UN’s U-turn on job offer to Hancock

MATT HANCOCK faced fresh embarrassment yesterday after the United Nations withdrew a high-profile job offer just days after he had accepted it.

The disgraced former Health Secretary, who quit the Cabinet over his affair with an aide, announced last week that he had been given a UN role helping Africa’s economy recover from Covid.

The appointment prompted a backlash from critics of the UK’s response to the pandemic.

But a UN spokesman revealed that Mr Hancock, 43, had been told the appointment ‘is not being taken forward’.

Last night it emerged the UN had belatedly realised its own rules prevent sitting Members of Parliament from simultaneously serving as UN special representatives.

In a statement, Mr Hancock said: ‘Since I am committed to continuing to serve as MP for West Suffolk, this means I cannot take up the position.’

The father-of-three quit the Government in June after leaked CCTV footage emerged of him breaching his department’s social distancing guidance while embracing aide Gina Coladangelo.