TEACHING unions hit out at “contemptible” comments by Sir Gavin Williamson today after leaked messages showed the then-education secretary accusing staff of looking for an excuse not to work during the pandemic.

The statement was revealed as part of a trove of 100,000 leaked WhatsApp messages from and to former health secretary Matt Hancock.

The messages, given to the Daily Telegraph by journalist Isabel Oakeshott, have revealed how the government operated behind closed doors at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Mr Hancock messaged Sir Gavin on October 1 2020 to congratulate him on his decision to delay A-level exams for a few weeks.

He wrote: “Cracking announcement today. What a bunch of absolute arses the teaching unions are.”

Sir Gavin responded: “I know they really, really do just hate work.”

Earlier in May, Sir Gavin had messaged Mr Hancock asking for his help in securing personal protective equipment (PPE) for schools so a lack of such equipment could not be used “as a reason not to open.”

He wrote: “All of them will but some will just want to say they can’t so they have an excuse to avoid having to teach, what joys!!!”

Sir Gavin said today that he had not been criticising teachers but “some unions,” adding: “I have the utmost respect for teachers who work tirelessly to support students.”

But Association of School and College Leaders general secretary Geoff Barton condemned the reported exchange.

He told BBC Breakfast: “It’s contemptible because we have to remind ourselves that this was an age of extraordinary anxiety. We hadn’t got vaccines.

“And the government was starting to look to the teaching profession to welcome those young people back into school.

“It was a huge debate going on, very snarky debate about whether face coverings should or shouldn’t be worn.”

National Education Union (NEU) joint general secretary Dr Mary Bousted said there was never a time when teachers were not working during the pandemic.

She said education unions listened to the science and acted to protect schools when the government did not.

“The education secretary was clearly out of his depth and, we now hear, contemptuous of unions and teachers,” Dr Bousted said.

“Given the current dispute with the Department for Education over teacher pay, we sincerely hope (current Education Secretary) Gillian Keegan does not share this attitude and gets around the table to discuss a resolution to the pay dispute.”

Shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson said that the comments were a “kick in the teeth for teachers who stretched ever sinew for children during the pandemic.”

The Labour MP said: “They add insult to injury at a time when fewer people are joining the profession and when teachers are leaving classrooms in their droves.”

The leaked messages showed that Mr Hancock did not follow advice from chief medical officer Professor Sir Chris Whitty in April 2020 to test all residents going into English care homes.

Mr Hancock told the aide that the move just “muddies the waters,” and introduced mandatory testing only for those coming from hospitals.

And social care minister Helen Whately appeared to warn Mr Hancock in October 2020 that restrictions on care home visits were “inhumane” – but the rules remained in place for months.

The I’m A Celebrity contestant also allegedly met his 100,000-tests-a-day target by counting kits that were dispatched before the deadline but might never have been processed.

The messages also show that his adviser helped courier a test to senior Tory Jacob Rees-Mogg’s home for one of his children in September 2020 while there was a shortage.

Mr Hancock told former chancellor George Osborne, then-editor of the Evening Standard, “I WANT TO HIT MY TARGET!” as he pushed for favourable front-page coverage, receiving the sardonic reply: “I gathered.”