Matt Hancock affair: were any laws broken?
Labour calls for investigations into social distancing breach and Gina Coladangelo’s employment
The scandal surrounding Matt Hancock continues to rage despite his resignation over CCTV footage that showed him kissing an aide in his Whitehall office.
One opposition MP has reported the former health secretary to police for breaching coronavirus restrictions, while Labour leader Keir Starmer has said there are “huge questions still to answer”.
“If anybody thinks that the resignation of Matt Hancock is the end of the issue,” he said, “I think they’re wrong.”
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Did Hancock break the law?
The disgraced MP admitted to breaching social distancing guidance after The Sun exposed what it called a “steamy clinch” with his aide Gina Coladangelo at his Whitehall office. “I have let people down and am very sorry,” he said. The pair, who are both married, were caught on camera in a “passionate embrace” as “Covid gripped Britain” on 6 May, said the newspaper.
Metro says Labour’s shadow Cabinet Office minister Fleur Anderson has asked police to investigate Hancock for “flouting his own social distancing rules with his secret lover”. Grieving families backed calls for a prosecution of Hancock, who reportedly left his wife when he found out the story was about to break, it adds.
“Experts say the incident sits in a legal ‘grey area’,” says The Independent. While separate households could not mix indoors at the time, there were several exceptions, including gatherings that were “reasonably necessary for work purposes”. Barrister Adam Wagner has said: “It’s quite difficult to understand how what we see in the picture could be reasonably necessary for work purposes. So I think this probably is a breach of Matt Hancock’s own regulations.”
Nevertheless, the Metropolitan Police has said no criminal investigation has been launched. The force said that, as a matter of course, it would focus on “live” breaches of the Health Protection Regulations 2020 but would not be “investigating Covid related issues retrospectively”.
What about other rules?
There have been calls for a number of other investigations related to the affair, including a probe into Coladangelo’s employment as a non-executive director at the Department of Health.
Reports have suggested Hancock failed to declare the relationship when Coladangelo got the £15,000-a-year job in September, which Labour says would appear to breach the Ministerial Code.
Coladangelo, who became friends with Hancock at Oxford University, was also working as his unpaid adviser and as communications director for her husband Oliver Tress’s high street chain Oliver Bonas. Friends of Hancock claim the relationship began only in May this year and Coladangelo has now quit as a non-executive director at the health department.
Hancock also faces scrutiny for using private email for official business, which could amount to another breach of rules, reports The Sunday Times. He is yet to comment on the claims.
Did the whistleblower act lawfully?
Meanwhile, the health department is carrying out an internal inquiry into how the “incendiary” footage ended up in the public domain, reports the Mail on Sunday. The newspaper claims the couple were secretly recorded by a member of staff.
Former health secretary Jeremy Hunt told The Andrew Marr Show that this was “possibly” a breach of the Official Secrets Act, which carries a maximum two-year prison sentence. However, The Guardian says Downing Street has ruled out a full-scale inquiry into the identity of the leaker as they might successfully argue they were exposing wrongdoing under whistleblowing legal protections.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
The ultimate films of 2024 by genre
From the Magazine In a year dominated by sequels, here are the releases that impressed the critics, from Hollywoodgate and Twisters to Poor Things and Atomic People
By The Week UK Published
-
The big art stories of 2024
In depth From the rediscovery of a long-lost painting and the year's highest sale price to the artwork eaten by its new owner
By The Week UK Published
-
Crossword: December 29, 2024
The Week's daily crossword
By The Week Staff Published
-
John Prescott: was he Labour's last link to the working class?
Today's Big Quesiton 'A total one-off': tributes have poured in for the former deputy PM and trade unionist
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
Last hopes for justice for UK's nuclear test veterans
Under the Radar Thousands of ex-service personnel say their lives have been blighted by aggressive cancers and genetic mutations
By Sorcha Bradley, The Week UK Published
-
Will Donald Trump wreck the Brexit deal?
Today's Big Question President-elect's victory could help UK's reset with the EU, but a free-trade agreement with the US to dodge his threatened tariffs could hinder it
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
What is the next Tory leader up against?
Today's Big Question Kemi Badenoch or Robert Jenrick will have to unify warring factions and win back disillusioned voters – without alienating the centre ground
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
What is Lammy hoping to achieve in China?
Today's Big Question Foreign secretary heads to Beijing as Labour seeks cooperation on global challenges and courts opportunities for trade and investment
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
Is Britain about to 'boil over'?
Today's Big Question A message shared across far-right groups listed more than 30 potential targets for violence in the UK today
By Sorcha Bradley, The Week UK Published
-
UK's Starmer slams 'far-right thuggery' at riots
Speed Read The anti-immigrant violence was spurred by false rumors that the suspect in the Southport knife attack was an immigrant
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
How could J.D. Vance impact the special relationship?
Today's Big Question Trump's hawkish pick for VP said UK is the first 'truly Islamist country' with a nuclear weapon
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published