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Bristol Post
Bristol Post
World
Rachel Wearmouth & Conor Gogarty

Matt Hancock resigns over kiss with Gina Coladangelo and issues fresh apology

UPDATE: Bristol-raised Sajid Javid has replaced Matt Hancock as Health Secretary.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock has quit amid anger over his breach of Covid rules.

A newspaper sting by The Sun revealed him kissing Government aide Gina Coladangelo.

The image was reportedly taken on May 6, when indoor social gatherings of people from different households were banned, and guidance urged people to stay two metres apart and avoid "face to face contact", the Mirror reports.

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On Saturday evening he issued a statement announcing his departure.

"The last thing I would want is for my private life to distract attention from the single-minded focus that is leading us out of this crisis," he said.

"I want to reiterate my apology for breaking the guidance, and apologise to my family and loved ones for putting them through this.

"I also need be with my children at this time. We owe it to people who have sacrificed so much in this pandemic to be honest when we have let them down as I have done by breaching the guidance."

Boris Johnson had said he stood by Mr Hancock, after a video of an embrace with university friend and Department of Health non-executive director Gina Coladangelo was published on Friday.

But Conservative MP Duncan Baker was the first on Saturday to confirm he was calling for him to go, before former Cabinet minister Esther McVey said she would resign if she was in the same position.

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North Norfolk MP Mr Baker told the Eastern Daily Press newspaper: "In my view people in high public office and great positions of responsibility should act with the appropriate morals and ethics that come with that role.

"Matt Hancock, on a number of measures, has fallen short of that. As an MP who is a devoted family man, married for 12 years with a wonderful wife and children, standards and integrity matter to me.

"I will not in any shape condone this behaviour and I have in the strongest possible terms told the Government what I think."

Ms McVey told GB News: "If it would have been me, I would have resigned myself, and I said that for Dominic (Cummings), and I'm hoping that Matt Hancock is thinking the same thing, that he doesn't have to have it pushed upon him."

She said it would be "viewed far more admirably" if he resigned.

A snap poll from Savanta ComRes, released hours after photographs of the embrace surfaced, found 58 per cent of UK adults thought that Mr Hancock should resign, compared with 25 per cent who thought he should not.

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