Former British health secretary Matt Hancock has said he is victim of a "massive betrayal and breach of trust" after the disclosure of WhatsApp messages revealing the inside working of government during the coronavirus crisis.
Mr Hancock also apologised for the impact of the release of the message on those he had worked with during the pandemic.
The messages were given to journalist Isabel Oakeshott by Mr Hancock as they collaborated on his memoirs, but she subsequently handed them to the Daily Telegraph, which has published a series of stories based on the correspondence with fellow ministers and officials.
Ms Oakeshott has claimed she was threatened by Mr Hancock in a late-night message after the newspaper began publishing its stories. He has denied the claim.
Mr Hancock said: "I am hugely disappointed and sad at the massive betrayal and breach of trust by Isabel Oakeshott.
"I am also sorry for the impact on the very many people - political colleagues, civil servants and friends - who worked hard with me to get through the pandemic and save lives."
He said there was "absolutely no public interest case for this huge breach" because all the material used for his Pandemic Diaries book was given to the Covid-19 public inquiry.
Explaining the message he sent to the journalist, he said: "Last night, I was accused of sending menacing messages to Isabel. This is also wrong.
"When I heard confused rumours of a publication late on Tuesday night, I called and messaged Isabel to ask her if she had 'any clues' about it and got no response. When I then saw what she'd done, I messaged to say it was 'a big mistake'. Nothing more."
Yesterday British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak defended the official coronavirus inquiry as the "right way" to scrutinise the handling of the pandemic after the extraordinary leak of Mr Hancock's messages.
He urged people not to focus on "piecemeal bits of information" after the trove of more than 100,000 WhatsApp messages were handed to the Daily Telegraph.
Mr Hancock has fought claims he rejected advice to give coronavirus tests to all residents going into English care homes while health secretary.
His spokesman said a report claiming he rejected clinical advice on care home testing was "flat wrong" because he was told it was "not currently possible" to carry out the tests.
The aide alleged the messages leaked by journalist Ms Oakeshott have been "spun to fit an anti-lockdown agenda".
At Prime Minister's Questions, Labour leader Keir Starmer called for Mr Sunak to ensure the inquiry had all the support it needed "to report by the end of this year".
The Labour leader added: "Families across the country will look at this, and the sight of politicians writing books portraying them as heroes will be an insulting and ghoulish spectacle for them."
Mr Sunak responded: "Rather than comment on piecemeal bits of information, I'm sure the honourable gentleman will agree with me the right way for these things to be looked at is the Covid inquiry.
"There is a proper process to these things, it is an independent inquiry, it has the resources it needs, it has the powers it needs and what we should do in this House is to let them get on and do their job."
Labour has also called for an investigation into claims that Jacob Rees-Mogg had a Covid-19 test couriered to his house for one of his children during the pandemic.
The newspaper reported that in September 2020 an adviser to the then health secretary helped get a test sent to Mr Rees-Mogg's home.
The aide messaged Mr Hancock to say the lab had "lost" the original test for one of the senior Conservative's children, "so we've got a courier going to their family home tonight".
