UK defends Matt Hancock after report of affair
But a Labour spokesperson says ‘when taxpayers’ money is involved or jobs are being offered to close friends who are in a personal relationship with a minister, then that needs to be looked into’
The UK government defended health secretary Matt Hancock after The Sun newspaper said he had been having an affair with a close aide.
The newspaper published two photos of Hancock embracing Gina Coladangelo, apparently in his Whitehall office in May. The pair are friends from Oxford University and are both married with children. Hancock’s office did not immediately return requests for comment from Bloomberg.
Transport secretary Grant Shapps, speaking to Times Radio as part of Friday’s ministerial media round, said: “What somebody does in their private life is their private business. We’re living in the 21st century.”
Coladangelo, a former director at lobbying firm Luther Pendragon and current shareholder, was appointed by Hancock as an unpaid adviser to the department of health in 2020. She was later made a nonexecutive director at the department, a role that pays £15,000 a year, according to the Sun. Hancock chairs the departmental board.
A spokesperson for Labour, the main opposition party, said the issue isn’t the affair but the potential conflict of interest, because “when taxpayers’ money is involved or jobs are being offered to close friends who are in a personal relationship with a minister, then that needs to be looked into.”
The revelations will pile pressure on Hancock at a delicate time, following repeated criticism over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic. It emerged earlier in June that Prime Minister Boris Johnson branded Hancock “hopeless” last March in a private message to his then aide Dominic Cummings.
Hancock defended his response to the coronavirus pandemic in a parliamentary hearing earlier in June, saying he acted with “honesty and integrity” throughout the crisis. Until the rapid rollout of vaccines, the government was repeatedly criticised over its handling of the coronavirus outbreak, which has left the UK with one of the world’s highest death tolls.
Hancock, who is responsible for the National Health Service in England, was also accused of “cronyism” in April after NHS Wales awarded two contracts to a company he owns shares in. His sister is a director of the firm.
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