The Queen said Matt Hancock’s “full of...” before Johnson interrupted
(Picture: POOL/AFP via Getty Images)The Queen welcomed Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, back into Buckingham Palace to host her first in-person audience, after 15 months of conducting the weekly meetings over the phone due to Covid.
And in a surprising turn, the 95-year-old wasted no time in expressing her sympathy for the Health Secretary, Matt Hancock.
She said, “I’ve just been talking to your Secretary of State for Health”, before calling him a “poor man!”
And yup, that pretty much sums up the guy’s year.
She continued to say, “He’s full of…”, as Johnson hastily interrupted before anything else could be said, “Full of beans!”
NEW: The Queen holds her first in person weekly audience with the Prime Minister in more than a year. “It’s been 15 months” said Boris Johnson as he saw The Queen 👇 pic.twitter.com/lwlUy53qFk
— Chris Ship (@chrisshipitv) June 23, 2021
She said, “He thinks that things are getting better?”
“They are”, replied Johnson.
As always, Twitter responded in the best possible way.
Lizzie'micdrop'Queen1962@gmail.com
— Kate McCann (@KateEMcCann) June 23, 2021
“Can we make it another 15 months after this please” she replied
— Jane is retired & gets crosser every day 💙 (@likesretirement) June 23, 2021
Hasn't Liz been through enough?
— Jim Gardner 🇪🇺🇬🇧🏁 (@Jim_Gardner_) June 23, 2021
With tensions high and growing anger over endless restrictions, people aren’t holding back - ‘hopeless’ Hancock has learned this the hard way and taken quite the bashing over the last few months.
Hancock recently found himself in the centre of a political firestorm, as Dominic Cummings posted text messages from the Prime Minister where Johnson called Hancock ‘totally f****** hopeless’.
On Tuesday, Hancock was grilled on live TV when Good Morning Britain host, Adil Ray, addressed the leaked WhatsApp messages and asked the excruciating question: “How can you work for a boss who thinks you’re completely and utterly useless?”
‘How can you work for a boss who thinks you’re completely, utterly useless?’
— Toby Earle (@TobyonTV) June 22, 2021
The best bit is how Matt Hancock mumbles when Adil Ray says ‘We’ve seen the WhatsApps’#GMB pic.twitter.com/9T4aBNNgIA
Hancock replied, “I don’t think that’s the case. We are working closely together as I’ve just said…”
Adil interrupted, “We’ve seen the WhatsApp messages Mr Hancock!
“The whole world has seen the WhatsApp messages, so that is the case isn’t it?
In an attempt to move on, Hancock replied, “No, that was ancient history and, more importantly, it was time of enormous challenge and frustration and we were working together to get the testing capacity up.”
