Pressure on Matt Hancock to kiss cabinet job goodbye after breaking Covid rules in affair
Boris Johnson has stood by Health Secretary Matt Hancock amid pressure for him to resign after breaching social-distancing rules during an affair with a senior aide.
Boris Johnson has stood by Health Secretary Matt Hancock amid mounting political and public pressure for him to resign after breaching social-distancing rules during an affair with a senior aide.
The British Conservative Prime Minister said he retained full confidence in Mr Hancock after photographs emerged of him kissing Gina Coladangelo, a non-executive director at the Department of Health, in his office.
A YouGov quick survey found that 49 per cent of voters believed Mr Hancock should resign, with 25 per cent saying he should stay. One government source said he should do “the decent thing” and resign, describing Mr Johnson’s decision to stand by him as a “failure of leadership”.
Mr Hancock apologised for his actions and Downing Street said that it “considers the matter closed” but declined to say whether Mr Hancock had broken the law or breached the ministerial code.
The photographs were taken on May 6 when it was illegal to meet people from other households indoors unless for work purposes.
Scientific advisers warned that Mr Hancock’s breach of social-distancing rules could encourage others to do the same.
In the coming week the Health Secretary is expected to announce in the Commons that July 5 is too early for the final easing of lockdown restrictions and tell the nation to wait until July 19.
Stephen Reicher, a member of the government’s scientific pandemic insights group on behaviours (SPI-B), said that by defending Mr Hancock, “Johnson has trashed all the advice we have given on how to build trust and secure adherence”.
The Health Secretary has been left fighting for his political future after The Sun published images which appear to have been taken from CCTV system installed in his office. The Department of Health is investigating how the images were made public amid calls for the police and security services to get involved.
In the video the Health Secretary is apparently seen checking that the corridor is clear before closing the door and leaning on it.
Ms Coladangelo, who earns up to £20,000 ($36,000) a year in her role at the department, walks up to him and kisses him.
Mr Hancock, who is married with three children, is said to have begun his relationship with Ms Coladangelo, who is also married with three children, in May.
A source told The Times that the relationship was “serious” and “not just a fling”. The Department of Health and Downing Street declined to comment on whether the pair were still together.
Ms Coladangelo went to Oxford University with Hancock and the two have been friends since. She was appointed a non-executive director at the department in September.
The Labour Opposition and the Liberal Democrats called for Mr Hancock to resign for breaches of coronavirus laws, the ministerial code and an alleged conflict of interest over the appointment of Ms Coladangelo.
Mr Hancock said: “I accept that I breached the social distancing guidance in these circumstances. I have let people down and am very sorry. I remain focused on working to get the country out of this pandemic, and would be grateful for privacy for my family on this personal matter.”
Downing Street said: “The Health Secretary and the Prime Minister’s focus remains on tackling the pandemic as we move towards step 4 [of easing lockdown restrictions] in July. That work is ongoing and will remain our priority.”
No 10 said that Mr Johnson and Mr Hancock attended a coronavirus meeting on Friday but declined to comment on any “private conversations” between the two men.
Mr Hancock was one of the strongest critics of Professor Neil Ferguson, who quit as a scientific adviser last year after admitting that he breached lockdown rules to see his lover. Mr Hancock said at the time that he would support a police investigation into the matter.
Scotland Yard said on Friday that it was not investigating Mr Hancock over any alleged breaches of Covid regulations, adding: “At this time this remains a matter for the relevant government department.”
Senior health officials were said to be “pissed off” by the revelations, with one questioning “how is anyone supposed to look him in the eye?” They said that civil servants were all “struggling to understand” why Ms Coladangelo had been appointed last year, and questioned why Sir Chris Wormald, the permanent secretary, had signed it off.
Ms Coladangelo, whose husband founded the Oliver Bonas fashion and homeware chain, met Mr Hancock at their college radio station 25 years ago. She is friends with his wife on Facebook. She started working for Mr Hancock in an unpaid role last year before becoming a non-executive director. She previously helped him with his campaign for the Tory leadership.
Her appointment led to concern among ministers and officials that Mr Hancock had replaced the three board members with health service experience with outsiders. They were told that Mr Hancock “wanted people with communication, marketing and IT experience” despite warnings that it would leave the department short of clinical oversight during the pandemic.
Ms Coladangelo was given a pass for the Houses of Parliament sponsored by Lord Bethell of Romford, a health minister and former lobbyist.
Lord Bethell, 53, had been chairman of Mr Hancock’s 2019 Tory leadership campaign. Ms Coladangelo was said to be Mr Hancock’s “chosen one” and a senior official described her as a “very smart cookie”. The appointment was at the time seen as “unusual rather than untoward – the most unusual thing was to have non-executive directors without apparent healthcare experience”.
The only public record of Ms Coladangelo’s appointment had been her own LinkedIn profile. Her role was revealed by The Sunday Times last November.
There are no rules covering ministers appointing or declaring advisers. The Department of Health said that the appointment had been “made in the usual way and followed correct procedure”.
A Whitehall source said Mr Hancock “defers to her constantly” and that she plays a key role in everything from advising on policy to his image and briefing him before media appearances.
Further questions about potential conflicts of interest were raised after Sky News reported that Ms Coladangelo’s brother was an executive at a healthcare company selling out-of-hours GP services to the National Health Service. Roberto Coladangelo works for PHL Group, which has a series of NHS contacts. Although there is no suggestion of impropriety, ministers’ partners and close family must declare interests, “which might be thought to give rise to a conflict”.
Dominic Cummings, the Prime Minister’s former senior aide, increased the pressure on Hancock on Friday by releasing messages in which Mr Johnson described the test-and-trace plan overseen by the Health Secretary as “whistling in the dark”. The Prime Minister said the health department had “no idea” how cases would be controlled after last northern spring’s lockdown and dismissed its contact-tracing proposals as “legions of imaginary Clouseaus and no plan to hire them”.
Mr Cummings, who has repeatedly called for Mr Hancock to be sacked, released exchanges with Mr Johnson in which he highlighted “clear errors” about the testing regime and plans for a contact-tracing network to stop the virus spreading. Mr Johnson said the criticisms were “bang on. We GOTTA turn it round.” Soon afterwards Mr Johnson asked Baroness Harding of Winscombe to take over responsibility for the program that became NHS Test and Trace.
Senior Conservatives were divided over Mr Hancock’s future. The former party leader Lord Hague of Richmond said that the affair was a “personal matter”. He told Times Radio: “Is it in the interests of the country to change the health secretary at the moment over something like this? Well no, I would say not. Hancock has had such a huge amount of criticism from Dominic Cummings and through the crisis. He is now a very experienced health secretary.”
However, another government source said: “It’s a failure of leadership, and it will be a failure of Boris’s leadership if he stands by him. The sleaze accusations will just run and run.”
On Monday Mr Hancock’s NHS reform plans, which hand him greater powers over the health service, are due to be scrutinised by a cabinet committee before they are formally introduced to the Commons.
Downing Street had already been nervous about the political fallout of the reforms, with some in government questioning whether the scandal would lead to the plans being delayed or watered down.
With Chris Smyth and David Brown
The Times
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