AFTER leading the U.K. through the pandemic as the government’s health secretary, Matt Hancock has resigned in the aftermath of his affair with an aide that broke his own coronavirus rules. The senior minister, who had held three Cabinet positions before reaching his 40th birthday, announced his resignation in a video and formal letter to the prime minister. Appointed health secretary in 2018 after spending 18 months in the culture brief, he has been a prominent figure for the government during its handling of the coronavirus pandemic until his resignation June 26. Following a series of uncomfortable headlines in recent weeks, Hancock faced pressure to stand down after pictures emerged depicting the married minister appearing to kiss his adviser Gina Coladangelo. The CCTV images published in The Sun were taken May 6 when guidance on social distancing was still in place, with hugging between people from different households recommended against. This came after the prime minister’s former aide Dominic Cummings shared text messages this month in which Boris Johnson is said to have called the health secretary — who caught coronavirus last year — “totally (expletive) useless.” Cummings accused the senior minister of lying to the prime minister over promises to protect those in care homes during the first wave of COVID-19 infections by testing new residents before being admitted. Hancock has dismissed claims he lied and called Johnson’s “hopeless” jibe “ancient history.” During the first face-to-face meeting last week between the Queen and Johnson since the pandemic started, the monarch called Hancock a “poor man” following his time in the limelight since the crisis kicked off in March 2020. Hancock resigned as Britain’s health secretary June 26, one day after he apologized for breaching COVID regulations. The married politician was pictured kissing and embracing his adviser, with whom British tabloid The Sun alleges he is having an affair. The newspaper reported that the images were from May 6, two weeks before cross-household contact was allowed indoors in England. “I’ve been to see the prime minister to resign as secretary of state for health and social care ... Those of us who make these rules have got to stick by them, and that’s why I’ve got to resign,” Hancock said in a video posted on his Twitter page. “I’m very proud of what we’ve done to protect the NHS at the peak, to deliver that vaccine rollout — one of the fastest in the world,” he added. In a letter to Johnson, he apologized writing, “I want to reiterate my apology for breaking the guidance and apologize to my family and loved ones for putting them through this.” The Sun’s report had sparked accusations of apparent cronyism — an allegation that the health secretary has faced previously for awarding a contract to a former neighbor for COVID-19 test kits. Hancock has been under pressure for months over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic in Britain, but had managed to cling onto his role. To date, more than 128,000 people have died in the United Kingdom from COVID-19 — the highest death toll in Europe. One of the biggest early failures of the U.K.’s response to COVID-19 was in building a test-and-trace system. The British Government has also been criticized for neglecting care homes, allowing many facilities to go without sufficient PPE, testing and clear guidelines. The 42-year-old also is facing a backlash in his constituency over breaking social distancing rules, with a Conservative councilor calling for the former health secretary to be deselected if he does not stand down. Ian Houlder has written to the local Tory party calling for Hancock to be removed as MP for West Suffolk in the wake of his resignation from Cabinet. Hancock has been MP for the constituency since 2010 and has a majority of more than 23,000. The West Suffolk councilor said Hancock’s actions were “beyond the pale,” adding that his “honor, integrity, probity and honesty, should he have had any, [is] trashed beyond redemption.” In his email to the chair of the West Suffolk Conservative Association, Houlder said the controversy had shown Hancock to be a “selfish, egotistical man.” “He has let every member of the public down, pontificating that they should all make huge sacrifices on the altar of the pandemic, whilst doing the complete opposite himself,” Houlder added. He has also written directly to Hancock, telling him: “If you have a shred of integrity or honor you would resign without delay. Do the residents of West Suffolk a favor and stand down.” Hancock, who in 2018 became the only MP in British politics to launch his own app, took only eight years to rise from West Suffolk MP to health secretary. The former health minister has made a big play of his varied life before entering politics. The Oxford and Cambridge educated father-of-three previously worked as an economist at the Bank of England and as chief of staff to George Osborne when he was shadow chancellor of the Exchequer, before becoming an MP. He married Martha, an osteopath, in 2006 and the pair have three children together. It was at Oxford that his path first crossed with Coladangelo, a fellow undergraduate who would remain a close pal for the next two decades. But it was his fateful decision to hire her — first as an unpaid adviser last April and then as a ?15,000 (US$20,718)-a-year nonexecutive director at the Health Department — that could yet be his undoing. Coladangelo, the lobbyist and aide who Hancock is claimed to have had an affair with, told a BBC Radio 4 profile on the politician that the pair met at the Oxford University student radio station, Oxygen FM, where she was a news reader and he a sports reporter. The marketing and communications director at Oliver Bonas, a British retailer founded by her husband Oliver Tress, told the BBC about how Hancock had “told a white lie” to his radio news desk after failing to make it to cover an international rugby match. She said: “He actually overslept and hot-footed it to the train but didn’t make it to Twickenham in time from Oxford, so had to get off the train at Reading, find a pub, watch the first half in a pub and then go to a phone box outside and report in. “So he told a white lie, pretended he was at Twickenham watching the rugby when in fact he was in a pub in Reading.” The Cheshire-raised politician first attended Cabinet after being appointed minister for the Cabinet Office in 2015 by then Prime Minister David Cameron. Cameron’s successor Theresa May later promoted him to the role of culture secretary. Hancock initially threw his hat into the ring to replace May in No. 10 during the 2019 Conservative Party leadership contest, but withdrew from the leadership race part way through and was quick to throw his weight behind Johnson. He said he is looking forward to “supporting the government and the prime minister from the back benches to make sure that we can get out of this pandemic” in his resignation video. (SD-Agencies) | 