he enthusiastically accepted. Later that day he convened an operational meeting on delivering testing for care homes where he was advised it was not currently possible to test everyone entering care homes, which he also accepted. Matt concluded that the testing of people leaving hospital for care homes should be prioritised because of the higher risks of transmission, as it wasn’t no possible to mandate everyone going into care homes got tested.

“The Telegraph have doctored the messages by excluding a key line from the texts by Allan Nixon. Nixon says, “I wasn’t in testing mtg”, which changes the context of the exchange depicted in the article. It demonstrates there was a meeting at which advice on deliverability was given. By omitting this, the messages imply Matt simply overruled clinical advice. That is categorically untrue. He went as far as was possible, as fast as possible, to expand testing and save lives. This story categorically shows that the right place for this analysis of what happened in the pandemic is in the inquiry.”