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8744
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dbpedia
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https://civilservice.blog.gov.uk/tag/civil-service-awards/page/7/
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en
|
Civil Service Awards – Page 7 – Civil Service
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"Sir Simon Fraser",
"Sue Owen",
"DCMS Permanent Secretary",
"Russell Barnes",
"Una O'Brien",
"Felicity Singleton",
"Rt Hon. Matthew Hancock",
"Paymaster General",
"Amy Rees",
"Kathie Bates"
] |
2015-09-14T09:43:02+00:00
|
The Civil Service does the practical and administrative work of government. More than half of all civil servants provide services direct to the public.
|
en
|
https://civilservice.blog.gov.uk/wp-content/themes/gds-blogs/build/node_modules/govuk-frontend/dist/govuk/assets/images/favicon.ico
| null |
Civil Service Diversity & Inclusion Awards 2015: shortlist announced
Civil Service Diversity & Inclusion Champion Sue Owen on the shortlist for being announced for this year's Diversity Awards.
Read more of Civil Service Diversity & Inclusion Awards 2015: shortlist announced
Civil Service Awards – don’t miss the deadline!
There are only 2 days left to nominate - if you know a team or an individual who has excelled in one of these areas, why not recognise them by nominating them for an award. Winning an award and being shortlisted …
Read more of Civil Service Awards – don’t miss the deadline!
Nominate your digital heroes
Do you know somebody or a team working on a particularly good digital project? Then why not nominate them for a Civil Service Award says Felicity Singleton, Programme Director at GDS.
Read more of Nominate your digital heroes
The Civil Service Awards: Celebrating exceptional public service
Minister for the Cabinet Office, Rt Hon Matthew Hancock, talks about the value of the Civil Service Awards as a way of showcasing the work done across the service.
Read more of The Civil Service Awards: Celebrating exceptional public service
Three benefits of winning a Civil Service Award
Posted by: Russell Barnes, Posted on: - Categories: Our Civil Service
The Food Standards Agency, winners of the 2014 Best Communications Campaign, give us three big benefits of winning a Civil Service Award.
Read more of Three benefits of winning a Civil Service Award
The Prime Minister introduces a Civil Service Award for clarity
Posted by: Rt Hon. David Cameron MP, Posted on: - Categories: Civil Service Leaders
The Prime Minister, Rt Hon David Cameron, introduces - and invites nominations for - a new award for clarity in communication, which he believes is central to the role of civil servants in providing the very best public service we can. The award will be presented at the Civil Service Awards 2015.
Read more of The Prime Minister introduces a Civil Service Award for clarity
Leadership with humanity
Amy Rees turned round morale at HM Prison Brixton during her three years as governor, with an imaginative approach to problem solving and a focus on celebrating success. She writes about how she approached the challenge – which led to the recognition of two Civil Service Awards.
Read more of Leadership with humanity - 21 comments
Winning a Civil Service Award – recognition and responsibility
Posted by: Kathie Bates, Posted on: - Categories: Our Civil Service
Civil Service Local North West took the 2014 Civil Service Award for Excellence in Civil Service Reform. Kathie Bates explains what the award meant to the team and why they are determined to maintain the standards they have set.
Read more of Winning a Civil Service Award – recognition and responsibility
The Civil Service Awards 2015 – nominations now open
This year is the 10th anniversary of the Civil Service Awards, which recognise the great work of civil servants. Nominations for the 2015 awards are now open and Head of the Civil Service Sir Jeremy Heywood explains why it is important that we celebrate our achievements.
Read more of The Civil Service Awards 2015 – nominations now open
Celebrating Success: Civil Service Diversity & Inclusion Awards 2015
With nominations for the 2015 Civil Service Diversity & Inclusion Awards closing on 19 June, our Diversity Champion Sir Simon Fraser explains why it's important to recognise the achievements of those who are helping us to value difference.
Read more of Celebrating Success: Civil Service Diversity & Inclusion Awards 2015
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dbpedia
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1
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https://imaceleb.fandom.com/wiki/Matt_Hancock
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en
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Matt Hancock
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[
"Contributors to I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! Wiki"
] |
2024-07-29T22:27:06+00:00
|
Matt Hancock is a British Politician who is currently the MP for West Suffolk in the United Kingdom. Matt joined the jungle on Day 4 along with Seann Walsh as their first trial was the Beastly Burrows in which they got a total of 6 stars. Matt has done a total of 7 trials, with him getting a...
|
en
|
https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/imaceleb/images/4/4a/Site-favicon.ico/revision/latest?cb=20210719165527
|
I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! Wiki
|
https://imaceleb.fandom.com/wiki/Matt_Hancock
|
Matt Hancock is a British Politician who is currently the MP for West Suffolk in the United Kingdom. Matt joined the jungle on Day 4 along with Seann Walsh as their first trial was the Beastly Burrows in which they got a total of 6 stars. Matt has done a total of 7 trials, with him getting a total of 59/76 possible stars, giving him a percentage of 78% of the stars in his trials. Most of Matt's trials were done consecutively, as he did 6 trials in a row before the people would vote in someone else for the Angel of Agony trial on the 15th November as he would state in his trial that he was "starting to like them", likely causing the change in votes. Since the consecutive voting in, Matt has done 1 trial since which was compulsory as all Celebrities had to take part.
Background[]
Matthew John David Hancock (born 2 October 1978) is a British politician and economist who has been Member of Parliament (MP) for West Suffolk since 2010. Originally elected as a member of the Conservative Party, Hancock is currently an independent after his Conservative Party whip was suspended while he appeared in a television show in November 2022. He served in various cabinet positions under Prime Ministers David Cameron, Theresa May, and Boris Johnson.
Trivia[]
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8744
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dbpedia
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0
| 55
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https://www.facebook.com/matthancockofficial/videos/great-news-that-pm/705457626930293/
|
en
|
Great news that PM Boris Johnson is out of hospital. I'm so proud that the NHS is there to give the best possible to care for us all.
|
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[
""
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Great news that PM Boris Johnson is out of hospital. I'm so proud that the NHS is there to give the best possible to care for us all.
|
de
|
https://static.xx.fbcdn.net/rsrc.php/yT/r/aGT3gskzWBf.ico
|
https://www.facebook.com/matthancockofficial/videos/great-news-that-pm/705457626930293/
| ||||||
8744
|
dbpedia
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3
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https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Matt_Hancock
|
en
|
Matt Hancock
|
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Matthew John David Hancock is a British politician who served as Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General from 2015 to 2016, Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport from January to July 2018, and Secretary of State for Health and Social Care from 2018 to 2021. He was Member of Parliament (MP) for West Suffolk from 2010 to 2024. He is a member of the Conservative Party.
|
en
|
Wikiwand
|
https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Matt_Hancock
|
This article is about the British politician. For the fictional Australian TV character, see Matt Hancock (Neighbours).
Matthew John David Hancock (born 2 October 1978)[2] is a British politician who served as Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General from 2015 to 2016, Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport from January to July 2018, and Secretary of State for Health and Social Care from 2018 to 2021. He was Member of Parliament (MP) for West Suffolk from 2010 to 2024. He is a member of the Conservative Party.
Hancock was born in Cheshire, with his family running a software business. He studied a Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) at the University of Oxford, and an MPhil in Economics at the University of Cambridge. He was an economist at the Bank of England before serving as a senior economic adviser and later chief of staff to MP, George Osborne. Hancock was first elected as MP for West Suffolk at the 2010 general election.
Once in Parliament, Hancock served as a junior minister at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills from 2012 to 2015, and was the United Kingdom Anti-Corruption Champion from 2014 to 2015. He attended David Cameron's cabinet as Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General from 2015 to 2016. After Theresa May became prime minister following Cameron's resignation, Hancock was moved to the post of Minister of State for Digital and Culture. He was promoted to May's cabinet as Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. In July 2018, after the promotion of Jeremy Hunt to Foreign Secretary, Hancock replaced him as Secretary of State for Health and Social Care. After May's resignation, Hancock stood in the Conservative Party leadership election to replace her, but withdrew shortly after the first ballot and subsequently endorsed Boris Johnson. After Johnson became prime minister, Hancock retained his position as health secretary in his cabinet.
Hancock's tenure as health secretary was marked by the COVID-19 pandemic, which he played a prominent role in the UK government's response to. Hancock oversaw efforts to procure PPE, but the absence of a competitive tendering process for the award of some contracts proved controversial. He expanded COVID-19 testing and tracing, and also oversaw the early stage of the UK's COVID-19 vaccination programme. In June 2021, it was shown that he had breached COVID-19 social distancing restrictions by kissing and embracing Gina Coladangelo in his office. Coladangelo was at that time a director at the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), and Hancock was having an extramarital affair with her. Following this controversy, Hancock resigned as health secretary and returned to the backbenches. He was succeeded by Sajid Javid.
|
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8744
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dbpedia
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https://policymogul.com/stakeholders/10839/rt-hon-matthew-hancock-mp/key-updates
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en
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Champions of public affairs
|
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PolicyMogul is an all-in-one public affairs and political monitoring platform. We make it easy to monitor, influence and analyse parliament, government and policymakers
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8744
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dbpedia
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https://theweek.com/news/politics/958379/matt-hancock-the-former-health-secretary-turned-reality-contestant
|
en
|
Matt Hancock quits: I’m a Celeb MP gives up the day job
|
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[
"Richard Windsor, The Week UK",
"Richard Windsor",
"The Week UK"
] |
2022-11-02T16:01:15+00:00
|
Former health secretary stepping down at next election as he has ‘discovered a whole new world of possibilities’
|
en
|
theweek
|
https://theweek.com/news/politics/958379/matt-hancock-the-former-health-secretary-turned-reality-contestant
|
Matt Hancock has announced his intention to step down as an MP at the next election.
The former health secretary turned reality TV star becomes the latest of a young cohort of Conservative MPs who have said they intend to give up the job at the end of the current parliament.
In a letter to the Prime Minister, Hancock said: “For my part, I want to do things differently. I have discovered a whole new world of possibilities which I am excited to explore – new ways for me to communicate with people of all ages and from all backgrounds."
In a lengthy missive, Hancock “also commended himself for supporting Rishi Sunak in his bid to replace Liz Truss as Prime Minister during a turbulent year for the Conservative Party”, said The Telegraph.
He concluded his letter by saying it had been “an honour to serve in Parliament and represent the people of West Suffolk”.
“I will play my part in the debate about the future of our country and engage with the public in new ways,” he said.
A perennial cabinet minister in successive Tory governments, Hancock was suspended as a Conservative MP after taking part in the ITV reality show I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!
What is Hancock’s background?
Hancock was born in Chester, Cheshire, in 1978, and went to school in the area. He read philosophy, politics and economic at Oxford University’s Exeter College before completing an MPhil in economics at Christ’s College, Cambridge.
After working for a Tory bankbencher and at the Bank of England, his first foray into politics was in 2005, when he worked as an advisor for the then shadow chancellor George Osborne. Writing in The Independent, chief political commentator John Rentoul described Hancock as “energetic, clever, and a bit Tiggerish”.
Hancock became the member of parliament for West Suffolk in 2010 and worked in numerous ministerial roles under David Cameron and Theresa May before his “big break came in early 2018”, said the BBC. He was made culture, media and sport secretary in May’s cabinet reshuffle in January 2018, but was only in the job for six months before being made health secretary, succeeding Jeremy Hunt.
‘Into the limelight’ before an ‘abrupt exit’
Having unsuccessfully bid to become Tory leader following May’s resignation in 2019, Hancock backed Boris Johnson as a candidate and was “among a handful of ministers to keep their roles”, said the BBC.
He was “as energetic and diligent as ever” as health secretary, wrote Rentoul, and keeping his job again after the 2019 general election was “a testament to his hard work and the prime minister’s sense that he wasn’t a threat”.
It wasn’t long before Hancock “achieved an unusually high profile for a health secretary”, said the BBC, becoming a regular spokesperson for the government during the Covid-19 pandemic, which “propelled [him] into the limelight”.
Hancock’s time as health secretary ended with an “abrupt exit”, said Dominic McGrath in The Independent, after he was caught in June 2021 on CCTV “appearing to kiss his adviser Gina Coladangelo” despite having been married for 15 years. With social distancing measures in place at the time, he “faced pressure to stand down” for breaking rules set by his government. Despite initially attempting to stay on, Hancock eventually resigned because of the breach and returned to the backbenches.
That incident was “not the first time Hancock had faced a negative headline”, said PA. He had been accused of lying to the prime minister about Covid testing in care homes by Dominic Cummings, the former Downing Street chief-of-staff. Cummings also later released WhatsApp messages in which Johnson was said to have described Hancock as “hopeless”.
Following Johnson’s resignation earlier this year, Hancock was “an enthusiastic backer of Sunak”, added PA, and potentially “still harboured a return to a government role”. He put his name forward for head of the Treasury committee in October before pulling out of the race.
In his Sun article defending his reality TV appearance, however, Hancock wrote that “I don’t expect to serve in government again”.
“But I can support Rishi and the government in different ways,” he added.
|
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3
| 82
|
https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/07/08/matt-hancock-sack-david-cameron-_n_5567218.html
|
en
|
Tory Minister Matt Hancock Photographed With 'Sack Cameron' Graffiti
|
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[
"The Huffington Post UK"
] |
2014-07-08T00:00:00
|
Tory Minister Photographed With 'Sack Cameron' Graffiti
|
en
|
/favicon.ico
|
HuffPost UK
|
https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/07/08/matt-hancock-sack-david-cameron-_n_5567218.html
|
Matt Hancock has given an interview to Total Politics magazine. The piece is accompanied by a nice photograph of the Conservative skills minister and George Osbone ally on a Boris Bike next to London's South Bank skatepark. The magazine insists the framing was not deliberate. But Hancock may want to drop the prime minister a note given a reshuffle is due any moment.
|
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| 74
|
https://jerseyeveningpost.com/morenews/uknews/2023/06/27/matt-hancock-to-appear-before-covid-inquiry/
|
en
|
Matt Hancock to appear before Covid inquiry
|
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[
"UK News"
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2023-06-27T00:00:00
|
Matt Hancock will become the latest high-profile politician to appear before the Covid-19 Inquiry, as hearings continue into Government preparedness for the pandemic.The former health secretary, […]
|
en
|
Jersey Evening Post
|
https://jerseyeveningpost.com/morenews/uknews/2023/06/27/matt-hancock-to-appear-before-covid-inquiry/
|
Matt Hancock will become the latest high-profile politician to appear before the Covid-19 Inquiry, as hearings continue into Government preparedness for the pandemic.
The former health secretary, who became one of the best-known politicians in the country as he helped steer the coronavirus response before being forced to quit in June 2021, will give evidence to Lady Hallett’s inquiry on Tuesday morning.
His attendance at the inquiry comes after Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, another former health secretary, admitted that a “groupthink” helped lead to a “narrowness of thinking” that failed to expand pandemic preparedness beyond planning for a flu outbreak.
On Monday, former deputy chief medical officer Dame Jenny Harries was quizzed on the capacity of the UK health system as well as the organisational reforms before the Covid outbreak.
He was central to the Government’s pandemic era decision-making and messaging, with his own recollections of the period likely to be a crucial part of the inquiry.
A leak of more than a 100,000 of his WhatsApp messages by journalist Isabel Oakeshott to the Daily Telegraph, many of which were published earlier this year, provided a glimpse into the inner workings of Government during the period.
The West Suffolk MP, who will stand down at the next general election, has faced questions in the past about the Government policy on Covid testing and nursing homes.
Former prime minister David Cameron, former chancellor George Osborne and chief medical officer Professor Sir Chris Whitty are all among those who have appeared before the committee so far.
|
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8744
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0
| 38
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https://www.thetimes.com/uk/healthcare/article/matt-hancock-dragged-into-david-cameron-lobbying-scandal-zg7j60dxk
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en
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Matt Hancock dragged into David Cameron lobbying scandal
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[] |
[] |
[
""
] | null |
[
"Gabriel Pogrund",
"Whitehall Correspondent"
] |
2021-04-10T23:01:00+00:00
|
David Cameron took the disgraced financier Lex Greensill to a private meeting with Matt Hancock where the pair lobbied the health minister to introduce a paymen
|
en
|
/store/favicon-32x32.png
|
https://www.thetimes.com/uk/healthcare/article/matt-hancock-dragged-into-david-cameron-lobbying-scandal-zg7j60dxk
|
David Cameron took the disgraced financier Lex Greensill to a private meeting with Matt Hancock at which the pair lobbied the health secretary to introduce a payment scheme that was later offered within the NHS.
The former prime minister is at the centre of a lobbying scandal after it emerged he contacted ministers on behalf of Greensill Capital, a financial services company he advised and in which he held share options potentially worth tens of millions of pounds. It has since gone bust, threatening 55,000 jobs across the world, including 5,000 in Britain.
In October 2019, Cameron, 54, arranged and attended a “private drink” with Hancock and Greensill, the Australian banker whose firm wanted to introduce a scheme to remunerate doctors and nurses before their
|
|||||
8744
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dbpedia
|
1
| 23
|
https://www.economist.com/britain/2021/07/01/sajid-javid-replaces-the-hapless-matt-hancock-as-health-secretary
|
en
|
Sajid Javid replaces the hapless Matt Hancock as health secretary
|
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""
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[
"The Economist"
] |
2021-07-01T00:00:00
|
How he tackles a crisis in social care will determine his legacy | Britain
|
en
|
/favicon.ico
|
The Economist
|
https://www.economist.com/britain/2021/07/01/sajid-javid-replaces-the-hapless-matt-hancock-as-health-secretary
|
How he tackles a crisis in social care will determine his legacy
Jul 1st 2021
SAJID JAVID has got off to a bracing start at the Department of Health. During his first speech in Parliament in his new job, on June 28th, he all but guaranteed that lockdown would end on July 19th, and strongly hinted that the policy of sending entire classes of children home if one tests positive for covid-19 would end soon, too. The next morning he condemned a bunch of yobs for accosting the chief medical officer, Chris Whitty, as he walked across St James’s Park. “We will not tolerate this sort of behaviour towards our public servants,” Mr Javid tweeted at 7.27am.
