A Cornish MP has told under-pressure health secretary Matt Hancock to "ignore unsubstantiated Westminster gossip" after the Prime Minister's former advisor Dominic Cummings accused him of lying.

Cherilyn Mackrory, Conservative MP for Truro and Falmouth, jumped to the defence of Mr Hancock after he responded to an urgent question in the House of Commons regarding the claims made by Mr Cummings.

In a marathon session with a parliamentary committee yesterday Mr Cummings was highly critical of the health secretary claiming that he had lied multiple times during the Covid-19 pandemic and had also been at risk of being fired.

However, Mrs Mackrory used her opportunity to ask a question of the health secretary to praise him after he visited Cornwall earlier this week.

She said:

"I would like to thank my right honourable friend for his visit to the Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro earlier this week where we met staff and were told about the new oncology wing and also the state-of-the-art plans for the new women's and children's hospital, one of our 40 new hospitals in our manifesto promise."

The new women's and children's unit is in fact part of the Royal Cornwall Hospital site in Truro and will replace the current facilities at Treliske.

Mrs Mackrory continued:

"Given the gravity of the situation that the Government found at the beginning of the pandemic and considering we now know the disruptive force in the form of Dominic Cummings I would like to congratulate the ministers, not least my right honourable friend, for staying focussed on the evidence presented by the experts at the time as the events changed quickly.

"Can my right honourable friend assure me that he will ignore unsubstantiated Westminster gossip and stay focused on delivering the vaccine rollout and our manifesto promises."

Thanking Mrs Mackrory the health secretary responded: "I think that is what the public expects us to do. I had a brilliant visit to Cornwall on Monday this week and it was a pleasure to go to Treliske and see my honourable friend there and talk about the new women's and children's hospital that we are building as part of the biggest investment in healthcare in Cornwall.

"It is delivering on those priorities on which we were elected and of course dealing with this pandemic and keeping people safe, that is what the public want to see, it is what the expectations of the public are and it is my total focus."

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