Western Daily Press (Saturday)
PM rejects calls to sack Hancock
Health secretary broke social distancing rules when he kissed aide:
BORIS Johnson last night had so far rejected calls to sack Matt Hancock after the Health Secretary admitted breaching the Government’s rules on social distancing.
Mr Hancock apologised after images emerged of him kissing a close aide who he appointed in his office at the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC).
Labour said that his position had become “hopelessly untenable” and called for him to be sacked if he was not prepared to not quit voluntarily.
But a Downing Street spokesman said that Mr Johnson had accepted Mr Hancock’s apology and “considers the matter closed”.
Mr Hancock said he was “very sorry” for letting people down after The Sun published a CCTV image of him kissing Gina Coladangelo.
The paper reported that the Health Secretary was having an extramarital affair with Ms Coladangelo, who he knew from their days together at Oxford University and who he appointed to the DHSC last year. She was initially taken on as an unpaid adviser on a six-month contract in March last year, before being appointed as a non-executive director at the department.
In a statement, Mr Hancock said: “I accept that I breached the social distancing guidance in these circumstances, I have let people down and am very sorry. I remain focused on working to get the country out of this pandemic, and would be grateful for privacy for my family on this personal matter.”
Labour Party chair Anneliese Dodds said if Mr Hancock had been been secretly having a relationship with an adviser he appointed to a taxpayer-funded role, it was “a blatant abuse of power and a clear conflict of interest”. She said his admission that he had breached the rules on social distancing meant his position in office was no longer tenable.
“He set the rules. He admits he broke them. He has to go. If he won’t resign, the PM should sack him,” she said.
Despite Mr Johnson’s determi nation to defend his minister, Labour insisted it would continue to pursue the matter and would not allow the Government simply to “cover it up”.
“Matt Hancock appears to have been caught breaking the laws he created while having a secret relationship with an aide he appointed to a taxpayer-funded job,” a spokeswoman said. “The Prime Minister recently described him as ‘useless’ – the fact that even now he still can’t sack him shows how spineless he is.”
Deputy leader Angela Rayner later wrote to Mr Johnson saying Ms Coladangelo’s appointment appeared to be a breach of the Ministerial Code.
She said that if he was not prepared to act on his own initiative he should refer the matter to his independent adviser on ministerial interests, Lord Geidt.
During a testy press briefing at Westminster, a No 10 spokesman repeatedly stonewalled in the face of reporters’ questions. He refused to go into detail or to say whether Mr Hancock had declared their relationship to senior officials.