It’s striking, however, how few entries care homes get in a story dominated by the more ultimately successful races to procure PPE, tests and vaccines. Hancock claims Boris Johnson was reluctant to take the issue of a pandemic seriously when he first raised the issue of the outbreak in Wuhan. The first extract was published in the paper on Saturday and comes shortly after Mr Hancock reappeared in Westminster following his controversial appearance on ITV's reality show I'm A Celebrity.

In the book, the former health secretary also defended his handling of one of the most controversial episodes of the pandemic - the decision to release care home residents from hospital without testing, which was blamed for thousands of deaths. Hancock adds, “Gina said at least I’d shown how I felt” — a comment that fits many commentators’ suggestions that Coldangelo has been the brains behind Hancock’s string of attempts to show a more “human” side, from his I’m A Celebrity appearance to the release of this very book. I would like to thank him for the tireless work he and his associates did in getting this awful virus under control. Suddenly I completely lost it, blubbing away, battling to regain my composure as tears streamed down my face. Three volumes cover the last three decades of the 20th century – including an acerbic telling of the downfall of Margaret Thatcher’s government, in which he served.I also knew I had to tell the children – it was going to be incredibly painful, but I couldn’t hide away from them forever. Putting any personal political opinions aside I think anyone would find this interesting (even if a few sections might leave you shouting at your phone in anger when he criticises a person/party/workforce/union. Matt Hancock and professor Witty really should be awarded for the hard work they put into trying to protect our country during the pandemic time. This is not just in the lack of willingness to take any responsibility for the mishandling of the pandemic, or in the fact that inventing a diary is an astonishing feat of post factual audacity.

As a diary it’s a stilted narrative that will probably be used in the future more as a reference work by historians than as a read in its own right. When news leaked in November 2020 that the Government planned to exempt City dealmakers, hedge fund managers and company bosses flying to the UK from the 14-day quarantine rule, the public was furious. If you couldn’t bear watching him on I’m a Celebrity, I’m afraid this book may go down like a plate of sheep’s unmentionables. The diary is so enduring and broad in scope that it isn’t merely a report of parliamentary politics, but a social document on pretty much the entire Victorian era. What she did not mean was that I should lose it altogether, which unfortunately is exactly what happened.This story is a classic example of a seemingly simple claim that does not have a straightforward answer. written on it; the mathematical models outlining just how many could die; the fear of running out of body bags. all the times he was brilliantly prescient, and all the times his Downing Street nemesis Dominic Cummings wasn’t. Hancock is hardly the first modern British politician to make use of this trend in an attempt to set the record straight.