British Health Secretary Matt Hancock resigned on Saturday following revelations that he broke the government’s own coronavirus restrictions during a relationship with a close aide.
The frontman stepped down in a letter to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson over the UK’s response to the pandemic, particularly the nationwide vaccine roll-out.
“We are indebted to those who have sacrificed so much in this pandemic to be honest when we have let them down as I have done by violating guidance,” he wrote.
Johnson said he was “sorry” to receive Hancock’s resignation, and that he should be “extremely proud” of his service.
The prime minister initially stood by his beleaguered health secretary after admitting to breaking COVID rules on social distancing, when he was urging the public to stick to measures, including attending funerals. There was also a restriction on the number of people.
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Opposition parties accused the government of hypocrisy over violation of lockdown rules, at a time when several members of the public were fined.
In this November 22, 2019 file photo, Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson, right, and Health Minister Matt Hancock, visit Bassetlaw District General Hospital on their general election campaign in Worksop, England. (Christopher Furlong/Pool via AP, FILE)
Hancock admitted that he had let the public down after the Sun newspaper still published a security camera, apparently obtained from an informant, showing him kissing a colleague in his office on 6 May.
The main opposition, Labor, said the government needed to answer questions about the undisclosed appointment of former lobbyist Gina Colladangelo, an aide, to Hancock’s top advisory team.
She and Hancock are both married, and first met at university.
Last week, Hancock shrugged off criticism of his handling of the COVID pandemic after private WhatsApp exchanges surfaced, in which Johnson described them as “disappointing”.
Hancock has previously faced allegations that he lied to Johnson and awarded a contract to an unqualified friend.
He has faced further questions about his ownership of shares in a family company that won a COVID-related contract from his ministry last year.