This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline “The comeback kid”
From the July 3rd 2021 edition
Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents
Explore the edition
More from Britain
Britain has many levers for controlling migration. Which ones should it pull?
Not the one marked “reduce the government wage bill”
Winston Churchill’s urinal shows Britain’s hang-up with heritage
A planned Labour reform goes down the drain
Britain’s oil and gas industry faces an uncertain future
Small operators in the North Sea are struggling with a tax squeeze
NHS dentistry is decaying
Can Labour stop the rot?
Britain’s justice system has responded forcefully to the riots
But the perception of a “two-tier” approach does not bear scrutiny
|
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8744
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dbpedia
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0
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https://bylinetimes.com/2021/07/20/david-cameron-in-government-summit-with-firm-employing-him-as-a-consultant/
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en
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David Cameron in Government Summit with Firm Employing him as a Consultant
|
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] | null |
[
"Sam Bright"
] |
2021-07-20T00:00:00
|
The former Prime Minister and one of his clients met with a Business minister days before the Greensill lobbying scandal hit the headlines
|
en
|
Byline Times
|
https://bylinetimes.com/2021/07/20/david-cameron-in-government-summit-with-firm-employing-him-as-a-consultant/
|
David Cameron in Government Summitwith Firm Employing him as a Consultant
The former Prime Minister and one of his clients met with a business minister days before the Greensill lobbying scandal hit the headlines
Government minister Nadhim Zahawi held a summit in March this year with David Cameron and a firm that employs the former Prime Minister, Byline Times can reveal.
Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) records show that Under-Secretary of State Zahawi met with Cameron and a company called Illumina on 1 March to discuss “UK genomics sequencing”.
Illumina is a US-owned company that specialises in genomic and biological analysis. The former Prime Minister joined its ranks in 2017 as a consultant and chairman of the international advisory board.
The Times reported in April that Illumina had secured a £123 million contract with the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), just a week after Cameron appeared with the then Health and Social Care Secretary Matt Hancock at a genomics conference in September 2019. The contract was awarded without competition.
Cameron has denied lobbying the Government on any Illumina contracts, saying that his role at the company was solely to promote the benefits of genome sequencing.
In recent months, Cameron has been immersed in a scandal involving another client – financial services company Greensill Capital. It was revealed in mid-March, not long after the Zahawi-Illumina meeting, that Cameron had lobbied senior officials and Cabinet ministers, including the Chancellor, on behalf of Greensill.
Cameron was attempting to secure greater involvement for Greensill in the Government’s emergency COVID-19 loans scheme. Ultimately, it rejected Greensill’s proposals despite Cameron’s persistent lobbying, with the firm filing for insolvency protection on 8 March, after its insurer walked away.
It was later revealed that Lex Greensill, its owner, had worked for the Cabinet Office as an unpaid advisor from 2012 to 2015, during Cameron’s time in Downing Street. Greensill had also been commissioned by the Government to introduce an early payment facility for health workers and a working capital programme for pharmacies.
Today, Parliament’s Treasury Committee has concluded in a report into the Greensill affair that Cameron showed a “significant lack of judgement” in the way he lobbied the Government. Although Cameron did not break any lobbying rules, there is a “good case for strengthening them,” the committee says.
Indeed, the lobbyist register only logs companies and self-employed consultants, rather than individuals working for firms. Cameron’s work for Greensill was therefore not recorded. The Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (ACOBA) – a watchdog designed to police the jobs that ex-ministers and senior officials take after they have left office – also only covers the two years after an individual has left their Government role.
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The Financial Times reported on 12 July that Cameron was paid $1 million a year – equivalent to $40,000 a day – by Greensill. His income from Illumina is unknown.
Cameron’s meeting with Zahawi and Illumina raises further questions about the regulation and monitoring of lobbying activities by former Government employees. The records released by BEIS, for example, do not declare Cameron’s commercial interest in the firm – while the minutes of the meeting are limited to a five-word sentence.
There is no suggestion of wrongdoing by Illumina, David Cameron or the Government. The rules, as they are currently devised, allow these activities to take place with little transparency.
There has also been controversy over a number of meetings that have been held between ministers and private companies during the Coronavirus pandemic. Byline Times recently revealed that the DHSC failed to declare 27 meetings held by Health Minister Lord James Bethell at the start of the crisis. The firms involved went on to acquire public sector contracts worth £1.14 billion.
The Government has strongly refuted any suggestion of cronyism during the past 16 months. However, in failing to uphold high standards of transparency, there will inevitably be an underlying suspicion that it may have something to hide.
“This meeting was in no way connected to government contracts and none were discussed,” a DHSC spokesperson said. “Proper due diligence is carried out for all government contracts and we take these checks extremely seriously.”
Illumina and the office of David Cameron were contacted for comment.
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8744
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0
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https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/matthew-hancock-named-uk-minister-911864/
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en
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Matthew Hancock Named U.K. Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries
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"Georg Szalai"
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2016-07-18T03:06:34+00:00
|
He replaces Ed Vaizey in another cabinet reshuffle by prime minister Theresa May.
|
en
|
The Hollywood Reporter
|
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/matthew-hancock-named-uk-minister-911864/
|
Britain’s minister for culture, communications and creative industries Ed Vaizey is the latest to leave the government as new prime minister Theresa May, of the Conservative Party, continues to reshuffle the cabinet after taking over from David Cameron.
Matthew Hancock is replacing Vaizey, it was revealed Monday. Hancock was paymaster general, the minister at the head of the treasury department responsible for payments, and has been one of the key people working on the potential privatization of U.K. broadcaster Channel 4.
Last week, May named Karen Bradley secretary of state for culture, media and sport. In her new role, she has overall responsibility for the work of the Department of Culture, Media and Sport and the digital economy.
In his new minister of state role, Hancock will oversee broadband, spectrum and telecoms, as well as culture and heritage issues, in addition to the internet and creative industries, libraries, media and museums and galleries.
In a reference to the Brexit, his departure and his last name, Vaizey tweeted: “Looking forward to supporting the government from the backbenches #vexit.”
Hancock tweeted: “Sad to see #Vexit – big tributes to my friend @edvaizey’s amazing work over 6 years to build UK as tech & cultural leader.”
|
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https://theconversation.com/matt-hancocks-pandemic-diaries-and-the-history-of-the-redemptive-memoir-196833
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Matt Hancock’s Pandemic Diaries and the history of the redemptive memoir
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2022-12-22T06:56:10+00:00
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Hancock isn’t the first politician to attempt redemption through memoir.
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en
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The Conversation
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https://theconversation.com/matt-hancocks-pandemic-diaries-and-the-history-of-the-redemptive-memoir-196833
|
Matt Hancock has achieved fame in recent months for devouring a cow anus live on television (during his I’m A Celebrity stint) and for releasing questionable TikTok videos cringing about his past “embarrassing” moments.
Some will recall that before all this, he was once UK health secretary during the biggest global health crisis in living memory. Back then, he achieved notoriety for (among other things) allowing COVID patients to be sent into care homes and for securing lucrative testing contracts for his friends.
Now, Hancock has published his Pandemic Diaries, giving his side of the story. So what insights do they have to offer? And how might a literary historian like myself situate them within the wider context of the political memoir?
Early on in Hancock’s diaries, we learn that the UK Health Secretary’s first (and I quote) “oh shit” moment was on January 28, 2020, when he was told that the pandemic could lead to up to 820,000 UK deaths.
From then on in, the basic thrust of the narrative is that everyone but Matt Hancock was responsible for the litany of failures that ensued.
Delayed restrictions? That was the fault of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies. Dismal contract tracing? Public Health England were to blame. Failure to close UK borders? No. 10 was responsible. Government in chaos? That would be Dominic Cummings.
The Erin Brockovich of COVID
Reading how “aghast” Hancock was in response to a Prime Minister’s Questions session in early February, in which no one asked a single question about the virus, the impression given is that he was the Erin Brockovich of COVID.
Oddly enough, however, none of this quite tallies with Hancock’s account, in these same pages, of his actual activities during this period. Eating Babybels with Ronnie Wood at a Brit Awards ceremony in late February, for instance. Or going to Planet Laser in Bury St Edmunds in early March.
Or, more generally, entirely failing to respond to the knowledge that 820,000 lives were at risk by taking decisive action – in the process dismissing the advice of Tory grandees and former prime ministers, who (as Hancock acknowledges in his diaries) were sending desperate text messages demanding restrictions as early as February.
A possible explanation for these strange inconsistencies is the fact that Hancock’s diary isn’t actually a diary at all. As he himself admits, he “didn’t have time to keep a detailed diary” during this period - and so the Pandemic Diaries were “pieced together” after the fact.
Given the existence of an Imperial College study suggesting that the UK’s delayed response caused 21,000 unnecessary deaths, the pressure on Hancock to retroactively redeem himself seems clear.
So what to make of this strange attempt on the part of a disgraced politician, forced to quit in the wake of a scandal, to exonerate themselves?
The history of the redemptive memoir
Historian George Egerton notes that (while forerunners exist) the concept of the professional politician publishing a text that aims “to explain and interpret” the decisions they made in office didn’t find full expression until the 1890s, with first Chancellor of the German Empire Otto von Bismarck’s landmark three volume memoir.
Since then, accelerated by the “professionalisation” of politics during the early 20th century, the pressure to hold politicians to account has grown significantly. As Egerton writes, since the post-war period it has been the norm for politicians to “publish an account of their leadership”.
Hancock is hardly the first modern British politician to make use of this trend in an attempt to set the record straight. Tony Blair’s A Journey (2010) and David Cameron’s For the Record (2019) are just two recent examples.
What is perhaps unique about Hancock’s contribution to the genre is its fundamental unseriousness.
This is not just in the lack of willingness to take any responsibility for the mishandling of the pandemic, or in the fact that inventing a diary is an astonishing feat of post factual audacity. It is in the general ridiculousness of the account that is offered.
Less redemption, more slapstick
The image that will stay with most readers of Hancock’s diaries is unlikely to be that of a nation bravely facing a crisis.
The picture that has been indelibly imprinted upon my mind, for instance, is instead of Hancock struggling “to keep a straight face” at the sight of Thérèse Coffey “chomping on a sandwich” during “an extremely important” Zoom meeting about shielding the vulnerable.
Or of Hancock delivering his instructions as Health Secretary from “a director’s chair with ‘Hancock’ across the back”, gifted to him by Pinewood Studios.
Or of George Osborne whispering into Hancock’s ear how much he reminds him of “Tigger from Winnie the Pooh”.
Of course, the slapstick is on theme for the current Conservative Party: it’s evocative of Michael Gove’s skits on BBC breakfast, or Grant Shapp’s Elf on the Shelf routine, or Boris Johnson’s Love Actually parody.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matt_Hancock
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Matt Hancock
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2006-09-24T12:10:57+00:00
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en
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matt_Hancock
|
British politician (born 1978)
This article is about the British politician. For the fictional Australian TV character, see Matt Hancock (Neighbours).
Matthew John David Hancock (born 2 October 1978)[2] is a British politician who served as Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General from 2015 to 2016, Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport from January to July 2018, and Secretary of State for Health and Social Care from 2018 to 2021. He was Member of Parliament (MP) for West Suffolk from 2010 to 2024. He is a member of the Conservative Party.
Hancock was born in Cheshire, with his family running a software business. He studied a Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) at the University of Oxford, and an MPhil in Economics at the University of Cambridge. He was an economist at the Bank of England before serving as a senior economic adviser and later chief of staff to MP, George Osborne. Hancock was first elected as MP for West Suffolk at the 2010 general election.
Once in Parliament, Hancock served as a junior minister at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills from 2012 to 2015, and was the United Kingdom Anti-Corruption Champion from 2014 to 2015. He attended David Cameron's cabinet as Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General from 2015 to 2016. After Theresa May became prime minister following Cameron's resignation, Hancock was moved to the post of Minister of State for Digital and Culture. He was promoted to May's cabinet as Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. In July 2018, after the promotion of Jeremy Hunt to Foreign Secretary, Hancock replaced him as Secretary of State for Health and Social Care. After May's resignation, Hancock stood in the Conservative Party leadership election to replace her, but withdrew shortly after the first ballot and subsequently endorsed Boris Johnson. After Johnson became prime minister, Hancock retained his position as health secretary in his cabinet.
Hancock's tenure as health secretary was marked by the COVID-19 pandemic, which he played a prominent role in the UK government's response to. Hancock oversaw efforts to procure PPE, but the absence of a competitive tendering process for the award of some contracts proved controversial. He expanded COVID-19 testing and tracing, and also oversaw the early stage of the UK's COVID-19 vaccination programme. In June 2021, it was shown that he had breached COVID-19 social distancing restrictions by kissing and embracing Gina Coladangelo in his office. Coladangelo was at that time a director at the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), and Hancock was having an extramarital affair with her. Following this controversy, Hancock resigned as health secretary and returned to the backbenches. He was succeeded by Sajid Javid.
In November 2022, Hancock had the whip suspended after announcing he would be appearing as a contestant in the twenty-second series of the survival reality television show I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!, in which he finished in third place. He stood down as an MP at the 2024 general election.
