‘The media failed to do their jobs during lockdown’

The Telegraph's multipart exposé drew on a trove of WhatsApp messages from former health secretary Matt Hancock.

The Lockdown Files shed an unforgiving light on the government’s actions during the pandemic.

Despite the explosive nature of these revelations, much of the media have met the revelations with a huge dose of scepticism.

Many journalists seem more interested in attacking Isabel Oakeshott than holding the government to account.

Isabel Oakeshott has been repeatedly asked about whether anyone will trust me again.

But I will turn that around and say, is anyone going to trust you again? I’m doing this because I never ever want this country to go through that again. And the media figures criticising me failed to do their jobs. They can bang on about ethical journalism’, and my abrogation of some kind of duty. But, without exception, these people have never broken a big enough story to present them with any ethical dilemma on any scale. So how can they possibly understand? I've done many big stories and each and every one of them has been really difficult and has presented.