BORIS JOHNSON is NOT firing Matt Hancock over his secret affair and “considers the matter closed”, Downing Street said this afternoon.
The PM has accepted the Health Secretary’s grovelling apology for snogging his top aide – in astonishing breach of his own social distancing rules.
Follow our Matt Hancock live blog for all the latest updates on his affair
Mr Hancock is desperately clinging on to his job despite enormous pressure for him to resign following the explosive revelations in Trending In The News.
Labour has called his position “hopelessly untenable” and demanded he be sacked.
But a No10 spokesman said this afternoon: “The Health Secretary set out that he accepted that he breached the social distancing guidelines.
“Obviously he has apologised for that. The Prime Minister has accepted the health secretary’s apology and considers the matter closed.”
Downing Street added that Mr Johnson had “full confidence” in his under-fire Health Secretary.
The spokesman refused to say whether the pair had a meeting over the phone or in person.
He also stonewalled questions about if Mr Hancock broke the law – and not just lockdown guidance.
In key developments:
- Matt Hancock’s secret affair with aide Gina Coladangelo is exposed
- Hancock’s wife Martha leaves home still wearing her wedding ring
- Shapps tries to defend Hancock over affair calling it a ‘red herring’
- Gina Coladangelo is married millionaire mum & Oliver Bonas PR chief
- Matt Hancock’s job hangs by a thread after latest scandal
- Piers Morgan blasts ‘hypocritical’ Matt Hancock for steamy affair
- Hancock mocked by Twitter for ‘if you’re a woman, swipe up’ post
Earlier Mr Hancock released a statement saying sorry for the lockdown-busting snog with Department for Health aide Gina Coladangelo.
He 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.”
Bombshell CCTV footage of the married Cabinet Minister locked in a steamy clinch has rocked the heart of Government this morning.
The cosy embrace in his Whitehall office on May 6 – before lockdown rules were relaxed to allow hugging – have fuelled furious claims of brazen hypocrisy and possible rule-breaking.
It also raises fresh concerns about Mr Hancock’s decision to hire old university pal Ms Coladangelo for a £15,000 taxpayer funded role.
Millionaire lobbyist Ms Coladengelo was brought in to the Department for Health as an unpaid adviser in March last year before, being appointed as a salaried non-executive director in September.
The images – taken as the pandemic raged and the mutant strain spread – have left Mr Hancock’s Cabinet career hanging by a thread with Labour demanding urgent answers.
As of this morning Boris Johnson was sticking with his Health Secretary, with the Government line insisting it was a “private matter”.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said he “absolutely” had confidence in his Cabinet colleague.
He told Times Radio: “We don’t live in a world where the responsibilities of public work and what somebody has done in their private life are one and the same thing.
“We’re living in the 21st century and how people live their private lives is a private business.”
Mr Hancock has three children with his wife of 15 years Martha Hoyer Millar.
Labour has demanded Mr Johnson sack Mr Hancock for having an affair with his top aide.
Party chair Anneliese Dodds said the Health Secretary’s position was “hopelessly untenable” following Trending In The News’s explosive revelations.
Ms Dodds 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 clear conflict of interest.
“The charge sheet against Matt Hancock includes wasting taxpayers’ money, leaving care homes exposed and now being accused of breaking his own Covid rules.
“His position is hopelessly untenable. Boris Johnson should sack him.”
The Lib Dems have also agitated for his resignation. MP Munira Wilson said: “This latest episode of hypocrisy will break the trust with the British public.
“He was telling families not to hug loved ones, while doing whatever he liked in the workplace.”