Early life and education
Matthew Hancock was born on 2 October 1978 in Chester, Cheshire, to Michael Hancock and Shirley Hills.[2] Hancock has an older sister and a brother.[3]
Hancock attended Farndon County Primary School, in Farndon, Cheshire, and privately educated at the King's School, Chester.[2] He took A-levels in Maths, Physics, Computing, and Economics.[4] He later studied computing at the further education college, West Cheshire College.[5][6] Hancock then studied at the University of Oxford where he was an undergraduate student at Exeter College, Oxford, and graduated with a first class degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE), and later earned a MPhil degree in Economics from the University of Cambridge where he was a postgraduate student at Christ's College, Cambridge.[6][7] He was diagnosed with dyslexia at university.[8] Hancock became a member of the Conservative Party in 1999.[9]
Early career
After university, Hancock briefly worked for his family's computer software company, Border Business Systems,[10] and for a backbench Conservative MP,[4] before moving to London to work as an economist at the Bank of England, specialising in the housing market. In 2005, he was an economic adviser to the Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, later becoming Osborne's chief of staff.[7][11]
Parliamentary career
Hancock was selected as the Conservative candidate for West Suffolk in January 2010. He narrowly won the contest, defeating Natalie Elphicke (a solicitor who later became MP for Dover), by 88 votes to 81 in the final ballot.[12] At the 2010 general election, Hancock was elected as MP for West Suffolk with 50.6% of the vote and a majority of 13,050.[13][14]
In June 2010, Hancock was elected to the Public Accounts Committee.[15] He served on this committee until November 2012. Hancock also served on the Standards and Privileges Committee from October 2010 to December 2012.[1]
In 2011, Hancock became a member of the Free Enterprise Group, a group of Thatcherite Conservatives co-founded by Liz Truss. In January 2013, he was accused of dishonesty by Daybreak presenter, Matt Barbet, after claiming he had been excluded from a discussion about apprentices after turning up "just 30 seconds late".[16] Hancock acknowledged on social media that he was running late, but said he turned up ahead of time for the interview and was unfairly blocked from going on set by producers.[17] Barbet said Hancock knew he was "much more than a minute late" and he should have arrived half an hour beforehand to prepare for the interview.[16]
In October 2013, Hancock joined the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills as the Minister of State for Skills and Enterprise.[18]
In June 2014, Hancock, in his role as a minister, encouraged employers to become involved in offering more apprenticeships, allowing young people to learn and earn simultaneously.[19]
On 15 July 2014, Hancock was appointed to the position of Minister of State for Business and Enterprise. On 27 July, he announced protection from fracking for National Parks,[20] seen as a method of reducing anger in Conservative constituencies ahead of the election.[21] Interviewed on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme, he rejected the suggestion that fracking was highly unpopular but he was unable to name any village that backed it.[21][22]
Hancock served as Minister of State for Energy from 2014 to 2015.[23] In this role he was criticised for hiring a private jet with senior diplomatic officials to fly back from a climate conference in Aberdeen, where he signed a deal with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto to use British expertise in Mexico. A Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) spokesman said the chartered flight was organised to fit around diary commitments, and the conference was not about climate change, but it was a visit to a university and discussion about investment.[24] Hancock was later criticised for accepting money from a key backer of climate change denial organisation, Global Warming Policy Foundation.[25]
In October 2014, he apologised after retweeting a poem suggesting that the Labour Party was "full of queers", describing his actions as a "total accident".[22][26]
At the 2015 general election, Hancock was re-elected as MP for West Suffolk with an increased vote share of 52.2% and an increased majority of 14,984.[27]
Hancock became Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General on 11 May 2015.[23] Hancock launched a new social mobility drive to promote diversity within the civil service, outlining his vision in a speech in February 2016.[28] He led David Cameron's "earn or learn" taskforce which aimed to have every young person working or studying from April 2017. He announced that jobless 18 to 21-year-olds would be required to do work experience as well as looking for jobs, or face losing their benefits.[29]
In the 2016 UK referendum on EU membership, Hancock supported the UK remaining within the EU.[30]
Hancock was again re-elected at the snap 2017 general election with an increased vote share of 61.2% and an increased majority of 17,063.[31] He was again re-elected at the 2019 general election with an increased vote share of 65.8% and an increased majority of 23,194.[32]
Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
Hancock moved to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport as the Minister of State for Digital and Culture on 15 July 2016 after Theresa May became Prime Minister.[33] As minister for digital policy, Hancock in June 2017 recommitted to a "full fibre" digital policy. This promised that 97% of the UK would enjoy "superfast broadband" at speeds of at least 24 megabits per second by 2020.[34]
In August 2017, Hancock oversaw the strengthening of UK data protection law. As Digital Minister he announced people would have more control over their personal data and be better protected in the digital age.[35]
On 8 January 2018, Hancock was appointed Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport in Theresa May's 2018 cabinet reshuffle, succeeding Karen Bradley.[36] On his first day in the role he criticised the BBC for the amounts of pay its foreign journalists received, and said that some men at the corporation were paid "far more than equivalent public servants".[37]
In early 2018, Hancock was the first MP to launch his own mobile app, eponymously named the "Matt Hancock MP App",[38] which functioned as a social network for him to communicate with his constituents and give people updates in relation to his cabinet role.[39] The head of privacy rights group Big Brother Watch called the app a "fascinating comedy of errors",[40] after the app was found to collect its users' photographs, friend details, check-ins, and contact information.[41] Hancock said his app collected data once consent was granted by the user.[42] The app was eventually shut down at the beginning of 2023.[43]
In May 2018, as Media Secretary, Hancock confirmed the highest stake on fixed odds betting terminals would be cut to £2, after Prime Minister May sided with him over the issue.[44]
Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
May Ministry
Following Jeremy Hunt's appointment as Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, Hancock was appointed Secretary of State for Health and Social Care for England on 9 July 2018.[23]
In November 2018, Hancock was criticised after appearing to endorse a mobile phone health app marketed by the subscription health service company Babylon in the Evening Standard. Babylon allegedly sponsored the newspaper article. The Labour MP Justin Madders wrote to Theresa May accusing Hancock of repeatedly endorsing the products of a company that receives NHS funds for patients it treats, which contravenes ministerial guidelines. The ministerial code includes that ministers should not "normally accept invitations to act as patrons of, or otherwise offer support to, pressure groups or organisations dependent in whole or in part on Government funding".[45]
In April 2019, Hancock, who had previously said the NHS would face "no privatisation on my watch", was criticised by Labour for allowing 21 NHS contracts worth £127 million to be tendered.[46]
2019 Conservative Party leadership candidacy
After Theresa May announced her intention to resign as Prime Minister on 24 May 2019, Hancock announced his intention to stand for the Conservative Party leadership. During this campaign, Hancock opposed the prorogation of Parliament to deliver Brexit and called on his fellow leadership candidates to join him on 6 June 2019.[47] He proposed a televised debate with other candidates. He withdrew from the race on 14 June shortly after winning only twenty votes on the first ballot.[49] Following his withdrawal, he endorsed Boris Johnson for the role.[50]
Early Johnson premiership
Hancock continued in his role as Health Secretary in Prime Minister Boris Johnson's cabinet. He supported the prorogation of parliament in 2019 by Johnson which he had previously opposed while running for the Conservative leadership.[51] On 24 September the Supreme Court ruled that the prorogation was unlawful.[52]
In a September 2019 Channel 4 News interview, Hancock was asked to respond to allegations that at a private lunch in 1999, Johnson had groped the leg of journalist Charlotte Edwardes under a table. Edwardes also claimed that Johnson did the same to another woman at the same private lunch. In his reply to the Channel 4 News question, Hancock said of Charlotte Edwardes, "I know Charlotte well and I entirely trust what she has to say. I know her and I know her to be trustworthy", a view shared by fellow Conservative MP Amber Rudd. Both Johnson and anonymous Downing Street officials denied the allegation.[53][54][55]
In October 2019, Hancock was lobbied by former Prime Minister David Cameron and financier Lex Greensill to introduce a payment scheme. Hancock was implicated in the Greensill scandal as the payment scheme was later rolled out within the NHS.[56]
In November 2019, Hancock publicly apologised to Bethany, a teenager diagnosed with autism, for being kept in solitary confinement in various psychiatric facilities. Hancock apologised "for the things that have gone wrong in her care" and said her case in particular was "incredibly difficult and complex", calling Bethany's case "heart-rending" and saying that he had insisted on "a case review of every single person in those conditions."[57]
COVID-19 pandemic
On 31 January 2020, COVID-19 was confirmed to have spread to the UK. Hancock said the Government was considering "some quite significant actions that would have social and economic disruption".[58] After the government gave strict social distancing advice which was defied by large numbers of people, Hancock took a stronger line than the prime minister on condemning those still socialising in groups and derided them as being "very selfish".[59] The Government later implemented legislation banning such groups from forming.[60]
On 27 March 2020, along with Boris Johnson, Hancock himself tested positive for COVID-19.[61] He stayed in self-isolation with mild symptoms for seven days, before delivering an update on COVID-19 testing targets and on Government plans to write off £13.4 billion of NHS debt.[62][63][64]
In April 2020, Hancock was criticised when it emerged that the target he had set for 100,000 daily COVID-19 tests had been met only by changing the method of counting, to include up to 40,000 home test kits which had been sent, but not yet completed.[65] This change was challenged by the UK Statistics Authority[66] and labelled a "Potemkin testing regime".[67]
Doctors' groups maintained that they helped deliver 45,000 masks to hospitals that did not have a sufficient supply at the beginning of the pandemic and that families of healthcare workers who died from COVID-19 had expressed concerns about the protection they got. Early in the pandemic NHS staff were photographed with poorly fitting personal protective equipment (PPE) and some made improvised gowns for themselves from bin bags. Doctors and MPs criticised Hancock for denying there was a problem.[68]
On 5 April 2020, Hancock warned that all outdoor exercise in England could be banned in response to COVID-19 if people did not follow social distancing rules. He said: "So my message is really clear. If you don't want us to have to take the step to ban exercise of all forms outside of your own home then you've got to follow the rules and the vast majority of people are following the rules."[69]
Hancock received criticism from journalists for perceived sexism after suggesting on 5 May 2020 that Labour MP and shadow health minister Rosena Allin-Khan change the "tone" of her comments.[70] Allin-Khan, a doctor, had stated in Parliament that a lack of testing was costing lives and Hancock suggested she should "take a leaf out of the Shadow Secretary of State's [Jonathan Ashworth's] book in terms of tone".[71]
On 15 August 2020, The Daily Telegraph reported that Hancock was to merge Public Health England and NHS Test and Trace into a new body called the National Institute for Health Protection, modelled on the Robert Koch Institute. The new body, renamed as the UK Health Security Agency, was set up before autumn amid "a feared surge in coronavirus cases".[72]
On 11 October 2020, Hancock denied breaching a 10 pm drinking curfew in the Smoking Room bar in the House of Commons, put in place because of the pandemic.[73][74][75] Eight days later, the Daily Mirror published a photograph of him riding in his chauffeur-driven car without wearing a mask.[76]
On 2 December 2020, Hancock incorrectly claimed that the MHRA's fast approval of the first COVID-19 vaccine was possible because of Brexit. The MHRA stated that it had followed an expeditious procedure allowed under EU legislation which was still in force in the UK during the transition period.[77]
In January 2021, shopping vouchers for families in need were reintroduced.[78] On Good Morning Britain, Hancock praised the Government for reintroducing the scheme, despite being repeatedly reminded by Piers Morgan that he had opposed it in Parliament.[79]
On 19 February 2021, after a legal challenge by the Good Law Project, a High Court judge ruled that Hancock had acted unlawfully by handing out PPE contracts without publishing details in a timely manner. A ruling released by the High Court stated: "There is now no dispute that, in a substantial number of cases, the secretary of state breached his legal obligation to publish Contract Award Notices (CANs) within 30 days of the award of contracts." The details were published within 47 days.[80]
In April 2021, it was reported that Hancock had been given 20% of shares in Topwood Limited, a firm based in Wrexham which is owned by his sister and other close family members.[81] The company specialises in secure storage, scanning and shredding of documents. It won a place on a "procurement framework" listing to provide services to NHS England in 2019, as well as contracts with NHS Wales. There has been no suggestion that Hancock intervened in the normal processes, and in April 2021, the company had not earned anything through the framework.[82] Lord Geidt later produced a report on ministerial interests saying that the awarding of the contract to Topwood could be seen to "represent a conflict of interest" that should have been declared. Hancock responded by saying: "I did not know about the framework decision, and so I do not think I could reasonably have been expected to declare it."[83]
In May 2021, the former Downing Street chief adviser Dominic Cummings claimed, "tens of thousands of people died who didn't need to die" during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic due to what he claimed to be "criminal, disgraceful behaviour" within Downing Street under the supervision of Hancock.[84][85] Cummings also said that Hancock should have been fired as Health Secretary for "15 to 20" different things.[86] Following his testimony, YouGov noted that more people in the general public thought Hancock should resign than stay in his post, despite questions over the accuracy of Cummings's statements.[87] Prime Minister Johnson defended Hancock and his decision-making.[88]
Over 20,000 care home residents who were elderly or disabled had died from COVID-19 in England and Wales. The High Court of Justice ruled in a case against Boris Johnson's government on 27 April 2022 that discharging people into care homes without testing them was unlawful. Lord Justice Bean and Neil Garnham ruled that the policies were not lawful since they disregarded the risk from non-symptomatic transmission of COVID-19 to elderly and vulnerable residents. The judges stated that in spite of "growing awareness" about the risk of asymptomatic transmission during March 2020, there was no evidence Hancock had taken the risk to care home residents into account. The judges stated: "The document could, for example, have said that where an asymptomatic patient (...) is admitted to a care home, he or she should, so far as practicable, be kept apart from other residents for up to 14 days. (...) there is no evidence that this question was considered by the Secretary of State."[89][90]
Resignation
On 25 June 2021, it was revealed that Hancock had breached COVID-19 social distancing restrictions with Gina Coladangelo, an adviser in the DHSC with whom he was having an extramarital affair, after CCTV images of him kissing and embracing her in his Whitehall office on 6 May were published in The Sun newspaper.[91] The Government's guidelines allowed intimate contact with people from a different household only from 17 May.[91] The previous year, Hancock had failed to declare he had appointed Coladangelo as an unpaid adviser at the department and later to a paid non-executive director role on its board, for which Coladangelo would earn between £15,000 and £20,000 annually from public funds.[92][93] Coladangelo became a close friend of Hancock after meeting him while they were both undergraduates at Oxford University.[92][94]
Later that day on 25 June, Hancock said that he had "breached the social distancing guidelines in these circumstances" and apologised for "letting people down".[95] Boris Johnson later said that he accepted the apology and considered the matter "closed".[96] However, Hancock resigned on the evening of 26 June, stating "those of us who make these rules have got to stick by them", and he had not because of his "breaking the guidance".[97][98] He was replaced as Health Secretary the same day by Sajid Javid.[99]
Former Cabinet ministers Alan Johnson and Rory Stewart both said there had never been cameras in their offices during their time in Government, with Johnson saying: "I could never understand why there was a camera in the Secretary of State's office. There was never a camera in my office when I was Health Secretary or in any of the other five Cabinet positions."[100] It was reported that the CCTV footage was leaked by a DHSC employee who opposed the Government's lockdown restrictions, and on 27 June it was confirmed that an internal investigation was undertaken by the department to find the culprit, for fear of future CCTV footage being leaked to states hostile to the UK, for the purposes of blackmail.[101]
News of the scandal was met with a mixture of public anger and ridicule.[102][103] The Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group warned that Hancock's actions could undermine adherence to COVID-19 restrictions, similar to the Dominic Cummings scandal.[104] Amanda Milling, Co-chairman of the Conservative Party, suggested that Hancock's affair was a factor in the Conservative Party's failure to win the Batley and Spen by-election on 1 July 2021.[105]
In July 2021, the Information Commissioner's Office established an inquiry into the leak in the CCTV images.[106] On 29 July, the council of the second largest town in his constituency, Newmarket, passed a no-confidence vote against Hancock as its MP.[107] Mayor Michael Jefferys cast the necessary vote to pass the motion.[108]
According to the Independent, Hancock faced severe criticism due to a shortage of PPE in the NHS early in the pandemic, the award of contracts for supplying masks and the decision to transfer elderly patients to care homes without COVID-19 testing.[109] Hancock defended his handling of the pandemic and stated: "We suddenly needed masses more PPE and so did everybody else in the world."[109]
Return to the backbenches
On 12 October 2021, Hancock announced his appointment as the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa special representative for financial innovation and climate change,[110] an unpaid position advising the Commission on the African economy's recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.[111] Four days later, the United Nations announced on 16 October that the offer had been rescinded.[112][113]
During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Hancock welcomed seven Ukrainian refugees into his family home in Suffolk in May 2022 through the "Homes for Ukraine" scheme.[114][115]
In December 2022, he announced his intention to stand down at the 2024 general election.[116]
In June 2023, Hancock was told to apologise to Parliament after being found to have breached the MPs Code of Conduct, by committing a “minor breach” of Commons rules by sending an unsolicited letter to the parliamentary standards commissioner in an attempt to influence the commissioner's investigation into fellow Conservative MP Steve Brine.[117]
Pandemic Diaries
Main article: Pandemic Diaries
In April 2022, it was announced that Hancock would publish his diaries during the COVID-19 pandemic called Pandemic Diaries with Biteback Publishing, cowritten by Isabel Oakeshott.[118] The royalties were planned to be donated to NHS charities.[119][120] The book was to be released in December 2022.
The book was not based on a diary, but was written after the fact. It was based on Hancock's recollections, as well his records of communications.[118][121] It dismissed allegations that moving patients into care homes caused deaths, arguing that the staff in care homes were the vector of disease.[118] The book was also critical of Dominic Cummings.[118][122]
Reviews commented that the book presented too positive an image, making Hancock seem unduly prescient with the benefit of hindsight, arguing there may be elements of revisionism.[118][123]
Gaby Hinsliff reviewing in The Guardian said that there were kernels of truth about how politicians make decisions in the account but comments on how the book was written with the benefit of hindsight, allowing Hancock to make himself seem prescient.[118] Rod Dacombe writing in the i, said that the diary was absurd and devoid of literary flair.[124] Adam Wagner, writing in Prospect magazine, said that the book had a focus on score settling and self-aggrandisation but that there were some genuine revelations. He noted that more will be known when the UK Covid-19 Inquiry reports.[125] Wagner argues Hancock's removal of exceptions for protest from proposed lockdown regulations on the grounds that protests could undermine public trust in measures and his criticism of protestors in the book are suggestive that protests were banned based on the political views of protestors, which Wagner thinks would likely constitute government overreach.[125]
Oakeshott leaked some of the private WhatsApp messages she had access to in a Daily Telegraph article published in February 2023. The Telegraph published a series of articles about these leaks in a series called The Lockdown Files.[126] One message from April 2020 suggests Hancock told aides that professor Chris Whitty had done "an "evidence review" and recommended "testing of all going into care homes, and segregation whilst awaiting result". Hancock allegedly stated this was a "good positive step". Later, Hancock allegedly stated he would rather avoid a commitment to test all people going into care homes from the community and "just commit to test & isolate ALL going into care from hospital".[127] A spokesman for Hancock said, "These stolen messages have been doctored to create a false story that Matt rejected clinical advice on care home testing".[128]
Appearance on I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!
