UK health secretary Matt Hancock resigns after steamy clinch with aide Gina Coladangelo
Britain’s health secretary quits after video of him kissing a staffer emerged while he was banning hugs between family members.
Britain’s health secretary Matt Hancock has resigned after a steamy video emerged of him passionately kissing an aide – at the very time he was banning hugs between family members.
In the end, hypocrisy rather than ineptitude was Mr Hancock’s downfall, even though prime minister Boris Johnson had sent a text during the height of last year’s pandemic calling Mr Hancock “totally f…g hopeless”.
For many months, Mr Hancock had been ridiculed for the failure of the country’s test and trace system and the lack of personal protective equipment. He had also been blamed for high numbers of nursing home deaths early in the pandemic after elderly people were transferred out of hospital into care homes without any Covid-19 testing.
Mr Hancock appeared to have survived in the job because of his intense loyalty in the Cabinet room to Mr Johnson and the huge success of the country’s vaccine rollout.
But over the weekend, humiliating footage taken on May 6 of Mr Hancock kissing his aide Gina Coladangelo – both of whom are married with children – not only led to personal upheaval, but became the butt of both the nation’s jokes and anger from the public.
For most of this year, Mr Hancock had been stressing how it was illegal to hug or to see another person indoors and face-to-face business meetings were only permissible if deemed reasonably necessary.
In February, he was asked if people could hug their loved ones, and he told the BBC: “Well I hope that will happen from May 17 … that is some time off.”
Remember how the Queen had to sit alone at Prince Philip’s funeral? That was just shy of three weeks before Mr Hancock was filmed checking the corridor was clear outside his office, then leaning against the door inside his office and embracing Ms Coladangelo for several minutes in scenes reminiscent of teenagers snogging behind the school fence.
Police may yet be called in to investigate the filming inside of a minister’s office and how the video was leaked.
In announcing his resignation in London on Saturday evening, Mr Hancock said in a video: “I’ve been to see the Prime Minister to resign as secretary of state for health and social care. I understand the enormous sacrifices that everybody in this country has made – that you have made. And those of us who make these rules have got to stick by them and that’s why I’ve got to resign.”
Mr Hancock reportedly told his wife Martha Hancock that he was leaving their 15 year marriage on Thursday night, soon after he was aware that the Sun newspaper was to publish details of his affair with Ms Coladangelo.
Mr Johnson has replaced Mr Hancock with Sajid Javid, the former chancellor who is making a return to Cabinet after a high profile row with Mr Johnson’s former advisor Dominic Cummings in February last year.
Mr Johnson had earlier backed Mr Hancock but by Saturday, said he was “sorry” to accept his resignation.
In his letter to Mr Johnson, Mr Hancock had said we “owe it to people who have sacrificed so much in this pandemic to be honest when we have let them down”.
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— Matt Hancock (@MattHancock) June 26, 2021
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