Matt Hancock was irked by the chief executive of NHS England during the pandemic and even said that ousting him would be a “massive improvement”, according to the latest set of leaked WhatsApp messages.
The Telegraph reports that the private messages appear to show that Simon Stevens, now Lord Stevens, was belittled behind the scenes and that Mr Hancock, the then health secretary, and Dominic Cummings, Boris Johnson’s then chief adviser, wanted to get rid of him for at least 18 months before he retired in July 2021.
Some six months into the pandemic, Mr Hancock wrote that “removing SS (Simon Stevens) will be a massive improvement”, according to the paper. It also says Mr Hancock messaged Mr Cummings saying he was approaching the top surgery professor Lord Ara Darzi to “persuade” Lord Stevens to quit.
