Minister Nadhim Zahawi denies colleagues are leaking coronavirus measures to press

WEST END FINAL

Get our award-winning daily news email featuring exclusive stories, opinion and expert analysis

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

A minister today denied that any of his colleagues were leaking information on proposed Government coronavirus measures to the press.

Business minister Nadhim Zahawi said: “I can promise you that this minister – or no minister - would actually instruct any member of staff to go out and actually brief this stuff out.”

It comes after a series of stories were leaked to the media this week on potential new lockdown measures for the north as well as shutting down pubs and restaurants within days.

Mr Zahawi told Sky News: “These leaks are completely counterproductive. Whoever is leaking this stuff is doing a disservice to the service by speculation and leaks. I think that’s wrong.

“I think the right thing to do is wait for the decisions that the Government will always attempt to make sure that we do in a coordinated way with the coordinated teams.”

Asked if the briefing had ministerial oversight, he replied: “I can promise you that this minister – or no minister - would actually instruct any member of staff to go out and actually brief this stuff out.

“These are terrible leaks.

“This is really bad that people are leaking this stuff. I hope that whoever is doing this will stop because actually it’s counterproductive, it’s confusing and it’s corrosive.”

Writing in the Telegraph today, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said: "It was an act of gross irresponsibility for anonymous Number 10 sources to tell a few newspapers on Thursday about plans to impose further restrictions on millions of people, without any detail, without any consultation and without any statement from the Prime Minister.

"This has significantly added to the sense of confusion, chaos and unfairness in the approach that is being taken."

Labour mayors of northern cities have complained about the details of new lockdown restrictions being broken on journalists’ Twitter feeds as well as a lack of consultation.

Shadow business minister and Manchester Central MP Lucy Powell tweeted last night: “Like many, I’m nervously waiting tomorrow’s front pages to see what’s coming next for my city. Not a good process, eh.”

Business minister Nadhim Zahawi
Sky News

On Thursday, shadow foreign secretary Lisa Nandy said leaks were “disrespectful to millions”.

The House of Commons speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle last month lost his temper with the Government over leaks to journalists during the pandemic.

He accused ministers of a “total disregard” for the House of Commons and threatened to run Mr Hancock "ragged" for not telling the Commons about the rules banning social gatherings of more than six people .

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in