Hancock was a contestant on the 22nd series of the reality television series I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!, filmed while Parliament was in session.[121] An agreement was reached with the show's producers that Hancock could communicate with his constituency team throughout his time in the jungle if necessary.[129] Explaining his decision to participate in the show, Hancock said, "I want to raise the profile of my dyslexia campaign to help every dyslexic child unleash their potential — even if it means taking an unusual route to get there, via the Australian jungle"![121] Hancock also explained that he was driven by the intention to display his "human side" and to use reality TV as a means to convey "important messages to the masses".[130] It was reported that Hancock would be paid £400,000, which was "one of the largest show fees" paid to a contestant. His spokesman said that a donation would be made to St Nicholas Hospice in Suffolk and causes supporting dyslexia.[129]
Hancock joined the show on 9 November 2022 with comedian Seann Walsh.[131] After he entered the jungle camp, Hancock was questioned by his fellow contestants, including Charlene White, Scarlette Douglas and Babatunde Aléshé, about his time as Health Secretary.[132][133] Although he expressed remorse about breaking social distancing guidelines, he pointed out that he had not broken any laws and said that he did not regret the political decisions he made during the pandemic.[109]
On the episode aired on 16 November 2022, Hancock said that he told Boris Johnson not to run for prime minister again during the October 2022 Conservative Party leadership election, and said that former prime minister Liz Truss's political career is "totally finished" with "no ambiguity at all."[134]
On 27 November 2022, Hancock finished in 3rd place.[135][136]
Reaction
Within the show
Hancock's participation in the show was met with a mixed reaction by some of the other contestants. In the episode aired on 18 November 2022, fellow contestant Boy George said in a conversation with Seann Walsh that he found Hancock "slimy and slippery", and later told Hancock that he found it difficult to "separate" the politician from the person.[137] Another contestant, journalist Charlene White, said she feared she would lose her job if she was too sympathetic towards Hancock.[138]
By others
In response to participating in the show, the Conservative Party suspended the whip for Hancock—in effect removing him from their parliamentary group but retaining him as a party member.[139][140]
On 5 November, it was reported that an online petition to stop Hancock from appearing on the show had attracted nearly 40,000 signatures.[141] The Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice and 38 Degrees groups flew a banner over the camp which read: "Covid bereaved say get out of here!".[142][143]
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who had worked with Hancock during his tenure as chancellor, said he was "disappointed" at Hancock's decision to participate in a reality television show and expressed his discomfort at the level of degradation Hancock was subjecting himself to.[144][145]
Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards Kathryn Stone stated her office had received "dozens of complaints" about Hancock being on the television show. Stone said that Hancock's decision to join the show raised "important questions about members' proper activities while they're supposed to be fulfilling their parliamentary duties and representing their constituents".[146] Ofcom received just under 2,000 complaints about the show in its first week, including complaints over his appearance on the show and complaints criticising how Hancock was treated by other contestants.[147]
Hancock broke government rules about post-ministerial jobs by not consulting the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments before he joined the show, according to Lord Pickles, the committee chair. However, Lord Pickles advised ministers that taking action against Hancock would be disproportionate.[148]
On 23 May 2024, Rishi Sunak restored the whip to Hancock.[149][150]
Personal life
Hancock married Martha Hoyer Millar, an osteopath, in 2006.[2] She is a granddaughter of the 1st Baron Inchyra.[151] They have a daughter and two sons. Hancock forbids his children to use social media.[7][152] The family lived in Little Thurlow in his West Suffolk parliamentary constituency.[153]
In June 2021, following an affair with his political aide Gina Coladangelo, sources reported that he had left his wife for Coladangelo.[154] Hancock confirmed he was still with Coladangelo during a conversation with Babatunde Aléshé on I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!.[155][156][157]
Hancock lives in his constituency, and also has a flat in London.[158]
Hancock trained as a jockey in 2012 and won a horse race in his constituency town of Newmarket.[4] Hancock supports Newcastle United, and auctioned his "pride and joy" signed team shirt to raise money for the NHS in May 2020.[159][160]
Hancock told The Guardian in 2018 that he has dyslexia, something that he said first became apparent two decades earlier while he was studying at Oxford.[161]
On 25 January 2023, police arrested a 61-year-old man for allegedly assaulting Hancock on the London Underground.[162]
Notes
References
Official website
Profile at Parliament of the United Kingdom
Contributions in Parliament at Hansard
Voting record at Public Whip
Record in Parliament at TheyWorkForYou
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https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/matt-hancock-and-rishi-sunak-show-why-we-need-professional-politicians/
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Matt Hancock and Rishi Sunak show why we need professional politicians
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[
""
] | null |
[
"James Kirkup"
] |
2020-04-03T09:15:41+00:00
|
Coronavirus commentary often takes a familiar form, which can easily be parodied thus: ‘Why the Coronavirus crisis justifies the thing I was arguing for before the crisis.’ I mention this because this article could, I suppose, be written off in that way. It is a column of praise for technocratic, wonkish politician-managers written by someone
|
en
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The Spectator
|
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/matt-hancock-and-rishi-sunak-show-why-we-need-professional-politicians/
|
Coronavirus commentary often takes a familiar form, which can easily be parodied thus: ‘Why the Coronavirus crisis justifies the thing I was arguing for before the crisis.’
I mention this because this article could, I suppose, be written off in that way. It is a column of praise for technocratic, wonkish politician-managers written by someone who runs a centrist think-tank. I would say this, wouldn’t I?
Well, perhaps, but I will say it anyway: the coronavirus crisis is reminding us that we should, once again, value politicians whose primary skill is understanding, gripping and managing complicated stuff and whose inclination is to put that management ahead of appealing to the emotions of voters.
By way of evidence, I offer you Matt Hancock and Rishi Sunak. If you, like many others, keep a regular eye on Downing Street’s daily media briefing, you’ll have seen that the Chancellor and, most recently yesterday the health secretary, have emerged as the ministers best able to demonstrate command of their brief and a sense of grip on the crisis.
Since we all now live our social lives via social media, I have observed via the magic of WhatsApp non-political friends’ responses to Sunak and Hancock in almost real-time. To at least some people outside the Westminster bubble, both have cut through and delivered at least a bit of reassurance that the people in charge have some idea of what they’re doing.
After a rocky few days, my guess is that Hancock’s impressive performance at yesterday’s briefing will help steady the ship that is the government’s communications effort. This is no small matter, given that the implementation of policy (lockdown) ultimately depends on public confidence in the people behind that policy.
Sunak’s nerveless assurance probably had similar calming effects on what remains a fragile, faltering economy when he announced his financial support packages last month.
To be clear, neither man has fixed anything yet. The testing problems Hancock addressed remain unresolved. The economic outlook Sunak addressed remains dire. But at least they looked like they understood the situation, had a plan to respond and were capable of overseeing its implementation.
This is worth noting because Hancock and Sunak are the sort of politicians we are supposed to have grown weary of.
Their CVs are almost generic. Private school then PPE (no, the other sort) at Oxford, followed by brief spells in finance (Sunak: Goldman Sachs and hedgefunds. Hancock: the Bank of England). Then quickly into political apparatchik jobs (Hancock: George Osborne’s adviser. Sunak: a Tory think-tank) and a safe Tory seat in your 30s. Then a rapid leap to Cabinet. (Hancock, 41, became an MP at 31 and a Cabinet minister at 39. Sunak, 39, entered the Commons at 35 and took full Cabinet rank in February.)
By inclination, neither Sunak nor Hancock is a tub-thumping partisan; it’s quite easy to imagine that had they been born a decade earlier, they might have sat alongside the likes of Andy Burnham and James Purnell (both 50) in a later Blair Cabinet. Both give the impression that politics is more an exercise of skill and judgement than the work of deep conviction.
Overall, it’s hard to resist the conclusion that they are cut from the same cloth as David Cameron, who was once asked why he wanted to be PM and replied: ‘Because I’d be good at it.’
Sunak and Hancock are, in short, the sort of bloodless technocratic ‘professional politicians’ the nation is supposed to have rejected when it sent Cameron packing.
But here’s the thing. Cameron is out because he wasn’t, ultimately, good at it. But that doesn’t mean that there is no use or value in clever, young professional politicos with big brains and bottomless confidence. It just means David Cameron wasn’t as clever as he thought he was.
It does not logically follow that because Cameron failed as PM that politicians from the same mould cannot succeed elsewhere.
Indeed, the coronavirus crisis is precisely the sort of situation when the people you want in charge are smart, confident types able to absorb great stacks of detailed information without losing sight of strategic goals. This is a time for followers of the ‘what works’ school of politics who can make the machine work, not culture-warriors whose response to complicated, serious problems is to blame the officials working to solve those problems.
This is why Rishi Sunak and Matt Hancock are the men to watch in Cabinet right now.
Will this help them politically? Are they the future of their party, the next Blair and Brown or Cameron and Osborne?
I have no idea. Although people are indeed talking about that prospect, it seems far too early to be making bets on journeys across a political landscape that is still shifting. The fan-chart of possible political outcomes from here covers a spread of eventualities ranging from a decade in No 10 for Boris Johnson to prime minister Keir Starmer by Christmas.
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https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/matthew-hancock-named-uk-minister-911864/
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en
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Matthew Hancock Named U.K. Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries
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[
"Georg Szalai"
] |
2016-07-18T03:06:34+00:00
|
He replaces Ed Vaizey in another cabinet reshuffle by prime minister Theresa May.
|
en
|
The Hollywood Reporter
|
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/matthew-hancock-named-uk-minister-911864/
|
Britain’s minister for culture, communications and creative industries Ed Vaizey is the latest to leave the government as new prime minister Theresa May, of the Conservative Party, continues to reshuffle the cabinet after taking over from David Cameron.
Matthew Hancock is replacing Vaizey, it was revealed Monday. Hancock was paymaster general, the minister at the head of the treasury department responsible for payments, and has been one of the key people working on the potential privatization of U.K. broadcaster Channel 4.
Last week, May named Karen Bradley secretary of state for culture, media and sport. In her new role, she has overall responsibility for the work of the Department of Culture, Media and Sport and the digital economy.
In his new minister of state role, Hancock will oversee broadband, spectrum and telecoms, as well as culture and heritage issues, in addition to the internet and creative industries, libraries, media and museums and galleries.
In a reference to the Brexit, his departure and his last name, Vaizey tweeted: “Looking forward to supporting the government from the backbenches #vexit.”
Hancock tweeted: “Sad to see #Vexit – big tributes to my friend @edvaizey’s amazing work over 6 years to build UK as tech & cultural leader.”
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https://www.politicshome.com/news/coronavirus.htm
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the latest coronavirus news from Politics Home
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2020-03-24T08:59:00
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In depth analysis and political reporting on the evolving coronavirus health crisis brought to you by the team at PoliticsHome.com
|
en
|
/favicon.ico
|
Politics Home
|
https://www.politicshome.com/news/coronavirus.htm
|
This site requires JavaScript for certain functions and interactions to work. Please turn on JavaScript for the best possible experience.
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8744
|
dbpedia
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0
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https://guernseypress.com/news/uk-news/2022/11/01/matt-hancock-from-pandemic-health-secretary-to-bushtucker-trials/
|
en
|
Matt Hancock: From pandemic health secretary to bushtucker trials
|
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2022-11-01T00:00:00
|
Joining I’m A Celebrity is the latest career twist for the former health secretary.
|
en
|
/pf/resources/icons/favicon-gp.ico?d=213
|
https://guernseypress.com/news/uk-news/2022/11/01/matt-hancock-from-pandemic-health-secretary-to-bushtucker-trials/
|
Already possibly one of the nation’s better known politicians for his role as health secretary during a once-in-a-century pandemic, Matt Hancock is about to encounter a whole new audience as he prepares to join I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!
Swapping the world of Westminster for jungle antics with Ant and Dec is certainly an unorthodox shift for the former minister, whose government career had an unfortunate ending after he resigned in the aftermath of his affair with an aide that broke his own coronavirus rules.
Only in recent days was Mr Hancock reportedly mulling a bid to become chair of the Treasury Select Committee, apparently opting instead for bushtucker trials instead of banks and bonds.
Appointed health secretary in 2018 after spending 18 months in the culture brief, he had been a prominent figure for the government during its handling of the coronavirus pandemic until his abrupt exit.
He had faced pressure to stand down after pictures emerged depicting the married minister appearing to kiss his adviser Gina Coladangelo, with CCTV images published in The Sun taken on May 6 when guidance on social distancing were still in place, with hugging between people from different households recommended against.
Around the same period, Boris Johnson’s former aide Dominic Cummings had shared text messages in which Boris Johnson was said to have called the health secretary “hopeless”.
Mr Cummings accused the senior minister of lying to the prime minister over promises to protect those in care homes during the first wave of Covid-19 infections by testing new residents before being admitted.
Mr Hancock dismissed claims he lied and called Mr Johnson’s “hopeless” jibe “ancient history”.
Mr Hancock, who in 2018 became the only MP in British politics to launch his own app, took only eight years to rise from West Suffolk MP to health secretary.
The Oxford and Cambridge educated father-of-three previously worked as an economist at the Bank of England and as chief of staff to George Osborne when he was shadow chancellor of the exchequer, before taking a seat in the Commons.
The Cheshire-raised politician first attended cabinet after being appointed Minister for the Cabinet Office in 2015 by then prime minister David Cameron.
Mr Cameron’s successor Theresa May later promoted him to the role of culture secretary.
The 42-year-old initially threw his hat into the ring to replace Mrs May in No 10 during the 2019 Conservative Party leadership contest but withdrew from the leadership race part way through and was quick to throw his weight behind Mr Johnson.
He was among the handful of ministers to retain his brief when Mr Johnson took power in July 2019, making him one of the most prominent ministers when coronavirus rocked Britain eight months later.
In his resignation video, he said that he was looking forward to “supporting the government and the prime minister from the back benches to make sure that we can get out of this pandemic”.
After Boris Johnson’s downfall this summer, he was an enthusiastic backer of Mr Sunak and speculation persisted that he still harboured a return to a Government role.
Even as Liz Truss’s government crumbled, his advice from the sidelines did little to dampen that speculation.
Once she resigned, he returned as a vocal Sunak backer – although his standing in the new leader’s camp was brought into sharp relief after the victorious Mr Sunak appeared to blank the former health secretary, who stood waiting to greet him at the front of the crowd at Conservative HQ.
His decision to join I’m a Celebrity has already prompted mockery, as well as swift repercussions politically – Chief Whip Simon Hart said the situation was so serious he should have the right to sit as a Conservative suspended.
Allies said he would use his appearance to promote his backbench work on dyslexia, as he tried to “embrace” popular culture.
“Politicians like Matt must go to where the people are – particularly those who are politically disengaged,” one ally said.
Others were less flattering.
Andy Drummond, deputy chairman (political) of West Suffolk Conservative Association, told PA news agency: “I’m looking forward to him eating a kangaroo’s penis.
“Quote me. You can quote me that.”
|
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8744
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2
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https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/12/world/europe/david-cameron-greensill-inquiry.html
|
en
|
David Cameron Faces Inquiry Into His Dealings With Greensill
|
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"Stephen Castle"
] |
2021-04-12T00:00:00
|
The British former prime minister has said that he did nothing illegal, but he has acknowledged mistakes in pleading Greensill Capital’s case with government ministers.
|
en
|
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|
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/12/world/europe/david-cameron-greensill-inquiry.html
|
LONDON — David Cameron, the former British prime minister, is to face a formal investigation into his business dealings after revelations that he lobbied former colleagues by text message and over drinks on behalf of an Anglo-Australian finance firm.
Downing Street announced the review on Monday after weeks of publicity about claims that Mr. Cameron, who stepped down as prime minister in 2016, had approached cabinet ministers on behalf of the firm, Greensill Capital, which has now collapsed.
Mr. Cameron was a friend and rival of the current prime minister, Boris Johnson — first at Eton College, Britain’s most famous high school, then at Oxford University and finally within the Conservative Party, which they both went on to lead.
The allegations come at a sensitive moment for Mr. Johnson, whose government has been accused of cronyism and favoritism toward Conservative Party supporters in awarding lucrative contracts during the coronavirus crisis.
“The pandemic has raised the stakes on ethics in public life,” said Hannah White, deputy director of the Institute for Government, a think tank, who once ran an official committee on standards.
“Not only is it more important for lobbying to be transparent during a time of emergency when government has deliberately suspended normal rules on procurement and public appointments in order to respond at speed,” she said, “but the idea of politicians benefiting from the crisis by lining their pockets is particularly offensive.”
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8744
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3
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https://www.politico.eu/newsletter/london-playbook/matt-hancock-faces-the-music-again/
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en
|
Matt Hancock faces the music, again
|
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"Dan Bloom"
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2023-11-30T07:00:00+00:00
|
What's driving the day in Westminster. Politics and policymaking in the UK capital.
|
en
|
https://www.politico.eu/wp-content/themes/politico/assets/images/favicon/favicon.ico
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POLITICO
|
https://www.politico.eu/newsletter/london-playbook/matt-hancock-faces-the-music-again/
|
AN ERA ENDS: Former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger has died aged 100, after a titanic and at times divisive diplomatic career that gave him a hand in policies on Vietnam, Israel, Chile, China and the Soviet Union. POLITICO’s David Cohen has written an obituary here.
Good Thursday morning. This is Dan Bloom.
DRIVING THE DAY
BACK ON TELLY: Let’s hope Matt Hancock has swapped his diet of sheep’s vagina for a hearty Weetabix. The former health secretary starts two days of evidence at 10 a.m. as — like a TV cop drama — the COVID Inquiry moves into its blockbuster final weeks before Christmas.
The context: We’ve already heard oodles from Hancock, be it his hagiographic “Pandemic Diaries” … the 100,000 texts handed by its author to the Telegraph … his evidence to a previous stage of the inquiry … questions about his affair on I’m a Celebrity … or being knocked about on Celebrity SAS. Doubtless some will roll eyes at the attention on a whipless backbencher. But his crucial role in 2020, and the lightning rod he has become for officials, combine to make this a big moment.
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WHIPPING BOY: Hancock must now answer the Murder on the Orient Express-style procession of senior figures who’ve done him in. Greatest hits include Dominic Cummings calling him a “proven liar” … Helen MacNamara saying he’d say things in meetings that “we’d discover [weren’t] in fact the case” … Patrick Vallance saying he had a “habit” of saying things “without evidence to back them up” … Mark Sedwill texting that he needed removing to “save lives and protect the NHS” … Simon Case name-checking him in the government’s “weak team” … Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham saying Hancock knew Tier 3 restrictions wouldn’t work when he imposed them … Simon Stevens saying he wanted to decide “who should live and who should die” … and Chris Wormald saying he “overpromised” (but not that he lied). Thanks to Playbook’s Noah Keate for the round-up.
Oh, and ask Hancock about: His May 2020 comment that “right from the start, we’ve tried to throw a protective ring around our care homes.” The inquiry heard on Wednesday that medical chief Jenny Harries emailed a health department official two months earlier saying: “I believe the reality will be that we will need to discharge Covid-19 positive patients into residential care settings.” Email here.
