Camera that caught kiss was hidden in smoke detector

British security officials are understood to be inspecting all ministerial offices for bugs.

Matt Hancock and Gina Coladangelo kiss in his office. Picture: The Sun

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s cabinet ministers have demanded urgent security sweeps of their offices after Health Secretary Matt Hancock was filmed with a CCTV camera hidden inside a smoke detector.

Government security officials are understood to be inspecting all ministerial offices for bugs amid fears that foreign governments could obtain information from private meetings.

Allies of Mr Hancock say he was “stitched up like a kipper” and had no idea there was a camera recording him in a passionate clinch with Gina Coladangelo on May 6.

The camera is understood to have been put there in recent months.

The working assumption of security chiefs is that a government contractor obtained access to a feed from the camera and either downloaded it or filmed the monitor with his phone to pass to The Sun newspaper.

One source in the cabinet office even suggested that whether the Chinese government was behind the sting was a line of inquiry.

That was dismissed as “a diversion” by another senior source.

Under the Wilson doctrine, dating from the 1960s, when Harold Wilson was prime minister, MPs are not supposed to be bugged without the express permission of the prime minister. “I’ve certainly asked the question about whether there are any cameras in my office,” said one cabinet minister at the weekend.

“The worst they would show is some drinking and loud singing, but I would like to know if we are being monitored.

“If something like this fell into the hands of a foreign government, say the Russians, he could have been blackmailed.

“There has to be a safe space for ministers and advisers to have difficult conversations away from prying eyes.”

David Davis, a former cabinet minister, said: “A serious criminal offence has been committed by the person who passed on the footage. There needs to be a proper investigation.”

The Sunday Times