The phrasing of "deploying the new variant" was unfortunate. But, given that the new variant was announced the day after he sent that message, it was clear he meant deploying the story.
I'm not going to defend Matt Hancock in any way; I think he's an idiot who broke his own rules, but those messages didn't show any conspiracy. Indeed they probably disproved it, because if it had all been planned from day one, I expect the messages would have been very different! In some of the messages I've seen, there's talk of increasing numbers along with concern of what that would mean.
Again the "scaring the pants off people" wording was daft. It plays into 'Project Fear's' hands, but it was clear they were concerned about people mixing too much and spreading the virus, hence they wanted to make it clear why extra mixing wasn't a good idea. Then we had the rolling back of the relaxtion of rules in Christmas 2020 because -- foolishly -- they'd made hasty decisions in advance rather than keeping an eye on the numbers.
I know the messages were leaked to support an anti lockdown agenda but I don't think they've achieved that (unless there are damning messages I haven't seen yet). No one wanted to have lockdowns and restrictions, but I dread to think how many people would have been impacted if it was allowed to run rampant with no measures. I was living with my dad at the time - looking after him as he had terminal cancer - so I was glad of restrictions. I was petrified of spreading it to him, as it would have almost certainly killed him if he'd got it. I find those who were anti lockdown or anti any measures don't care about the implications it might have had on people like my dad. It's all me, me, me.