A leading publisher has denied being in talks with disgraced former health secretary Matt Hancock about a book recounting his pandemic experience.
A spokeswoman for Mr Hancock said he had been "approached" about penning a book about his time in the Cabinet during the Covid-19 outbreak, but that he had not decided whether to take up the offer.
The confirmation of the approach came after the Daily Mail reported that the former minister was in line to sign a £100,000 book deal with publisher HarperCollins.
But HarperCollins said it is not in talks with Mr Hancock, and that it had “no knowledge” of any book about his pandemic experience.
“We have no knowledge of such a book and are not in talks,” it said in a tweet.
According to the Mail, the book offer was designed to allow the Conservative MP for West Suffolk to tell his version of events of what went on inside Government as the pandemic struck, and the subsequent search for and rollout of the vaccines.
The report sparked anger, however, with Labour calling for the Cabinet Office to “block” its publication, which the Mail said could come out before a public inquiry, due to commence next year, into ministers’ handling of Covid.
The inquiry is likely to examine whether the Government was quick enough to apply restrictions to protect the public from the virus in spring last year, and delve into whether care homes were properly protected.
Mr Hancock spoke about throwing a “protective ring” around care homes at the early stages of the Covid-19 outbreak in England but the country went on to record tens of thousands of residential care deaths during the crisis.
A spokeswoman for Mr Hancock said: “Matt has been approached to write a book about his experiences in the pandemic, but no decisions have been made.
“There is no deal. The people who were heroic during the pandemic were the NHS staff who worked round the clock to save lives.”
Mr Hancock’s time as health secretary was cut short five months ago after leaked CCTV footage showed him kissing an aide, in breach of social distancing rules that he had helped establish.
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