UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock today apologized for “disrespecting social distancing rules” during his adultery with a counselor, but refused to step down.
“I admit that I violated the social distancing rules in these circumstances. I have let people down and I apologize, ”he said in a statement quoted by the British press.
However, he was determined to continue to “focus on getting the country out of this pandemic,” demanding respect for the family’s privacy “in this private matter.”
The Sun tabloid reported today that Matt Hancock, married with three children, has an affair with an aide, and posted photos of the two kissing in the minister’s office in May, at a time when hugs between people from different households were banned.
The hiring of Gina Coladangelo, whom Matt Hancock will meet in college and who is currently communicating with the chain of stores her husband founded, is also raising questions.
A spokesman for the Labor Party, the main opposition party, asked whether the minister had violated the rules and whether there was a “conflict of interest” in appointing an advisor who is a shareholder and director of Luther Pendragon’s lobbying agency.
“Ministers, like everyone else, have the right to privacy. However, when taxpayers’ money is at stake or a job is offered to close friends who have a personal relationship with the minister, this needs to be analyzed, ”he said.
Transportation Secretary Grant Shapps told SkyNews this morning that any recruitment to the state must go through an “incredibly rigorous” process and that there are no “labels”, declining to comment further on a “completely personal” issue. “
Hancock has been under pressure lately after Dominic Cummings, a former adviser to the prime minister, accused him of lying on several occasions and said he should have been fired.
He subsequently posted images of alleged messages he exchanged with Boris Johnson, where he categorizes Hancock as “completely useless” in treating the pandemic.
At the start of the pandemic in May 2020, scientist Neil Ferguson, one of the top government advisers, was forced to resign after taking a woman, allegedly a mistress, into his home during his first imprisonment in England.
In the UK, which is currently experiencing a new wave of the Delta variant pandemic, there have been 16,703 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, up to a maximum since 6 February, bringing the total number of deaths since the start of the pandemic to 128,048. the highest rate in Europe.
