PM Boris Johnson backs Hancock despite pictures of health secretary kissing aide
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has backed health secretary Matt Hancock to stay in his role despite being accused of having an affair with his closest aide after CCTV footage emerged last night of Hancock kissing Gina Coladangelo.
The PM’s spokesperson this afternoon said that Johnson considered “the matter closed”.
Both Labour and the Liberal Democrats have called on him to resign.
The health secretary apologised at lunchtime for breaking social distancing rules with the pictured kiss, saying he was “very sorry” and had “let people down”.
“I accept that I breached the social distancing guidance in these circumstances. I have let people down and am very sorry,” the health secretary said in a statement.
“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,” he added.
The pictures, which were published by the Sun last night, appear to show the two embracing in what the newspaper called a “steamy clinch”.
Read more: Fancy a Covid jab? Here are all the free walk-in vaccine sites open in London this week
Both Hancock and Coladangelo are married with three children.
Colandangelo, who Hancock met at university, was appointed as an unpaid adviser last March. She was made a non-executive director in September.
She is also the communications director at high-end homeware store Oliver Bonas, which was founded by her husband, Oliver Tress.
The Sun said that the images, which show the two in Hancock’s office in Westminster, were taken on 6 May, in the midst of the local elections.
Last night, a friend of the Health Secretary said: “He has no comment on personal matters. No rules have been broken.”
A Labour spokesman said “if Matt Hancock has been secretly having a relationship with an adviser in his office – who he personally appointed to a taxpayer-funded role – it is a blatant abuse of power and a conflict of interest.
“His position is hopelessly untenable,” continued the spokesman.
Transport secretary Grant Shapps said this that he would not be commenting on the “entirely personal” matter following the reports about his Cabinet colleague.
When asked if the health secretary had been ignoring social distancing rules when the images were taken, Shapps told LBC he is “quite sure that whatever the rules were at the time were followed”.
However, the Government’s road map out of lockdown said people should continue to keep their distance from anyone not in their household or support bubble until 17 May.
Before the Open: Get the jump on the markets with our early morning newsletter