Bradford Council were forced to issue a clarification after Matt Hancock appeared to suggest there had been a coronavirus outbreak in Keighley.
The Health Secretary was on the media round this morning to talk about measures the Government is taking to lock down Leicester.
Citing examples of successful localised measures, he seemed to muddle up Kirklees, where a meat processing factory was closed, with Keighley – also in West Yorkshire.
Mr Hancock made the apparent mistake on both BBC Breakfast and BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
He said: "These much more targeted measures have worked in other outbreaks, so we’ve had an outbreak in Keighley, which we dealt with by shutting a factory there, we've had an outbreak in Weston-super-Mare that we've dealt with by shutting a hospital there to new admissions.
"We've shut GP surgeries in Enfield, so we've been taking this highly-localised approach."
He told the Today programme: "At the same time there was also a local problem in Keighley in the same way that we tackled problems in Weston-super-Mare and in Enfield and some other places.”
Bradford Council responded: “Matt Hancock said there is a Covid outbreak in Keighley. That’s incorrect. Presume he meant Kirklees. Please correct on air.
“Just to calm everyone down a bit… There's no new Covid-19 spike in Keighley.
“Matt Hancock confused Keighley with a different area on TV and radio this morning. Please keep maintaining social distance and washing hands so we don’t need to announce a local outbreak in the future.”
The Standard has contacted the Department of Health and Social Care for comment.
