An adviser to the health secretary, Matt Hancock, has been involved in an altercation outside a Leeds hospital during a Conservative general election campaign visit.
Hancock had been dispatched to Leeds General Infirmary on Monday afternoon after a picture printed on the front page of the Daily Mirror showed a four-year-old boy lying on a ward floor because of a shortage of beds.
The adviser, who is a longstanding aide of the minister, was claimed to have been involved in an altercation with a protester as he tried to get into his car outside the hospital.
It was alleged that he was assaulted by political activists demonstrating outside the hospital just hours after Boris Johnson refused to look at a picture of the boy during an interview.
But a video that emerged later appeared to show the adviser walking into a protester’s arm. It was not immediately clear if the video showed the end of the alleged incident.
The incident happened as Hancock was leaving the hospital after visiting senior staff to talk about the case of four-year-old Jack Williment Barr.
They were heckled with people shouting: “Shame on you”, “we do not want you in this country” and “you are not welcome in this hospital” as they both walked to a waiting car.
The Conservatives have suggested that the protesters were Labour activists convened by regional organisers.
Earlier in the day the prime minister cancelled an election visit as protesters gathered at the venue near Bolton.
A video posted online of the health secretary leaving the hospital shows just a few people waiting outside.
