Pressure builds on Boris Johnson to sack Matt Hancock over affair
Prime Minister Boris Johnson is under mounting pressure to sack Matt Hancock after pictures emerged of the health secretary kissing an aide.
Hancock has apologised for breaking social distancing rules after CCTV footage showed him in an embrace with Gina Coladangelo, reportedly taken in his Westminster offices on 6 May.
The prime minister’s spokesperson yesterday said Johnson had accepted the health secretary’s apology and now considered “the matter closed”.
But pressure is growing on Johnson to oust Hancock as critics said the revelations of the tryst had made his position untenable.
A group representing the families of Covid victims has written to the prime minister urging him to sack the health secretary if he fails to resign.
The Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group said failing to remove Hancock could lead to a “Cummings effect” and people breaking the rules — a reference to a scandal last year when then-Downing Street aide Dominic Cummings broke Covid rules by driving to Barnard Castle.
In its leader column this morning the Sun, which published the photos, said: “Mr Hancock cannot now hope to put on a straight face and tell us how to behave and seriously expect us to listen. There is the rank stench of hypocrisy.”
Today the first Tory MP also spoke out against Hancock, saying he had “fallen short” and calling for his resignation.
Duncan Baker, MP for North Norfolk, told the Eastern Daily Press: “As an MP who is a devoted family man, married for twelve years with a wonderful wife and children, standards and integrity matter to me. I will not in any shape condone this behaviour, and I have in the strongest possible terms told the government what I think.”
Former work and pensions secretary Esther McVey later said she hopes Hancock “comes forward” and resigns.
“If it had been me, I would have resigned myself,” she told GB News. “I’m hoping that Matt Hancock is thinking the same thing, that he doesn’t have to have it pushed upon him.”
Labour has also questioned whether Hancock breached the ministerial code by hiring a woman who had been a friend for years — the latest accusation of cronyism to hit Johnson’s Conservative government.
Colandangelo, who Hancock met at university, was appointed as an unpaid adviser last March and was made a non-executive director in September.
She is also the communications director at high-end homeware store Oliver Bonas, which was founded by her husband, Oliver Tress.
Hancock, who is also married, has said he is focused on getting the country out of the pandemic and has asked for privacy for his family.