On the other hand: Former NHS chief Simon Stevens said “I don’t think I’ve seen evidence” Hancock was untruthful … Cabinet colleague Michael Gove expressed his “high opinion” … and Dominic Cummings claimed ex-PM Boris Johnson wanted Hancock in place as a “sacrifice for the inquiry.” Which sounds prescient.
What Hancock might use in defense: Perhaps he’ll point to the fact Stevens and Wormald, who are much less harsh, worked more closely with him than his critics in No. 10. Or he might repeat the various things his “allies” have briefed to newspapers, like arguing he’s “brazenly” being made No. 10’s scapegoat (the Times) or saying he called for a COBRA meeting in late January 2020 (the Observer).
Look out too … for anything about contact from bra tycoon Michelle Mone, after some dogged Guardian reporting and Hancock’s claims about her email in his book.
COMING ATTRACTIONS: The inquiry will publish next week’s timetable just before 10 a.m. and it’s a biggie — Boris Johnson is expected to give evidence next Wednesday and Thursday, as the Mirror’s John Stevens reported. Playbook hears Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is penciled in for Monday 11 December, though we’ll only find out for sure in a week.
Housekeeping note: Questions today will be dominated by Counsel to the Inquiry Hugo Keith, as other groups come at the end. Hancock’s witness statement should be published on Friday night.
Further reading: Statements totalling 294 pages from witnesses Dominic Raab, Jenny Harries and Sajid Javid are all now online — there must be some big lines in there somewhere.
GREEN COP
WHEELS UP: Rishi Sunak is expected to fly tonight to Dubai, where the COP28 U.N. climate summit is getting underway. Many of the 70,000 delegates from nearly 200 countries have already arrived, my colleague Charlie Cooper emails to say, and nations are poised to seal a deal on a “loss and damage” fund on the first day.
But first: The leaders’ summit is only on Friday, so the PM is on a visit in Surrey and recording a pool clip mid-morning, before returning to No. 10 for unspecified meetings and calls. He’ll switch on the Downing Street Christmas lights with his wife Akshata Murty in the early evening.
ADVANCE PARTY: Foreign Secretary David Cameron is arriving at COP today from an OSCE summit in North Macedonia, where he decided not to meet Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Also flying in today is climate activist and *checks notes* king, Charles III.
Two amigos: Chaz and Cam will meet clean tech entrepreneurs, students and female leaders on the risks of climate change to women and girls, before the king — whose big speech is on Friday morning — schmoozes UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan at an evening reception.
What a plane: There’s plenty of backlash to the fact Cameron, Charles and Sunak are all coming in separate jets. No. 10 rebuffed criticism, telling hacks “we are not anti-flying” but will invest in making it less dirty. Climate campaigners are spitting tacks, via the Independent.
Yep, that’s the line: Food Minister Mark Spencer told LBC’s Andrew Marr: “I accept the sort of hypocrisy, if you like, in global leaders flying to one location to solve this challenge. But of course, we do need those global leaders to get together to cooperate.”
Not another one! Transport Secretary Mark Harper, who took a world-first “sustainable aviation fuel” flight to New York this week, is meeting Lime, Uber and self-driving car firms in San Francisco today … before coming home on a distinctly non-SAF flight and then jetting to COP next week.
COP A LOAD OF THIS: My colleague Suzanne Lynch has fired up an essential Global Playbook from COP28 to keep you briefed on the summit. She says attendees include Hillary Clinton, Bill Gates, Stella McCartney, Emmanuel Macron, Narendra Modi and Pedro Sánchez … but the leaders of the U.S., China, Russia, Canada and Australia are all giving it a miss, as is Pope Francis, due to health reasons.
POLICY ROW IN A NUTSHELL: Your author is old enough to remember ex-COP President Alok Sharma literally crying after “phasing out” fossil fuels was weakened to “phasing down” coal in 2021. The debate about language is back at COP28, says Charlie, this time relating to *all* fossil fuels. The U.K.’s formal position is — like the EU — to back a “phase out of unabated fossil fuels” (ie. fossil fuels where there’s no carbon capture canceling them out).
But but but … Three weeks ago, Net-Zero Minister Graham Stuart muddied the waters by telling MPs “we should focus on phasing down, phasing out — whatever it does, as long as it translates into real action.” Will the formal position hold up in the negotiating room?
EXCUSES IN EARLY: COP President Sultan al-Jaber came out fighting against reports that the UAE plans to use its role to push fossil fuel deals. He told a press conference: “These allegations are false, not true, incorrect, and are not accurate.” Someone tell this guy what tautology is.
TIME TO ‘STEP UP’: Mark Carney, the U.N. special envoy for climate finance and action, has thrown down the gauntlet ahead of the summit. Speaking on this week’s Power Play podcast, Carney says: “What we’ll be looking for at COP is who steps up amongst the oil and gas companies and commits to not doing something in the distant future, but doing something over the next few years.” He tells POLITICO’s Anne McElvoy, “We’ll start to judge who’s performing and who isn’t.” Listen here.
AS FOR LABOUR: Leader Keir Starmer is setting off to COP this morning (on a commercial flight) and will have meetings on Friday and Saturday alongside frontbenchers David Lammy and Ed Miliband.
DON’T TELL ATTENBOROUGH: Weak Whitehall coordination has affected the delivery of the government’s £500 million “Blue Planet” fund, an Independent Commission for Aid Impact review found … and the Guardian splashes on a study that found air pollution from using fossil fuels accounts for 5.1 million global avoidable deaths per year.
GOOD TIMING: Stats on the number of energy efficiency upgrades to social housing and wider domestic homes, solar panels, smart meters, and the boiler upgrade scheme are all out at 9.30 a.m.
SUELLA’S (ATTEMPTED) REVENGE
LAST NIGHT AT THE SPECTATOR: MPs, SpAds, hacks and power-hungry Labour aides enjoying their first time filled a five-star hotel ballroom in Holborn for Tory bible the Spectator’s annual awards. Over beef Wellington and Pol Roger champagne, they witnessed (not for the first time) a fun-sized distillation of the warring egos of the Conservative Party.
What everyone was talking about: Disrupter of the Year Suella Braverman could not suppress her grin as she walked on to I Predict a Riot. The sacked home secretary said she’d won the title over the Supreme Court, the ECHR … and “for disrupting my plans to cut the numbers and deliver a manifesto pledge — the prime minister.”
The only problem … was her drive-by landed worse than a wet thud, with audible suckings of breath and not one laugh. “That’s her leadership hopes gone in 2 mins,” one of her many detractors texted Playbook gleefully. Said another: “I would say she bombed but you have to take off first.” One attendee called it as “avant-garde” … another described it using only wincing noises … and a Cabinet minister said simply: “Pathetic. Pathetic.”
The upside: It’s proof she’s not part of the Establishment.
Dispensing the jokes … was Sajid Javid, who peaked with a barb about David Cameron’s lucrative private work overseas: “I still remember the first words you said to me when I walked into your office — Nǐ hǎo!”
Top gong: The titular Parliamentarian of the Year went to Harriet Harman, who said she wanted to stand down years ago before “Jeremy Corbyn turned the Labour Party into what James Cleverly said,” (a sh*thole). Lobby hacks giggled at her solemn description of the Trappist silence she and the privileges committee kept during their Partygate probe.
More jokes: Politician to Watch Wes Streeting assured left-wingers he won’t sell the NHS — er, because “after 13 years of Conservative government, no one’s actually prepared to buy it” … Rising Star and Sunak ultra Claire Coutinho said “Rishi just wanted someone to make him look taller” … and Comeback of the Year David Cameron complained via video link that the Lords is too crowded: “Which idiot put so many Lib Dems in here?”
Always ready to serve: Survivor of the Year was Michael Green, swiftly corrected on-screen to his alter ego Grant Shapps. “Oh, he’s prepared a speech,” yawned one guest loudly. He gave it anyway. Full winners and speeches here and spotted list below.
THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM … was the looming UAE-backed bid for the hosting mag and fellow Tory outlet the Telegraph. Spectator Editor Fraser Nelson walked on to the music from Lawrence of Arabia and joked next year the title may be so rich it can “afford Boris Johnson as a guest of honor.”
Row rumbles on: Today’s Spectator takes a giant swipe at Investment Minister Dominic Johnson’s relaxed attitude to the deal (in a POLITICO interview) and says it should be rejected without “cast-iron assurance” of editorial freedom. The Mail (whose owner has a rival bid) gives a big write-up to 18 Tory MPs’ letter raising concerns. There was still no word overnight on whether Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer will intervene; if she does, it could come with little warning as an oral statement to parliament.
PICK HIM INSTEAD? The i’s Arj Singh reports mischievous speculation on whether Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick, who’s leaned into right-wing rhetoric, will run for leader. “He’s had a hair cut, he’s lost some weight, people are wondering what he’s up to,” says one MP. The Times has a similar big read on how Jenrick’s “star has risen” on the right.
TODAY IN WESTMINSTER
MUSICAL CHAIRS! Former Health Secretary Steve Barclay last year gutted his ninth floor office — scene of the Matt Hancock snog — to create “a flexible co-working space” with a “coffee breakout zone.” He prioritized the fifth floor as a “control center” and moved to the first, with ministers working open-plan alongside other staff. But Playbook hears his successor Victoria Atkins has now … drumroll … moved back to the ninth floor after all.
Reminder: A previous round of refurbishment — revealed by a Labour PQ and meeting minutes — cost up to £140,000. Silver lining: A DHSC official stresses there’s no building work this time …
SPEEDY DING-DONG: MPs will vote on all stages of Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s sped-up National Insurance cut this afternoon after four hours’ debate. Hunt has a Times op-ed saying Labour is “fundamentally dishonest” to back the cut at the same time as its £28 billion green plan … while Labour retorts: “The chancellor is either being dishonest, economically illiterate or both.”
TESTING PATIENCE: British diplomats fear Rwanda’s support for its migration deal wearing thin as deportation flights fail to get off the ground, says the Times splash.
This won’t help: At the same time, EU officials have privately contacted their U.K. counterparts urging Britain not to backtrack on the ECHR or U.N. Refugee Convention, Bloomberg reports.
Meanwhile, in legal migration: A plan by then-Health Secretary Steve Barclay to ban foreign care workers bringing dependents to the U.K. was blocked by other departments, reports the Telegraph’s Charles Hymas.
BAD NEWS? NHS stats are out at 9.30 a.m. on the number of doctors and nurses, GP appointments and sickness absences.
GOOD NEWS! The FT has picked up on updated ONS figures “quietly released in a spreadsheet last month” that show U.K. unemployment fell to 3.5 percent in spring — matching a low seen just once since the 1970s.
STAT DUMP THURSDAY: Annual figures on the number of apprenticeships and affordable housing supply are out at 9.30 a.m. — plus more regular data on statutory homelessness and bus fares.
BETTER TOGETHER: Liam Conlon, who happens to be the son of Labour Chief of Staff Sue Gray, was selected on Wednesday night as candidate for Beckenham and Penge by eight votes. The long-time activist edged out Melanie Ward, an ex-colleague of David Miliband who heads Medical Aid for Palestinians. Selections-watcher Michael Crick has tallies here and claims Conlon clinched it through postals and online.
GRANTED: A task force of seven ships will mount patrols from next month between the English Channel and the Baltic Sea to protect undersea cables, the MOD announces today. The BBC has more details.
WHAT THE GOVERNMENT WANTS TO TALK ABOUT: Eleven tech firms including Amazon, Google and YouTube will sign an Online Fraud Charter aimed at tackling scams and fake ads — via PA.
BREJOIN? Reaction to EU bigwig Ursula von der Leyen’s Brexit reversal hope at the POLITICO 28 awards makes a big hit, with the Telegraph and Yorkshire Post putting it on page one. The Sun’s leader warns ominously that between this and “David Stronger In Cameron,” “just wait until Nigel Farage hears about this when he gets out of the jungle …”
GIVE HIM PINTS OF WINE: After a long delay, champagne and wine will be sold in pints within months — according to what appears to be a ministerial write-round obtained by the Sun’s Harry Cole and Ryan Sabey. It says a consultation is “imminent.” Brexiteer Churchill fans rejoice!
IN THE RED FIELD: Shadow Environment Secretary Steve Reed will today say he’d get pylons built quicker for farmers needing grid access (via the Guardian) and admits “we became too detached” from their concerns. A Labour spokesman says of his 11.45 a.m. speech to the Country Land and Business Association Conference: “Our road to a majority runs through these seats. This is us parking our tanks on Tory fields.”
IN THE BLUE FIELD: Environment Secretary Steve Barclay — who’s promising to back farmers in a speech at the same conference this morning — says it’s “hypocritical political opportunism” as Labour will “concrete over their green belt to make space for urban sprawl.”
BIDEN’S SECRET WEAPON: After crashing Britain, will Liz Truss save the world? The ex-PM’s trip to persuade U.S. Republicans to support Ukraine is backed by U.K. officials, who believe she can speak more directly than the government, write my colleagues Eleni Courea and Esther Webber. Truss’s group has more meetings today — here’s their family holiday snap from Capitol Hill.
RUH-ROH: The Data Protection and Digital Information Bill passed its final Commons stages on Wednesday night, despite a warning it could let the government snoop on pensioners’ bank accounts (via PA). Tory MP David Davis isn’t happy.
A&E IN A&E: The Mirror splashes on its own look at CQC reports into A&Es, saying 107 out of 197 “failed to meet basic standards.”
DROPPED THE BALL: Policing Minister Chris Philp did not declare football tickets believed to be worth over £6,000 because of an “administrative oversight,” reports the Times’ Aubrey Allegretti.
MILLSTONE: The i splashes on a story by Hugo Gye casting doubt on the long-term future of the pensions triple lock — which the OECD said is harming the nation’s finances.
IF BORIS CAN DO IT: The Telegraph has an op-ed by Indian PM Narendra Modi beating the drum for his nation’s role as G20 chair.
SW1 EVENTS: Reform hosts a roundtable with 2019 Tory manifesto co-author Rachel Wolf at 9.45 a.m. … and the Institute for Government hosts a discussion on improving public service productivity including senior Treasury official Cat Little at 6 p.m.
HOUSE OF COMMONS: Sits from 9.30 a.m. with business and trade questions … Commons leader Penny Mordaunt’s business statement … and the second reading and remaining stages of the National Insurance Contributions (Reduction In Rates) Bill. Labour MP Mohammad Yasin has the adjournment debate on conditions at HM Prison Bedford.
WESTMINSTER HALL: Debates from 1.30 p.m. on topics including the work of the Independent Complaints and Grievance Scheme (led by Tory MP Maria Miller) … and pupils with allergies in schools (led by DUP MP Jim Shannon).
On Committee corridor: Transport Minister Huw Merriman and HS2 Executive Chair Jon Thompson give a progress update to the Transport Committee (2.30 p.m.)
HOUSE OF LORDS: Sits from 11 a.m. with the introduction of unaffiliated peer Sue Carr followed by oral questions on battery and hydrogen powered aircraft and leasehold reform … then the main business is a debate on the 75th anniversary of the NHS, a short debate on removing free prescriptions for benefit claimants who refuse to look for work and a debate on early years education.
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BARRAGE OF FARAGE
SPANNER IN THE WORKS: Nigel Farage didn’t win any stars during his bushtucker trial on Wednesday night’s I’m A Celeb, Playbook’s jungle correspondent Noah Keate writes. The task — In Too Deep — required unscrewing bolts with a spanner underwater. Though unfazed by various sea creatures, it proved too much, forcing Farage to utter the show’s title.
Licking wounds: Farage was glum on his return, saying he felt “quite a heavy sense of failure” and he’d “let the camp down.” Bushtucker trial partner Nick Pickard off Hollyoaks won six stars for campers nonetheless …
Once more with feeling: Farage’s remaining time on screen was used to continue debating cultural appropriation with YouTuber Nella Rose and complaining about the camp’s cleanliness with maître d’ Fred Sirieix.
Video evidence: After an apparent spoiler by Farage’s allies to the Express, Byline Times has now published a 2021 Cameo video branded “racist” and “homophobic” by its recipient. Farage’s team told the Express “he would not have made” the video-to-order if he’d known the script had an “obscure offensive word.”
BEYOND THE M25
COME IN FROM THE COLD: Councils around the country have activated their cold weather plans for homeless people, including London’s City Hall, Liverpool and East Suffolk. Glasgow is expected to declare a housing emergency as the number of homeless refugees doubles — the Guardian has more.
BLAME ROBIN HOOD: Nottingham City Council will hold a meeting of all councilors within three weeks after declaring itself effectively bankrupt — via the Telegraph. Sky’s Jennifer Scott has a helpful explainer on why it’s the seventh bankrupt council since 2018.
BUILD BRIDGES: Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen and his Labour opponent Chris McEwan have both pledged to save Middlesbrough’s Tees Transporter Bridge, closed since 2019 — via TeesideLive.
BREAKING UP THE UNION: Two unnamed SNP politicians had an extramarital affair said to have continued during the COVID-19 pandemic, despite lockdown rules — the Scottish Daily Express has the exclusive.
US VS. INDIA: U.S. federal prosecutors accused an unnamed Indian government official of orchestrating a plot to kill a Sikh activist in New York — the story splashes the FT.
ISRAEL-HAMAS LATEST: Israel and Hamas agreed to extend the cease-fire in Gaza in a last-minute agreement that came just as the truce was due to expire. The pause in fighting will be extended for a day, according to Reuters. A second British warship is on its way to the Gulf from Gibraltar (more via the BBC) as 16 more hostages in Gaza were freed, and Israel freed another 30 Palestinian prisoners (BBC).
