U.K. health chief quits after kiss
Secretary caught embracing aide, breaking covid-19 rules
LONDON — British Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced his resignation Saturday after the Sun newspaper splashed a photograph on its front page of him passionately embracing his aide and former university friend, Gina Coladangelo, apparently in the Department of Health’s headquarters last month.
“Hancock’s affair with aide,” the headline read. Both Hancock and Coladangelo have spouses, and Hancock apologized
Friday and acknowledged that his actions violated social distancing rules in place at the time.
“Those of us who have made these rules have got to stick by them and that’s why I’ve got to resign,” Hancock said Saturday in a video posted to social media.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson had been facing growing pressure to dismiss Hancock, but said Friday that he accepted the health secretary’s apology and considered the case closed.
Coladangelo, a former lobbyist, became a nonexecutive director on the department’s board late last year.
Her hiring prompted accusations that Hancock acted unethically by hiring his close friend. Speaking to Sky News on Friday, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said Coladangelo — who studied at Oxford University with Hancock — would have gone through an “incredibly rigorous process” to be appointed to her position.
Shapps, who like Hancock is a member of the Conservative Party, declined to comment on the photo, telling LBC Radio that it was an “entirely personal matter.”
“Ministers, like everyone, are entitled to a private life,” said a spokesperson for Britain’s opposition Labor Party. “However, when taxpayers’ money is involved or jobs are being offered to close friends who are in a personal relationship with a minister, then that needs to be looked into.”
The photo, which appears to have been taken from security footage in the government building, swiftly went viral. Many people pointed out that at the time the photo was allegedly taken, Hancock was urging people to take precautions, including social distancing and mask wearing.
The scandal is the latest stumbling block for the British government, which has long faced criticism for its handling of the health crisis, with many accusing officials of failing nursing home residents through poor testing infrastructure, locking down the country too late and failing to provide front-line staff with adequate personal protective wear.
It also comes less than half a year after a British judge ruled that Hancock acted illegally by not being transparent over government contracts that were signed during the pandemic.
Britain is slowly emerging from its third national lockdown, after more than a year of restrictions that have kept many people at home and with minimal social contact. At least 128,000 people have died of the virus.
Last month, Johnson denied that he and Hancock were responsible for tens of thousands of avoidable deaths — a claim put forward by his former aide Dominic Cummings. He has said Johnson is “unfit” to lead the country and called for Hancock to be dismissed for “criminal, disgraceful behavior.”