MATT Hancock took a bruising while he hosted a radio phone-in as he was told he was “useless” by a Scottish caller.
The former Health Secretary filled in for LBC host James O’Brien on Tuesday and endured a dressing down from a caller from Edinburgh called John.
Hancock – who resigned in disgrace when it was revealed he had broken Covid social distancing rules when he conducted an affair with his aide Gina Coladangelo – was forced to defend his record live on-air.
Hancock had been expecting to discuss who would be the next Prime Minister when the caller sprung the stinging criticism on him.
Matt Hancock's attempt to be a radio presenter has ended up with him nodding along to callers telling him he was a fucking terrible health secretary toopic.twitter.com/rWRsJXmci5
— James Felton (@JimMFelton) July 19, 2022
John told the MP: “I’d probably vote for Rishi Sunak because of the experience he’s had and I think he’d probably be able to correct some of the mistakes that you’ve made in the past.
“For example, when I wrote to you about rare-diseased people being pulled out of the European Reference Networks – three and a half thousand people in the UK – and you wrote back with something that made no sense at all.
“You wrote back to me and you know it was a waste of time, you got some civil servant to do that, you were totally useless as a Health Secretary.”
John told the West Suffolk MP people were living “in hell” due to decisions made by Hancock during his tenure.
While Health Secretary, Hancock was accused of ignoring calls from campaigners for the UK to remain part of the European Reference Networks, which provide members access to treatment and a wealth of expertise from across the world about rare diseases.
The UK was ripped from the European Reference Networks when the country left the EU in 2020.
Autoinflammatory UK, a body which represents people with rare illnesses, slammed Hancock’s response to their letter in 2019 pressing the Government for action on the issue.
He was accused of having “failed spectacularly” to address their concerns.
On the call-in show, which was hosted on Monday by Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner while O’Brien is on holiday, Hancock attempted to speak over the caller but failed.
John demanded to know why the Health Secretary had taken Britain out of the networks.
Hancock blamed EU negotiators saying it would have been “far better if the EU side had not put a block on that”.
Elsewhere during the programme, Hancock said he would be voting for his former Cabinet colleague Sunak to be Tory leader.
He said: "I think he's the one who's got the economic plan to get through difficult times - he's not promising what can't be delivered - he's been really straightforward about the challenges that the country faces and how we're going to deal with it, especially getting the inflation down which is obviously causing huge problems with the cost of living right how, and making sure that we get growth going."