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MEDIA ROUND
Security Minister Tom Tugendhat broadcast round: GB News (6.45 a.m.) … Times Radio (7.05 a.m.) … Sky News (7.15 a.m.) … LBC (7.50 a.m.) … TalkTV (8.05 a.m.) … GMB (8.30 a.m.).
Shadow Science Secretary Peter Kyle broadcast round: GMB (7.20 a.m.) … Times Radio (7.50 a.m.) … Sky News (8.10 a.m.) … TalkTV (8.30 a.m.) … LBC News (8.50 a.m.) … GB News (9.05 a.m.).
Also on Times Radio Breakfast: Former Palestinian Authority spokesperson Nour Odeh (8 a.m.).
Also on Sky News Breakfast: Former Lib Dem MP Lembit Öpik (9.20 a.m.).
Also on Nick Ferrari at Breakfast: Local Government Association Chair Shaun Davies (8.20 a.m.).
Also on LBC News: Green Party Co-leader Adrian Ramsay (8.10 a.m.).
Politics Live (BBC Two 12.15 p.m.): Tory MP Vicky Ford … Shadow Lords leader Angela Smith … Tribune’s Taj Ali … the Telegraph’s Zoe Strimpel.
TODAY’S FRONT PAGES
POLITICO UK: Joe Biden’s secret Ukraine weapon — Liz Truss.
Daily Express: Smile of an innocent “lost” in a war with no end.
Daily Mail: Outrage as royals in Scobie book race row named on TV.
Daily Mirror: Nightmare at A&E.
Daily Star: Down with this sort of thing!
Financial Times: U.S. accuses Indian official of plotting to kill Sikh separatist in New York.
i: U.K. pensions triple lock under threat from 2025.
Metro: No change, no excuse.
The Daily Telegraph: Hostage baby died in Gaza, Hamas claims.
The Guardian: Air pollution from fossil fuels kills 5 million people a year.
The Independent: Plane madness! Sunak and Cameron take TWO private jets to COP28.
The Sun: Meghan’s revenge.
The Times: Migrant deal delays “put Rwandan help at risk.”
TODAY’S NEWS MAGS
POLITICO Europe: POLITICO 28 — the most powerful people in Europe ranked.
The New Statesman: Being Jewish now.
The Spectator: Carbon capture — Cindy Yu on how China cornered the green market.
LONDON CALLING
WESTMINSTER WEATHER: Sunny intervals and a gentle breeze. Highs of 5C.
SPOTTED … at the Rosewood Hotel in Holborn for the Spectator Parliamentarian of the Year awards: Home Secretary James Cleverly and wife Susannah Cleverly … Business and Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch … Defense Secretary Grant Shapps … Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer … Tory Chair Richard Holden … Chief Whip Simon Hart … Rishi Sunak’s PPS Craig Williams … Ministers Bim Afolami, Laura Trott, Laura Farris, Nus Ghani, Andrew Griffith, David Johnston, Andrew Mitchell and John Whittingdale … Shadow Paymaster General Jonathan Ashworth … Shadow Science Secretary Peter Kyle … Shadow Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson …Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury Darren Jones … MPs Karen Bradley, Miriam Cates, Theo Clarke, Paul Scully, Thérèse Coffey, Alan Mak, Kit Malthouse, Gavin Williamson, William Wragg, David Davis, Damian Green, Sajid Javid, Stella Creasy, Jess Phillips and Harriet Harman …
And breathe … Ex-Home Secretary Suella Braverman and husband Rael Braverman … Peers Simone Finn, Tina Stowell, Ed Vaizey and Claire Fox … No 10’s Liam Booth-Smith, Nerissa Chesterfield, James Forsyth, Jamie Njoku-Goodwin, Lucy Noakes, Beatrice Timpson and Jack Sellers … Fleetwood Strategy’s Isaac Levido … SpAds Cameron Brown, Giles Dilnot, Hannah Galley, Josh Grimstone, Rebecca Macintyre, Henry Newman, Steph Schwarz, Dylan Sharpe, Emma Pryor, Sophia True and Robyn Staveley … PAds Emma Barnes, Owain Mumford, Ben Nunn and Henna Shah … Labour’s Sophie Nazemi, Leila McIntyre, John Lehal and Matt Pound … Lib Dem Head of Media Paul Haydon … former MP Luciana Berger …
There’s more … Pol Eds Harry Cole, Pippa Crerar, Natasha Clark, Gary Gibbon, Hugo Gye, Andrew Marr, Chris Mason, Robert Peston, Beth Rigby, Ben Riley-Smith, John Stevens, Steven Swinford and Caroline Wheeler … Hacks Stephen Bush, Sam Coates, Jo Coburn, John Crace, Claire Ellicott, Lucy Fisher, Dan Hodges, Emily Maitlis, Iain Martin, Andrew Rawnsley, Nick Robinson, Ryan Sabey, Tim Shipman, Lara Spirit, Paul Staines, James Landale and Henry Zeffman … Times Editor Tony Gallagher … Independent Editor Geordie Greig … former No. 10 Directors of Communications Robbie Gibb and Katie Perrior … Braverman aide Jake Ryan … Onward’s Seb Payne … FGS Global’s Jason Stein … Apella Advisors’ James Kirkup … City Hall’s Sarah Brown … and the Spectator’s Fraser Nelson, Katy Balls, Kate Andrews, James Heale, and Andrew Neil.
Also spotted … at a Speaker’s House reception organized by the APPG for HIV and AIDS to honor Elton John: Labour leader Keir Starmer, who promised to commission a HIV Action Plan update and posed with the Rocketman singer on Insta … Health Secretary Victoria Atkins, who said she never thought she’d be his warm up act … Commons leader Penny Mordaunt … Health Minister Andrea Leadsom … Shadow Ministers Florence Eshalomi, Alex Davies-Jones and Stephen Doughty … and MPs David Mundell, Steve Brine, Nicola Richards, Maggie Throup, Peter Gibson, Jess Phillips, Layla Moran and Alison Thewliss. Sky has a write-up.
Time to test: Atkins announced a £20 million project will expand the HIV opt-out testing program to 46 sites across England, via the BBC … and a three-year UK Health Security Agency study has found the drug PrEP, available on the NHS after a long campaign, cut the chances of getting HIV by 86 percent.
Also spotted … at the Royal Over-Seas League’s (ROSL) Christmas party hosted by former Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs Alexander Downer and ROSL Director General Annette Prandzioch: Crossbench peer Gisela Stuart … BBC Diplomatic Correspondent James Landale … Georgia’s Ambassador to the U.K. Sophie Katsarava … Portugal’s Ambassador to the U.K. Nuno Brito … EU Ambassador to the U.K. Pedro Serrano and spokesperson Federico Bianchi … Deputy Ambassador of Italy Riccardo Smimmo … Marshal of the Diplomatic Corps Alistair Harrison and Vice Marshal Victoria Busby … Atlantic Productions CEO Anthony Geffen … RUSI Director Karin von Hippel … Sanctuary Counsel Partner Jonathan McClory.
Also spotted … at the Lib Dems in Comms event: Lib Dem leader Ed Davey … Davey’s Press Secretary Tim Wild … Charles Kennedy’s former Chief of Staff Sian Norris-Copson … Lib Dem staff Rob Macdonald and Kieran Smith … and Lib Dems in Comms organizers Alexis King, Roisin Miller and Becky Franklin.
NOAH’S CULTURE FIX: Enjoy these political tomes released today — Meeting Churchill: A Life in 90 Encounters by Sinclair McKay is published by Viking … and Warriors, Rebels and Saints: The Art of Leadership from Machiavelli to Malcolm X by Moshik Temkin is released by Profile Books.
NOW READ: In the latest edition of the New Statesman, Stephen Glover argues the sale of the Telegraph and Spectator represents the tension “between global markets and the sanctity of British institutions.”
WRITING PLAYBOOK PM: Emilio Casalicchio.
WRITING PLAYBOOK FRIDAY MORNING: Dan Bloom.
BIRTHDAYS: Shadow Security Minister Dan Jarvis … former Selby and Ainsty MP Nigel Adams … Tory peer Hugo Swire … Tory peer Patrick McLoughlin … Tory peer Charles Cathcart … former Schools Minister David Laws … former National Security Adviser Stephen Lovegrove … Sun on Sunday Political Editor Kate Ferguson … DCMS SpAd Meg Powell-Chandler … Senior communication officer in the Lord speaker’s office Lucy Dargahi … politics.co.uk Editor Josh Self … Labour peer Hilary Armstrong … Lib Dem peer Graham Tope turns 80 … Labour peer David Evans … Lib Dem peer Phil Willis … the New Statesman’s Anoosh Chakelian … and former UKIP leader Paul Nuttall.
PLAYBOOK COULDN’T HAPPEN WITHOUT: My editor Jack Lahart, reporter Noah Keate and producer Seb Starcevic.
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Matt Hancock has praised David Cameron's appointment as foreign secretary as 'superb for Britain'.
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https://uk.news.yahoo.com/matt-hancock-says-david-camerons-return-to-government-is-brilliant-decision-145035754.html
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Former health secretary Matt Hancock has hailed David Cameron's return to politics as "superb for Britain"
Rishi Sunak's appointment of Cameron as foreign secretary is likely to be controversial given his Brexit legacy, and the fact he is unelected
The prime minister's Cabinet reshuffle comes after the sacking of home secretary Suella Braverman, who was accused of stoking tensions ahead of Armistice Day protests
Matt Hancock has hailed Rishi Sunak's appointment of David Cameron as foreign secretary as a "brilliant decision".
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, the former health secretary said: "Superb for Britain - bringing his experience to guide us through difficult times."
"Excellent for the @Conservatives, showing @RishiSunak will fight the election on the centre ground. Bravo."
Hancock is not the only one who is glad to see such an experienced politician return to the fold, with former prime minister Theresa May tweeting: "Congratulations to @David_Cameron on his return to government.
"His immense experience on the international stage will be invaluable at this time of great uncertainty in our world. Looking forward to working together again!"
Cameron's appointment is likely to be controversial as many ardent Remainers are still angry at the former prime minister - a self-proclaimed Remainer - calling the Brexit referendum that his side would go on to lose.
Others are uneasy with the fact that having resigned as an MP after the 2016 referendum result, he has been made a lord in order for him to fill a ministerial position.
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How happy are you that David Cameron is back? Poll of the week (Yahoo News)
Hancock's praise of Cameron may not be seen as a ringing endorsement, with the former health secretary becoming unpopular with the public after he was found to have broken the Covid social distancing rules he imposed on the country during the pandemic.
More recently, his reputation has taken a beating in the Covid inquiry, which heard how top civil servant Lord Sedwill urged Boris Johnson to sack him to “to save lives and protect the NHS”.
Cameron has received praise from some people who've managed to keep hold of their Cabinet roles, however, with transport secretary Mark Harper describing his appointment as "an excellent move".
“I was in David Cameron’s government as his chief whip. He’s a team player, hugely experienced," the minister said.
“Given the challenges facing us with the war in Ukraine (and) what’s going on in the Middle East, having a really experienced person coming in as foreign secretary, I think, is an excellent move. He’s a real team player and I look forward to seeing him around the Cabinet table.”
When was David Cameron made a lord?
Some are uncomfortable that Cameron, who resigned as MP for Witney in 2016, can be appointed to such a major Cabinet position despite being unaccountable to the electorate.
In order for Sunak to do this, he had to give Cameron a lifelong peerage in the House of Lords, whose members can also serve in the Cabinet.
Confirming Cameron's appointment in a statement on Monday, Number 10 said: "The King has been pleased to approve the appointment of the Rt Hon David Cameron as secretary of state for foreign, Commonwealth and development affairs.
"His Majesty has also been pleased to confer the dignity of a Barony of the United Kingdom for life upon David Cameron. The Rt Hon Jeremy Hunt MP remains as Chancellor of the Exchequer."
Read more: How can David Cameron be a minister when he isn't an MP and what is his salary?
Criticising the move, Green Party MP Caroline Lucas said: "How are elected MPs to directly question a Foreign Sec who can’t stand at Commons dispatch box?
"Are major foreign policy statements to be made in unelected House of Lords now? This is unacceptable degrading of key office of state and Commons must have primacy."
The Electoral Reform Society, which wants to replace the Lords with a smaller elected chamber, added: "No Prime Minister should be able to appoint anyone they like to the major offices of state, simply by making them a Lord."
What does the foreign secretary do?
The foreign secretary has overall responsibility for the work of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).
Some of Cameron's main responsibilities in his new role will include managing relations with foreign countries and governments, promoting British interests abroad and handling matters related to Commonwealth countries and UK overseas territories.
The foreign secretary is also responsible for the work of GCHQ and the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) - also known as MI6 - while the home secretary is responsible for the Security Service (MI5).
Who was the previous foreign secretary?
Before Cameron, the previous foreign secretary was James Cleverly, who is now stepping into Suella Braverman's role as home secretary.
On Monday Sunak sacked Braverman, who was accused of stoking tensions with inflammatory rhetoric, which was blamed for clashes between police, pro-Palestine protesters and far-right counter-demonstrators in London over the weekend.
Cleverly faces a number of challenges in his new job, including an imminent ruling on the lawfulness of the government’s plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda, and will have to deal with the fallout if Number 10 loses.
In a statement on X, in which he did not congratulate Cameron for taking his old job, Cleverly said: "It is an honour to be appointed as home secretary. The goal is clear. My job is to keep people in this country safe."
Cameron will face a number of global crises demanding his attention as he steps into his new role, including the ongoing war in Ukraine and the Israel-Hamas conflict.
As recently as Thursday, Cleverly was in Saudi Arabia discussing efforts to prevent fighting in Gaza escalating into a wider regional conflict, with Middle Eastern foreign ministers, and Cameron will face an immediate task of carrying on that diplomatic effort.
Meanwhile Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has warned of a “winter onslaught” from Russia that will require further support from the West.
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Matthew John David Hancock (born 2 October 1978) is a British politician who served as Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General from 2015 to 2016, Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport from January to July 2018, and Secretary of State for Health and Social Care...
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Worldwide Politics Wiki
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Matthew John David Hancock (born 2 October 1978) is a British politician who served as Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General from 2015 to 2016, Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport from January to July 2018, and Secretary of State for Health and Social Care from 2018 to 2021. He was Member of Parliament (MP) for West Suffolk from 2010 to 2024. He is a member of the Conservative Party.
Hancock was born in Cheshire, with his family running a software business. He studied a BA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) at Exeter College, Oxford, and an MPhil in Economics at Christ's College, Cambridge. He was an economist at the Bank of England before serving as a senior economic adviser and later chief of staff to MP, George Osborne. Hancock was first elected as MP for West Suffolk at the 2010 general election.
Once in Parliament, Hancock served as a junior minister at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills from 2012 to 2015, and was the United Kingdom Anti-Corruption Champion from 2014 to 2015. He attended David Cameron's cabinet as Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General from 2015 to 2016. After Theresa May became prime minister following Cameron's resignation, Hancock was moved to the post of Minister of State for Digital and Culture. He was promoted to May's cabinet as Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. In July 2018, after the promotion of Jeremy Hunt to Foreign Secretary, Hancock replaced him as Secretary of State for Health and Social Care. After May's resignation, Hancock stood in the Conservative Party leadership election to replace her, but withdrew shortly after the first ballot and subsequently endorsed Boris Johnson. After Johnson became prime minister, Hancock retained his position as health secretary in his cabinet.
Hancock's tenure as health secretary was marked by the COVID-19 pandemic, which he played a prominent role in the UK government's response to. Hancock oversaw efforts to procure PPE, but the absence of a competitive tendering process for the award of some contracts proved controversial. He expanded COVID-19 testing and tracing, and also oversaw the early stage of the UK's COVID-19 vaccination programme. In June 2021, it was shown that he had breached COVID-19 social distancing restrictions by kissing and embracing Gina Coladangelo in his office. Coladangelo was at that time a director at the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), and Hancock was having an extramarital affair with her. Following this controversy, Hancock resigned as health secretary and returned to the backbenches. He was succeeded by Sajid Javid.
In November 2022, Hancock had the whip suspended after announcing he would be appearing as a contestant in the twenty-second series of the survival reality television show I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!, in which he finished in third place. He stood down as an MP at the 2024 general election.
Early life and education[]
Matthew Hancock was born on 2 October 1978 in Chester, Cheshire, to Michael Hancock and Shirley Hills. Hancock has an older sister and a brother.
Hancock attended Farndon County Primary School, in Farndon, Cheshire, and the fee-paying King's School, Chester. He took A-levels in Maths, Physics, Computing, and Economics. He later studied computing at the further education college, West Cheshire College. Hancock then studied at Exeter College, Oxford, and graduated with a first in Philosophy, Politics and Economics, and later earned a MPhil degree in Economics at Christ's College, Cambridge. He was diagnosed with dyslexia at university. Hancock became a member of the Conservative Party in 1999.
Early career[]
After university, Hancock briefly worked for his family's computer software company, Border Business Systems, and for a backbench Conservative MP, before moving to London to work as an economist at the Bank of England, specialising in the housing market. In 2005, he was an economic adviser to the Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, later becoming Osborne's chief of staff.
Parliamentary career[]
Hancock was selected as the Conservative candidate for West Suffolk in January 2010. He narrowly won the contest, defeating Natalie Elphicke (a solicitor who later became MP for Dover), by 88 votes to 81 in the final ballot. At the 2010 general election, Hancock was elected as MP for West Suffolk with 50.6% of the vote and a majority of 13,050.
