The UK Government considered killing all of the pet cats in Britain at the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
The UK Government considered killing cats at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic
Former minister Lord Bethell has revealed that the extreme idea was briefly discussed in 2020 amid concerns that felines could be spreading COVID-19 across the nation.
Lord Bethell - who served as former Health Secretary Matt Hancock's deputy in the Department of Health and Social Care from 2020 until 2021 - told Channel 4 News: "What we shouldn't forget is how little we understood about this disease.
"There was a moment we were very unclear about whether domestic pets could transmit the disease.
"In fact, there was an idea at one moment that we might have to ask the public to exterminate all the cats in Britain.
"Can you imagine what would have happened if we had wanted to do that?
"And yet, for a moment there was a bit of evidence around that so that had to be investigated and closed down."
The former minister's comments follow the revelations in the Daily Telegraph newspaper of tens of thousands of leaked WhatsApp messages between Hancock and other senior figures at the height of the pandemic.
It is claimed that Hancock allegedly rejected expert advice over testing for the disease in care homes in April 2020.
Hancock is considering legal action over the claims and an aide said that the messages revealed by journalist Isabel Oakeshott - who was handed them by the politician as they worked together on his 'Pandemic Diaries' memoir - have been "spun to fit an anti-lockdown agenda".