Matt Hancock: More calls for health secretary to quit after kissing aide

Matt Hancock is facing calls to quit as health secretary after he breached social distancing guidance by kissing an aide.

The health secretary apologised after pictures emerged of him with Gina Coladangelo, reportedly taken on 6 May.

Duncan Baker has become the first Tory MP to openly tell the government he should resign, while Labour and the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group have called for him to be sacked.

The PM considers the matter closed.

A Downing Street spokesman said Boris Johnson accepted Mr Hancock’s apology, adding the prime minister had full confidence in the health secretary.

On Friday, The Sun published pictures of Mr Hancock and Ms Coladangelo, who are both married with three children, kissing. It said they had been taken inside the Department of Health on 6 May, leading the health secretary to say he was “very sorry”.

North Norfolk’s MP Mr Baker told his local newspaper the Eastern Daily Press that the health secretary had “fallen short” on a number of measures.

“I will not in any shape condone this behaviour and I have in the strongest possible terms told the government what I think,” he said.

Conservative commentator Tim Montgomerie, a former adviser to Mr Johnson, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme he believed Mr Hancock had been “a good secretary of state” but should resign.

“When you undermine your own rules, you have to show the public that you understand the transgression you’ve made and you resign,” he said.

“He could come back in 12 to 18 months but if the public don’t see some act of contrition, some sense that when rules are broken there are consequences, then confidence in the government, the Covid rules and the Conservative party are diminished.”

Meanwhile, the families of Covid victims warned the breach of social-distancing guidelines could damage government messaging on fighting the virus.

Rivka Gottlieb, from the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group told BBC Radio 4’s The World Tonight: “If he were to announce another lockdown or further regulations why would anybody listen to someone who doesn’t follow the rules themselves?”

She compared it to the prime minister’s former senior adviser Dominic Cummings’ trip from London to Durham during lockdown last March, when, despite widespread condemnation, Mr Johnson stuck by his aide.

Cabinet colleagues have defended the health secretary with Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick, International Development Secretary Liz Truss and Transport Secretary Grant Shapps all backing him publicly.

However, Dave Penman, general secretary of the FDA union, which represents senior civil servants, told Today the relationship should have been disclosed.

Ms Coladangelo sits as a non-executive director of the Department of Health and “if that information is kept secret from them that really is unforgiveable”, he said.

“Inevitably, there would have been issues where there was the potential to challenge the secretary of state from the board. If one of those members was having an intimate relationship with the secretary of state, it completely undermines those decisions,” he added.

Stephen Dorrell, who was health secretary in John Major’s Conservative government, said that while Mr Hancock could continue in public service in the future he should not “continue in this role right now”, warning that the scandal could undermine the government’s ability to handle the pandemic.

Mr Dorrell, who is now a Liberal Democrat, told BBC News: “There is already in the public space a narrative, most obviously in the case of Dominic Cummings, that there is one rule for them and another rule for the rest of us and I think that is immensely damaging to the authority of the government and the ability of the government to do its job.”

Labour said Mr Hancock’s position had become “hopelessly untenable” and has called for him to be sacked.

SNP’s Westminster deputy leader Kirsten Oswald said the prime minister “risks jeopardising vital public health measures” by retaining Mr Hancock as health secretary, saying there must be public confidence in those setting the rules.

The Liberal Democrats said Mr Hancock should have been sacked for “his failures” long ago, adding, “this latest episode of hypocrisy will break the trust with the British public”.

Agencies