Matt Hancock, the former health secretary, resigned after he kissed a colleague in violation of social distance guidelines. “The government owes it to those who have suffered so much in this pandemic to be honest when we have let them down,” he wrote in a letter to the prime minister.
“I’m sorry,” Boris Johnson remarked when he heard of the resignation. He is “honored” to have been picked as Mr. Hancock’s successor, former Chancellor Sajid Javid has said. In light of the Sun’s publication of images and a video showing Mr. Hancock kissing Gina Coladangelo, who is married with three children, Mr. Hancock had been under increasing pressure to resign. The 6th of May, according to the publication, was the date they were taken within the Department of Health.
The BBC’s Political Editor.
Mr. Hancock just divorced his wife of 15 years, Martha, and it is believed that he and Ms. Coladangelo are in a committed relationship. Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has come under fire from both his own party and the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice campaign. A senior Conservative official told the BBC that several of his colleagues had urged their whips on Saturday that he should step down.
Laura Kuenssberg, the BBC’s political editor, claimed No10 had insisted that Mr. Hancock had decided to leave and that he had not been pushed out by the PM. As a non-executive director of the Department of Health, Ms. Coladangelo was also going, according to her. It is not clear how Matt Hancock circumvented Covid’s controls. Matt Hancock: a well-known former secretary of state for health.
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Health Secretary: Who Is Sajid Javid?
“Poor man” is how the Queen describes the Health Secretary. “I have been to visit the prime minister to resign as secretary of state for health and social care,” Hancock said in a video aired on Twitter. Because of the immense sacrifices that everyone in this country and you have made, those of us who create the rules must adhere to them, and that’s why I must quit.”
Last month, during a seven-hour marathon hearing in Westminster, Cummings issued a stinging report on the government’s coronavirus response, accusing Downing Street and Hancock of misrepresenting the British public. In the wake of the UK’s fatal second wave of the epidemic, the polarizing figure, who resigned in November, stepped up his attacks on Hancock.
Hancock’s Performance.
When it came to testing and procurement as well as personal protective equipment (PPE) and care homes (to name a few), Hancock’s performance was deemed “absolutely f**king hopeless.” After the first full lockdown in the UK, Cummings tweeted a screenshot of what looks to be a WhatsApp conversation between Johnson and Cummings.
Coronavirus testing had been taking too long, Cummings reportedly texted the prime minister on March 27, 2020, just one day after Johnson and Hancock had both tested positive for the virus. Cummings claimed that the health minister had deceived the cabinet about his abilities to speed things up.
Johnson’s Response.
“Totally f**king hopeless” was Johnson’s response, according to Cummings’ blog and Twitter screenshots. The National Health Service was running out of crucial masks and gowns on April 27 when Johnson sent a text message saying that the PPE shortages were “a calamity,” and he urged that Hancock be removed from procurement of the equipment.
“What are we going to do?” Johnson penned the article. During a recent interview with Sky News, Hancock was asked if he thought he was completely out of options. His official spokeswoman said Johnson does not intend to respond to every claim made, although Johnson has not responded on the WhatsApp communications.
The State of Turmoil.
Even the Queen was taken aback by the state of turmoil in and around Hancock. When she met with Prime Minister David Cameron for the first time in 15 months, the Queen alluded to the health secretary’s plight, telling Johnson that she was speaking to “your secretary of state for health, poor chap.”
If Hancock was responding to criticism from Cummings, it’s not clear if this was a reaction to the enormous strain of handling the country’s coronavirus response or an acknowledgment of the criticism Hancock has received. My secretary of state for health, poor guy, had a conversation with me just now. The privy council summoned him. There is so much in him that…”
Johnson’s remark about “beans” was amusing. In response to the Queen’s remark, Johnson responded with the terse “Well, er, they are, in the sense that we’re” before the clip abruptly ends.
