The former health secretary was warned that including an alternative narrative “risked compromising national security.”
The Cabinet Office instructed Matt Hancock to tone down claims in his book that a Wuhan lab breach caused the pandemic out of concern that it would “cause problems” with China.
According to intercepted messages obtained by The Telegraph, the former health secretary intended to include in his book Pandemic Diaries that the Chinese government’s explanation “simply doesn’t hold water.”
Beijing has maintained that the virus was discovered in a wet market in Wuhan and that it was a coincidence this was near a government science facility.
The draught of Mr. Hancock’s memoir, written with journalist Isabel Oakeshott, who leaked his communications to the Telegraph, stated: “Given how secretive the Chinese have been, I believe we must view their official account of the events – the Wuhan incident – with considerable skepticism.
“Imagine there was an outbreak of a lethal new virus in Wiltshire, and we waved off the coincidence that the outbreak occurred near a small town called Porton Down. We’d be ridiculed out of town.”
According to correspondence, the Cabinet Office informed Mr. Hancock last year that the government’s official position was that the outbreak on the market was “entirely coincidental,” adding, “This is highly sensitive and would cause problems if disseminated.”
He was warned that including a different narrative could jeopardize “national security” and asked to modify his opinion that “global fear of the Chinese must not impede a thorough investigation into what occurred.”
The British government has commented on the lab leak allegations for the first time since the WhatsApp disclosure about the government’s position that the COVID outbreak’s location was “entirely coincidental.
Contrary to recent statements by the US government, the hypothesis has resurfaced as a report from the US energy department last month stated that the virus most likely escaped from a lab in Wuhan.
At the start of March, the FBI chief said the virus “most likely” came from a “lab incident in Wuhan.”
Civil servants deemed Mr. Hancock’s reference to the Ministry of Defence’s laboratory Porton Down “damaging to national security” because the Russians accuse the British government of poisoning ex-Soviet spy Sergei Skripal in Salisbury, which is adjacent to Porton Down.
In the final edition of Pandemic Diaries, the section was almost eliminated and replaced with the following text: “Even though the international consensus and official government position is that the virus originated in Wuhan’s damp market, I remain skeptical.
There must be a thorough investigation into what occurred.
All former ministers must send book manuscripts to the Cabinet Office for review before publication.
Simon Case, the cabinet secretary, approved the book for publication in November after Mr. Hancock made the proposed changes.