In June 2010, Hancock was elected to the Public Accounts Committee. He served on this committee until November 2012. Hancock also served on the Standards and Privileges Committee from October 2010 to December 2012.
In 2011, Hancock became a member of the Free Enterprise Group, a group of Thatcherite Conservatives co-founded by Liz Truss. In January 2013, he was accused of dishonesty by Daybreak presenter, Matt Barbet, after claiming he had been excluded from a discussion about apprentices after turning up "just 30 seconds late". Hancock acknowledged on social media that he was running late, but said he turned up ahead of time for the interview and was unfairly blocked from going on set by producers. Barbet said Hancock knew he was "much more than a minute late" and he should have arrived half an hour beforehand to prepare for the interview.
In October 2013, Hancock joined the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills as the Minister of State for Skills and Enterprise.
In June 2014, Hancock, in his role as a minister, encouraged employers to become involved in offering more apprenticeships, allowing young people to learn and earn simultaneously.
On 15 July 2014, Hancock was appointed to the position of Minister of State for Business and Enterprise. On 27 July, he announced protection from fracking for National Parks, seen as a method of reducing anger in Conservative constituencies ahead of the election. Interviewed on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme, he rejected the suggestion that fracking was highly unpopular but he was unable to name any village that backed it.
Hancock served as Minister of State for Energy from 2014 to 2015. In this role he was criticised for hiring a private jet with senior diplomatic officials to fly back from a climate conference in Aberdeen, where he signed a deal with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto to use British expertise in Mexico. A Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) spokesman said the chartered flight was organised to fit around diary commitments, and the conference was not about climate change, but it was a visit to a university and discussion about investment. Hancock was later criticised for accepting money from a key backer of climate change denial organisation, Global Warming Policy Foundation.
In October 2014, he apologised after retweeting a poem suggesting that the Labour Party was "full of queers", describing his actions as a "total accident".
At the 2015 general election, Hancock was re-elected as MP for West Suffolk with an increased vote share of 52.2% and an increased majority of 14,984.
Hancock became Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General on 11 May 2015. Hancock launched a new social mobility drive to promote diversity within the civil service, outlining his vision in a speech in February 2016. He led David Cameron's "earn or learn" taskforce which aimed to have every young person working or studying from April 2017. He announced that jobless 18 to 21-year-olds would be required to do work experience as well as looking for jobs, or face losing their benefits.
In the 2016 UK referendum on EU membership, Hancock supported the UK remaining within the EU.
Hancock was again re-elected at the snap 2017 general election with an increased vote share of 61.2% and an increased majority of 17,063. He was again re-elected at the 2019 general election with an increased vote share of 65.8% and an increased majority of 23,194.
Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport[]
Hancock moved to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport as the Minister of State for Digital and Culture on 15 July 2016 after Theresa May became Prime Minister. As minister for digital policy, Hancock in June 2017 recommitted to a "full fibre" digital policy. This promised that 97% of the UK would enjoy "superfast broadband" at speeds of at least 24 megabits per second by 2020.
In August 2017, Hancock oversaw the strengthening of UK data protection law. As Digital Minister he announced people would have more control over their personal data and be better protected in the digital age.
On 8 January 2018, Hancock was appointed Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport in Theresa May's 2018 cabinet reshuffle, succeeding Karen Bradley. On his first day in the role he criticised the BBC for the amounts of pay its foreign journalists received, and said that some men at the corporation were paid "far more than equivalent public servants".
In early 2018, Hancock was the first MP to launch his own mobile app, eponymously named the "Matt Hancock MP App", which functioned as a social network for him to communicate with his constituents and give people updates in relation to his cabinet role. The head of privacy rights group Big Brother Watch called the app a "fascinating comedy of errors", after the app was found to collect its users' photographs, friend details, check-ins, and contact information. Hancock said his app collected data once consent was granted by the user. The app was eventually shut down at the beginning of 2023.
In May 2018, as Media Secretary, Hancock confirmed the highest stake on fixed odds betting terminals would be cut to £2, after Prime Minister May sided with him over the issue.
Secretary of State for Health and Social Care[]
May Ministry[]
Following Jeremy Hunt's appointment as Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, Hancock was appointed Secretary of State for Health and Social Care for England on 9 July 2018.
In November 2018, Hancock was criticised after appearing to endorse a mobile phone health app marketed by the subscription health service company Babylon in the Evening Standard. Babylon allegedly sponsored the newspaper article. The Labour MP Justin Madders wrote to Theresa May accusing Hancock of repeatedly endorsing the products of a company that receives NHS funds for patients it treats, which contravenes ministerial guidelines. The ministerial code includes that ministers should not "normally accept invitations to act as patrons of, or otherwise offer support to, pressure groups or organisations dependent in whole or in part on Government funding".
In April 2019, Hancock, who had previously said the NHS would face "no privatisation on my watch", was criticised by Labour for allowing 21 NHS contracts worth £127 million to be tendered.
2019 Conservative Party leadership candidacy[]
After Theresa May announced her intention to resign as Prime Minister on 24 May 2019, Hancock announced his intention to stand for the Conservative Party leadership. During this campaign, Hancock opposed the prorogation of Parliament to deliver Brexit and called on his fellow leadership candidates to join him on 6 June 2019. He proposed a televised debate with other candidates. He withdrew from the race on 14 June shortly after winning only twenty votes on the first ballot. Following his withdrawal, he endorsed Boris Johnson for the role.
Early Johnson premiership[]
Hancock continued in his role as Health Secretary in Prime Minister Boris Johnson's cabinet. He supported the prorogation of parliament in 2019 by Johnson which he had previously opposed while running for the Conservative leadership. On 24 September the Supreme Court ruled that the prorogation was unlawful.
In a September 2019 Channel 4 News interview, Hancock was asked to respond to allegations that at a private lunch in 1999, Johnson had groped the leg of journalist Charlotte Edwardes under a table. Edwardes also claimed that Johnson did the same to another woman at the same private lunch. In his reply to the Channel 4 News question, Hancock said of Charlotte Edwardes, "I know Charlotte well and I entirely trust what she has to say. I know her and I know her to be trustworthy", a view shared by fellow Conservative MP Amber Rudd. Both Johnson and anonymous Downing Street officials denied the allegation.
In October 2019, Hancock was lobbied by former Prime Minister David Cameron and financier Lex Greensill to introduce a payment scheme. Hancock was implicated in the Greensill scandal as the payment scheme was later rolled out within the NHS.
In November 2019, Hancock publicly apologised to Bethany, a teenager diagnosed with autism, for being kept in solitary confinement in various psychiatric facilities. Hancock apologised "for the things that have gone wrong in her care" and said her case in particular was "incredibly difficult and complex", calling Bethany's case "heart-rending" and saying that he had insisted on "a case review of every single person in those conditions."
COVID-19 pandemic[]
On 31 January 2020, COVID-19 was confirmed to have spread to the UK. Hancock said the Government was considering "some quite significant actions that would have social and economic disruption". After the government gave strict social distancing advice which was defied by large numbers of people, Hancock took a stronger line than the prime minister on condemning those still socialising in groups and derided them as being "very selfish". The Government later implemented legislation banning such groups from forming.
On 27 March 2020, along with Boris Johnson, Hancock himself tested positive for COVID-19. He stayed in self-isolation with mild symptoms for seven days, before delivering an update on COVID-19 testing targets and on Government plans to write off £13.4 billion of NHS debt.
In April 2020, Hancock was criticised when it emerged that the target he had set for 100,000 daily COVID-19 tests had been met only by changing the method of counting, to include up to 40,000 home test kits which had been sent, but not yet completed. This change was challenged by the UK Statistics Authority and labelled a "Potemkin testing regime".
Doctors' groups maintained that they helped deliver 45,000 masks to hospitals that did not have a sufficient supply at the beginning of the pandemic and that families of healthcare workers who died from COVID-19 had expressed concerns about the protection they got. Early in the pandemic NHS staff were photographed with poorly fitting personal protective equipment (PPE) and some made improvised gowns for themselves from bin bags. Doctors and MPs criticised Hancock for denying there was a problem.
On 5 April 2020, Hancock warned that all outdoor exercise in England could be banned in response to COVID-19 if people did not follow social distancing rules. He said: "So my message is really clear. If you don't want us to have to take the step to ban exercise of all forms outside of your own home then you've got to follow the rules and the vast majority of people are following the rules."
Hancock received criticism from journalists for perceived sexism after suggesting on 5 May 2020 that Labour MP and shadow health minister Rosena Allin-Khan change the "tone" of her comments. Allin-Khan, a doctor, had stated in Parliament that a lack of testing was costing lives and Hancock suggested she should "take a leaf out of the Shadow Secretary of State's [Jonathan Ashworth's] book in terms of tone".
On 15 August 2020, The Daily Telegraph reported that Hancock was to merge Public Health England and NHS Test and Trace into a new body called the National Institute for Health Protection, modelled on the Robert Koch Institute. The new body, renamed as the UK Health Security Agency, was set up before autumn amid "a feared surge in coronavirus cases".
On 11 October 2020, Hancock denied breaching a 10 pm drinking curfew in the Smoking Room bar in the House of Commons, put in place because of the pandemic. Eight days later, the Daily Mirror published a photograph of him riding in his chauffeur-driven car without wearing a mask.
On 2 December 2020, Hancock incorrectly claimed that the MHRA's fast approval of the first COVID-19 vaccine was possible because of Brexit. The MHRA stated that it had followed an expeditious procedure allowed under EU legislation which was still in force in the UK during the transition period.
In January 2021, shopping vouchers for families in need were reintroduced. On Good Morning Britain, Hancock praised the Government for reintroducing the scheme, despite being repeatedly reminded by Piers Morgan that he had opposed it in Parliament.
On 19 February 2021, after a legal challenge by the Good Law Project, a High Court judge ruled that Hancock had acted unlawfully by handing out PPE contracts without publishing details in a timely manner. A ruling released by the High Court stated: "There is now no dispute that, in a substantial number of cases, the secretary of state breached his legal obligation to publish Contract Award Notices (CANs) within 30 days of the award of contracts." The details were published within 47 days.
In April 2021, it was reported that Hancock had been given 20% of shares in Topwood Limited, a firm based in Wrexham which is owned by his sister and other close family members. The company specialises in secure storage, scanning and shredding of documents. It won a place on a "procurement framework" listing to provide services to NHS England in 2019, as well as contracts with NHS Wales. There has been no suggestion that Hancock intervened in the normal processes, and in April 2021, the company had not earned anything through the framework. Lord Geidt later produced a report on ministerial interests saying that the awarding of the contract to Topwood could be seen to "represent a conflict of interest" that should have been declared. Hancock responded by saying: "I did not know about the framework decision, and so I do not think I could reasonably have been expected to declare it."
In May 2021, the former Downing Street chief adviser Dominic Cummings claimed, "tens of thousands of people died who didn't need to die" during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic due to what he claimed to be "criminal, disgraceful behaviour" within Downing Street under the supervision of Hancock. Cummings also said that Hancock should have been fired as Health Secretary for "15 to 20" different things. Following his testimony, YouGov noted that more people in the general public thought Hancock should resign than stay in his post, despite questions over the accuracy of Cummings's statements. Prime Minister Johnson defended Hancock and his decision-making.
Over 20,000 care home residents who were elderly or disabled had died from COVID-19 in England and Wales. The High Court of Justice ruled in a case against Boris Johnson's government on 27 April 2022 that discharging people into care homes without testing them was unlawful. Lord Justice Bean and Neil Garnham ruled that the policies were not lawful since they disregarded the risk from non-symptomatic transmission of COVID-19 to elderly and vulnerable residents. The judges stated that in spite of "growing awareness" about the risk of asymptomatic transmission during March 2020, there was no evidence Hancock had taken the risk to care home residents into account. The judges stated: "The document could, for example, have said that where an asymptomatic patient (...) is admitted to a care home, he or she should, so far as practicable, be kept apart from other residents for up to 14 days. (...) there is no evidence that this question was considered by the Secretary of State."
Resignation[]
On 25 June 2021, it was revealed that Hancock had breached COVID-19 social distancing restrictions with Gina Coladangelo, an adviser in the DHSC with whom he was having an extramarital affair, after CCTV images of him kissing and embracing her in his Whitehall office on 6 May were published in The Sun newspaper. The Government's guidelines allowed intimate contact with people from a different household only from 17 May. The previous year, Hancock had failed to declare he had appointed Coladangelo as an unpaid adviser at the department and later to a paid non-executive director role on its board, for which Coladangelo would earn between £15,000 and £20,000 annually from public funds. Coladangelo became a close friend of Hancock after meeting him while they were both undergraduates at Oxford University.
Later that day on 25 June, Hancock said that he had "breached the social distancing guidelines in these circumstances" and apologised for "letting people down". Boris Johnson later said that he accepted the apology and considered the matter "closed". However, Hancock resigned on the evening of 26 June, stating "those of us who make these rules have got to stick by them", and he had not because of his "breaking the guidance". He was replaced as Health Secretary the same day by Sajid Javid.
Former Cabinet ministers Alan Johnson and Rory Stewart both said there had never been cameras in their offices during their time in Government, with Johnson saying: "I could never understand why there was a camera in the Secretary of State's office. There was never a camera in my office when I was Health Secretary or in any of the other five Cabinet positions." It was reported that the CCTV footage was leaked by a DHSC employee who opposed the Government's lockdown restrictions, and on 27 June it was confirmed that an internal investigation was undertaken by the department to find the culprit, for fear of future CCTV footage being leaked to states hostile to the UK, for the purposes of blackmail.
News of the scandal was met with a mixture of public anger and ridicule. The Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group warned that Hancock's actions could undermine adherence to COVID-19 restrictions, similar to the Dominic Cummings scandal. Amanda Milling, Co-chairman of the Conservative Party, suggested that Hancock's affair was a factor in the Conservative Party's failure to win the Batley and Spen by-election on 1 July 2021.
In July 2021, the Information Commissioner's Office established an inquiry into the leak in the CCTV images. On 29 July, the council of the second largest town in his constituency, Newmarket, passed a no-confidence vote against Hancock as its MP. Mayor Michael Jefferys cast the necessary vote to pass the motion.
According to the Independent, Hancock faced severe criticism due to a shortage of PPE in the NHS early in the pandemic, the award of contracts for supplying masks and the decision to transfer elderly patients to care homes without COVID-19 testing. Hancock defended his handling of the pandemic and stated: "We suddenly needed masses more PPE and so did everybody else in the world."
Return to the backbenches[]
On 12 October 2021, Hancock announced his appointment as the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa special representative for financial innovation and climate change, an unpaid position advising the Commission on the African economy's recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. Four days later, the United Nations announced on 16 October that the offer had been rescinded.
During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Hancock welcomed seven Ukrainian refugees into his family home in Suffolk in May 2022 through the "Homes for Ukraine" scheme.
In December 2022, he announced his intention to stand down at the 2024 general election.
In June 2023, Hancock was told to apologise to Parliament after being found to have breached the MPs Code of Conduct, by committing a “minor breach” of Commons rules by sending an unsolicited letter to the parliamentary standards commissioner in an attempt to influence the commissioner's investigation into fellow Conservative MP Steve Brine.
Pandemic Diaries[]
In April 2022, it was announced that Hancock would publish his diaries during the COVID-19 pandemic called Pandemic Diaries with Biteback Publishing, cowritten by Isabel Oakeshott. The royalties were planned to be donated to NHS charities. The book was to be released in December 2022.
The book was not based on a diary, but was written after the fact. It was based on Hancock's recollections, as well his records of communications. It dismissed allegations that moving patients into care homes caused deaths, arguing that the staff in care homes were the vector of disease. The book was also critical of Dominic Cummings.
Reviews commented that the book presented too positive an image, making Hancock seem unduly prescient with the benefit of hindsight, arguing there may be elements of revisionism.
Gaby Hinsliff reviewing in The Guardian said that there were kernels of truth about how politicians make decisions in the account but comments on how the book was written with the benefit of hindsight, allowing Hancock to make himself seem prescient. Rod Dacombe writing in the i, said that the diary was absurd and devoid of literary flair. Adam Wagner, writing in Prospect magazine, said that the book had a focus on score settling and self-aggrandisation but that there were some genuine revelations. He noted that more will be known when the UK Covid-19 Inquiry reports. Wagner argues Hancock's removal of exceptions for protest from proposed lockdown regulations on the grounds that protests could undermine public trust in measures and his criticism of protestors in the book are suggestive that protests were banned based on the political views of protestors, which Wagner thinks would likely constitute government overreach.
Oakeshott leaked some of the private WhatsApp messages she had access to in a Daily Telegraph article published in February 2023. The Telegraph published a series of articles about these leaks in a series called The Lockdown Files. One message from April 2020 suggests Hancock told aides that professor Chris Whitty had done "an "evidence review" and recommended "testing of all going into care homes, and segregation whilst awaiting result". Hancock allegedly stated this was a "good positive step". Later, Hancock allegedly stated he would rather avoid a commitment to test all people going into care homes from the community and "just commit to test & isolate ALL going into care from hospital". A spokesman for Hancock said, "These stolen messages have been doctored to create a false story that Matt rejected clinical advice on care home testing".
