On 6 March, as the World Health Organisation told all countries to make containment of the novel coronavirus “their highest priority”, Matt Hancock sent a letter to MPs and peers.
The Health Secretary was seeking “proposed solutions” to the UK’s crisis in social care, an issue that has haunted politics for many years. Sent the day after Italy banned all visits to care homes, the letter was, in effect, a concession that — despite 20 years of green papers, white papers, royal commissions and independent reviews — the 2020 budget would not contain a long-term plan for the funding of social care.