LONDON – United Kingdom Health Secretary Matt Hancock yesterday resigned following revelations that he broke government coronavirus restrictions during an affair with a close aide, with former finance minister Sajid Javid taking up the role.
The frontman for Britain’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic, particularly the nationwide vaccine roll-out, quit in a letter to Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
“We owe it to people who have sacrificed so much in this pandemic to be honest when we have let them down, as I have done by breaching the guidance.
“The last thing I would want is for my private life to distract attention from the single-minded focus that is leading us out of this crisis.”
Johnson said he was sorry to receive Hancock’s resignation, and that the latter should be “immensely proud” of his service.
His Downing Street office later said Queen Elizabeth II has approved the appointment of Javid as Hancock’s replacement.
Johnson initially stood by his health secretary after Hancock admitted to breaking social-distancing rules, when at the same time, he was urging the public to stick by such measures.
Opposition parties have accused the government of hypocrisy over breaches of lockdown rules that have seen many residents slapped with fines.
Hancock conceded that he let the public down after The Sun newspaper published a security camera still obtained apparently from a whistle-blower, showing him kissing the aide in his office on May 6.
The main opposition Labour Party said the government needs to answer questions about the undisclosed appointment of the aide, former lobbyist Gina Coladangelo, to Hancock’s top advisory team.
Both she and Hancock are married, and first met at university.
Last week, Hancock rejected criticism of his handling of the pandemic after private WhatsApp exchanges emerged in which Johnson appears to describe him as “hopeless”.
He also previously faced allegations that he lied to the prime minister and awarded a contract to an unqualified friend.
And, he faced further questions about his ownership of shares in a family company that won a Covid-19-related contract from the ministry last year.
Javid has already held two of the top jobs in the government, serving as finance minister from 2019 to 2020 and interior minister in 2018.
One of five sons of Pakistani immigrant parents, he is a former managing director at Deutsche Bank and previously worked as an aide to ex-New York mayor Rudy Giuliani.
Britain was due to fully ease virus restrictions on June 21, but the emergence of the Delta variant, first found in India, has led to an extension of social-distancing rules. – AFP, June 27, 2021
