Matt Hancock rejected advice to Covid test all residents entering English care homes, an investigation based on a leaked trove of more than 100,000 WhatsApps alleges.
The Telegraph claims chief medical officer Professor Sir Chris Whitty told the then health secretary in April 2020 there should be testing for 'all going into care homes'.
But Mr Hancock rejected the guidance, the messages suggest, telling an aide the move just 'muddies the waters', and introduced mandatory testing for those coming from hospitals.
The MP has denied the 'distorted account' with a spokesman alleging the messages, leaked by journalist Isabel Oakeshott after she worked on his Pandemic Diaries memoir, have been 'spun to fit an anti-lockdown agenda'.