Appearance on I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here![]
Hancock was a contestant on the 22nd series of the reality television series I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!, filmed while Parliament was in session. An agreement was reached with the show's producers that Hancock could communicate with his constituency team throughout his time in the jungle if necessary. Explaining his decision to participate in the show, Hancock said, "I want to raise the profile of my dyslexia campaign to help every dyslexic child unleash their potential — even if it means taking an unusual route to get there, via the Australian jungle"! Hancock also explained that he was driven by the intention to display his "human side" and to use reality TV as a means to convey "important messages to the masses". It was reported that Hancock would be paid £400,000, which was "one of the largest show fees" paid to a contestant. His spokesman said that a donation would be made to St Nicholas Hospice in Suffolk and causes supporting dyslexia.
Hancock joined the show on 9 November 2022 with comedian Seann Walsh. After he entered the jungle camp, Hancock was questioned by his fellow contestants, including Charlene White, Scarlette Douglas and Babatunde Aléshé, about his time as Health Secretary. Although he expressed remorse about breaking social distancing guidelines, he pointed out that he had not broken any laws and said that he did not regret the political decisions he made during the pandemic.
On the episode aired on 16 November 2022, Hancock said that he told Boris Johnson not to run for prime minister again during the October 2022 Conservative Party leadership election, and said that former prime minister Liz Truss's political career is "totally finished" with "no ambiguity at all."
On 27 November 2022, Hancock finished in 3rd place.
Reaction[]
Within the show[]
Hancock's participation in the show was met with a mixed reaction by some of the other contestants. In the episode aired on 18 November 2022, fellow contestant Boy George said in a conversation with Seann Walsh that he found Hancock "slimy and slippery", and later told Hancock that he found it difficult to "separate" the politician from the person. Another contestant, journalist Charlene White, said she feared she would lose her job if she was too sympathetic towards Hancock.
By others[]
In response to participating in the show, the Conservative Party suspended the whip for Hancock—in effect removing him from their parliamentary group but retaining him as a party member.
On 5 November, it was reported that an online petition to stop Hancock from appearing on the show had attracted nearly 40,000 signatures. The Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice and 38 Degrees groups flew a banner over the camp which read: "Covid bereaved say get out of here!".
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who had worked with Hancock during his tenure as chancellor, said he was "disappointed" at Hancock's decision to participate in a reality television show and expressed his discomfort at the level of degradation Hancock was subjecting himself to.
Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards Kathryn Stone stated her office had received "dozens of complaints" about Hancock being on the television show. Stone said that Hancock's decision to join the show raised "important questions about members' proper activities while they're supposed to be fulfilling their parliamentary duties and representing their constituents". Ofcom received just under 2,000 complaints about the show in its first week, including complaints over his appearance on the show and complaints criticising how Hancock was treated by other contestants.
Hancock broke government rules about post-ministerial jobs by not consulting the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments before he joined the show, according to Lord Pickles, the committee chair. However, Lord Pickles advised ministers that taking action against Hancock would be disproportionate.
On 23 May 2024, Rishi Sunak restored the whip to Hancock.
Personal life[]
Hancock married Martha Hoyer Millar, an osteopath, in 2006. She is a granddaughter of the 1st Baron Inchyra. They have a daughter and two sons. Hancock forbids his children to use social media. The family lived in Little Thurlow in his West Suffolk parliamentary constituency.
In June 2021, following an affair with his political aide Gina Coladangelo, sources reported that he had left his wife for Coladangelo. Hancock confirmed he was still with Coladangelo during a conversation with Babatunde Aléshé on I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!.
Hancock lives in his constituency, and also has a flat in London.
Hancock trained as a jockey in 2012 and won a horse race in his constituency town of Newmarket. Hancock supports Newcastle United, and auctioned his "pride and joy" signed team shirt to raise money for the NHS in May 2020.
Hancock told The Guardian in 2018 that he has dyslexia, something that he said first became apparent two decades earlier while he was studying at Oxford.
On 25 January 2023, police arrested a 61-year-old man for allegedly assaulting Hancock on the London Underground.
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https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/apr/10/revealed-david-cameron-stood-to-gain-from-218m-greensill-trust
|
en
|
Cameron ‘lobbied senior Downing St aide and Matt Hancock’ to help Greensill
|
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2021-04-10T00:00:00
|
Former PM also reported to have emailed a No 10 adviser after Treasury rejected his attempts to access Covid loan scheme
|
en
|
the Guardian
|
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/apr/10/revealed-david-cameron-stood-to-gain-from-218m-greensill-trust
|
David Cameron lobbied a senior Downing St aide and Matt Hancock, the health secretary, on behalf of a now collapsed company run by the scandal-hit financier Lex Greensill, it has emerged.
In further revelations that show the lengths the former prime minister went to in his attempts to secure political access for Greensill Capital, which paid him as an adviser, Cameron emailed a No 10 adviser after the Treasury rejected his attempts to secure the company access to a Covid emergency loan scheme.
Cameron said it was “nuts” to exclude Greensill’s company from the scheme, according to emails seen by the Sunday Times. As a shareholder, Cameron stood to gain from Greensill’s long-term success. However, his shares are worthless after its collapse.
A Downing St spokesperson said: “Throughout the pandemic, an immense number of businesses contacted Downing Street with representations; these were passed on to relevant departments.”
It also emerged on Saturday night that, in 2019, Cameron took Greensill along with him to a “private drink” with Hancock. They lobbied Hancock to introduce a payment scheme that was later introduced for NHS staff. There are no minutes of Hancock’s meeting with Cameron and Greensill. Later, NHS Shared Business Services (NHS SBS) announced a pilot scheme with Earnd, an outfit owned by Greensill, to pay NHS workers weekly or daily. It was a free service. An ally of Hancock said: “Matt acted in entirely the correct way – he updated officials on the business that was discussed, as is appropriate.”
A Department of Health and Social Care Spokesperson said: “The wellbeing of NHS staff is the top priority of the department and Health Secretary. Our approach was and is that local NHS employers are best placed to decide how different pay flexibilities fit with their overall pay and reward offer for their staff.”
Bridget Phillipson, the shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, called on chancellor Rishi Sunak, who was repeatedly lobbied by Cameron, to “make a statement to parliament at the earliest opportunity and answer questions on this growing scandal. And we need a full and thorough investigation into what happened”.
The Observer can reveal that Cameron was in line to profit from a $30m (£21.8m) employee benefit trust registered in Jersey thanks to his role with the collapsed Greensill Capital. The revelation comes amid calls for the former prime minister to disclose just how much he was in line to gain from his role advising the firm. It follows a week in which further details emerged of Cameron’s lobbying of ministers, as he sought to persuade them to hand Greensill access to government-backed financial aid schemes.
Cameron repeatedly texted chancellor Rishi Sunak to grant the lender access to the Bank of England’s Covid Corporate Financing Facility (CCFF). Text messages released last week show Sunak telling Cameron he had “pushed the team to explore an alternative with the Bank that might work”. There was also a call between the men, but it is not known if officials listened in on the call or whether notes were taken.
While access to the CCFF was ultimately rebuffed, Britain’s public spending watchdog is considering a request to investigate how Greensill Capital was later accredited to the Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CLBILS), handing it the ability to access government-backed loans of up to £50m.
Greensill records show 13,931 shares were held in two blocks by an offshore wealth manager, named as Jersey-based Sanne Fiduciary Services. A spokesperson for Sanne confirmed that these shares were held by two employee benefit trusts, reserved for stock options issued to employees. It is understood that none of the shares in these trusts had been distributed to staff by the time Greensill collapsed.
Sanne said in a statement that it acted as a trustee to two employee benefit trusts established by Greensill Capital, and that it was a common structure used by companies who wanted to hold shares until they can be distributed to staff. Asked whether Cameron was one of the intended recipients of shares held in the trusts, Sanne and a source close to Cameron did not deny this was the case. A source close to Cameron said: “These Sanne stake figures bear no relation to David Cameron’s remuneration and presumably refer to a large number of employees and advisers.”
The source disputed reports that Cameron told friends he was set for a $60m windfall if Greensill floated on the stock exchange. “The figures being bandied around about his subsequent remuneration from Greensill are becoming increasingly inaccurate,” the source said. “His reported ‘boast’ to friends about his remuneration is fiction, but people keep repeating it.”
Meanwhile, the National Audit Office (NAO) is examining whether to investigate claims that Greensill Capital’s access to the scheme created a risk to public funds. While the NAO cannot look into Greensill’s business, it is able to investigate issues where value for public money is at stake. Anneliese Dodds, the shadow chancellor, has now written to Gareth Davies, head of the NAO, asking for an investigation.
The government has stated that the decision to accredit Greensill to the loan scheme was taken independently by the British Business Bank (BBB) and involved a “robust accreditation process”. The BBB later withdrew the state guarantee to Greensill’s loans. A spokesperson for Greensill Capital did not comment.
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https://unherd.com/2022/03/the-tragedy-of-matt-hancock/
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en
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The tragedy of Matt Hancock
|
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2022-03-25T00:03:59+00:00
|
What two years of Covid taught us
|
en
|
UnHerd
|
https://unherd.com/2022/03/the-tragedy-of-matt-hancock/
|
The risk to the UK is deemed so low that on 24 February the Government supplies 1,800 pairs of goggles, 43,000 disposable gloves, 194,000 sanitising wipes, 37,500 medical gowns and 2,500 face masks to China. Looking back at meetings that month, one senior Department for Health official remembers thinking “‘Well, it’s a good thing this isn’t the big one.’”
***
A clip of Boris Johnson, patiently explaining possible Covid strategy to fellow scientific luminary Phillip Schofield goes viral. “One of the theories,” Johnson had said on March 5, was that “perhaps you could take it on the chin, take it all in one go and allow the disease, as it were, to move through the population, without taking many draconian measures”.
Loo paper soon begins to disappear nationwide. Hancock is rolled out — he was always being rolled out, like a new carpet to be trodden on — into a breakfast TV studio to deny that the Government wanted to massacre the Grannys. “Our goal is to protect life and our policy is to fight the virus.”
Then Neil Ferguson releases his controversial paper. It claims hundreds of thousands will die if Britain is left to take the virus on the chin. Sage advises the Government to embark on a full lockdown that day.
It arrives on 26 March 2020, as Covid cases double every 72- hours. Between 89% and 94% of the public support lockdown. And the Grannys? Care home deaths accounted for 40% of Covid-19 deaths in England and Wales during the pandemic.
***
Like other ministers, after the passage of the Coronavirus Act, Hancock develops war fever. “Our generation has never been tested like this”, he writes to a nation frantically, pointlessly washing its hands. “Our grandparents were, during the Second World War, when our cities were bombed during the Blitz… they pulled together in one gigantic national effort.” The allegory is both ugly and lazy, but Britain is a country where poppies are made to wear poppies.
***
Prince Charles opens the first Nightingale Hospital at the ExCel centre in London. He says the Nightingale “will be a shining light”. The hospital is constructed in nine days, and holds 500 extra intensive care unit beds. (For every hundred thousand members of the population the UK has 7.3 intensive care beds — less than Spain, Greece, and Estonia. This lack of provision will mean more deaths.)
More Nightingales open across the country. They cost the taxpayer 500 million pounds. Only three of the seven hospitals end up treating patients. They are described by one MP as a “massive white elephant conjured up by Matt Hancock to create a good headline”.
***
It’s not really worth it, going outside. A family of five is sent home by the police in Conwy after being caught having a day at the seaside. They scuttle back to Merseyside. Police in Derbyshire “divide opinion” when they use drones to film people walking in the Peak District. A “major incident” is declared when thousands travel to Bournemouth beach, to swim, eat ice cream, and burn in the sun. (Belatedly, it is revealed that the “major incident” did not lead to a spike in Covid cases.)
Speaking to Andrew Marr, a concerned Hancock threatens to ban outdoor exercise. “Let’s not have a minority spoiling it for everybody.”
***
Nothing works properly. The Test and Trace App doesn’t work. PPE doesn’t work — because it’s all out of date. Protecting care homes doesn’t work. Dido Harding doesn’t work. The Civil Service literally doesn’t work. Big-hitter commentators start saying that the entire British state doesn’t work. It is described as “simultaneously overcentralised and weak at its centre”.
But ‘The Matt Hancock’ app still functions. In May 2020 the Telegraph reports that it is becoming a “virtual home for online pranksters and trolls”. Posts to the ‘Have Your Say’ section include drawings of cocks, general abuse, and a date invitation for the (then) married Health Secretary.
When ‘The Matt Hancock’ app is updated a year later, access to the ‘Have Your Say’ section is hidden. One of the last posts read: “Is there a portal on here where I can be awarded a Government contract for an area I have little experience of scale please?”
***
Hancock always looks caught between a giggle and a sob. A new round of Covid restrictions makes casual sex illegal. Or at least that’s how Sky News’ Kay Burley interprets the guidance when she interviews him about it. “You are saying that no social distancing is needed in established relationships,” she notes. “But what about people who are not in an established relationship?”
The Health Secretary, embracing his role as national sex cop, confirms that Government rules do ban shagging someone who is not your normal partner. Apropos of nothing, he adds that, fortunately “I’m in an established relationship”.
A few weeks later, the Times reveals that Gina Coladangelo was appointed to a £15,000-a-year advisory PR role in the Health Ministry. The appointment was never declared. Coladangelo and Hancock are described as “close friends”. A source tells the paper: “Before Matt does anything big, he’ll speak to Gina. She knows everything.”
***
He appears to cry on television when the first Pfizer jabs are stuck into the arms of two pensioners: Margaret Keenan and William Shakespeare. “It’s been a tough year for so many people,” he sobs, rubbing his waterless, unreddened eyes.
The Government spends £12 billion on vaccines. Total pandemic spending is estimated to reach £372 billion. Research finds that under-30s will be disproportionately forced to bear the brunt of these costs. They are described as the “packhorse generation”. The median age of death from Covid is 83 years old. There is no national discussion, parliamentary inquiry, or interest from the Government in working out how the old can make it up to the young.
William Shakespeare dies naturally within a few months of taking the vaccine.
***
In January 2021, a week after the virus death toll tops 100,000, a focus group asks some ordinary people questions about the Health Secretary. A man called Jason compares Hancock to Ian Beale from Eastenders — “He wants people to feel sorry for him.” Asked what sort of car he would be, mother of two Donna suggests that he would be “something that breaks down.”
***
During a committee hearing Dominic Cummings says that Hancock should “have been fired for at least 15, 20 things, including lying to everybody on multiple occasions in meeting after meeting in the Cabinet room and publicly”. Cummings then puts a WhatsApp screenshot on his blog that shows the Prime Minister describing Matt as both “hopeless” and “fucking hopeless”. When he is interviewed about the message, Hancock says: “Boris has apologised for the way that came over.”
***
The story and the footage and the photo are exquisitely simple. After nearly 18 months of tiers, colour-codes, R-numbers, powerpoint slides, and graphs, here is something everyone could understand: a hand on an arse.
Yes, Hancock’s downfall was exquisitely simple. His affair with Gina Coladangelo was unambiguous. It made sense like fairy tales make sense. The Princess in the tower must let her hair down. The wolf is wearing sheep’s clothing. The apple offered by the witch is poisoned. The politician who spent the pandemic agitating for the harshest restrictions, who would describe Professor Neil Ferguson’s lockdown sex fiasco as a “matter for the police”, who ensured that the public could be fined for sitting on park benches, who threatened them with 10-year prison sentences for breaking quarantines, this ogre of the new common sense, would — of course! — be breaking all his rules.
The press is devastating, and relentless. With a deep understanding of public humiliation, the Queen describes Matthew as a “poor man”. He resigns, his only consolation being one of the most Googled news stories of 2021.
***
Hancock keeps coming back, like Covid. His head pops out of the ground. Phillip Schofield asks him: “Was it your dyslexia that meant you misread the social distancing guidelines?” The nation laughs, bitterly. It is reported that, off air, Hancock “almost seemed euphoric… He didn’t seem to mind being the butt of the joke.” He has returned to his student days, but made them the business of the entire country. He buys stonewashed jeans, and new turtlenecks. He does podcast interviews, and goes to the BRIT awards. He says he is writing a book for Harper Collins. Harper Collins says he is not writing a book for Harper Collins, and Hancock never mentions it again. A role with the UN is torpedoed, and a comeback video — unanimously described as “cringe” — is swiftly deleted. It is impossible to tell, as with England’s experience of three lockdowns, whether he is enjoying all this, or if he is the saddest man in the world.
***
Everybody wanted a lesson from the last 24 months. Neat, comprehensible wisdom. An intelligible narrative. They wanted to say that it finally proved that Germany was a better country than England, or they wanted to say that our vaccine programme proved the EU was useless. They thought England’s experience of Covid could tell us about the national character, the flaws in our state, or otherwise be used to justify every kind of pet project, ideological hang-up, or personal vendetta. There was no narrative line. All that the pandemic proved was that what happened a hundred times before in history could happen to us too.
***
The number of children referred for specialist mental health help rises above one million for the first time in 2021. Cases involving those 18 and under increase by 26% during the pandemic. The Royal College of Psychiatrists warns it is “becoming an impossible situation to manage”.
People, including Hancock, like to talk about learning the lessons of the pandemic. So we can prepare better for the next one. They don’t realise that between the million mentally hamstrung teenagers, the NHS waiting list hitting 9.2 million within two years, an endless backlog of cases in criminal courts, and inflation, that the pandemic hasn’t ended yet. It’s barely started.
|
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| 61
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https://guernseypress.com/news/uk-news/2022/11/01/matt-hancock-from-pandemic-health-secretary-to-bushtucker-trials/
|
en
|
Matt Hancock: From pandemic health secretary to bushtucker trials
|
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2022-11-01T00:00:00
|
Joining I’m A Celebrity is the latest career twist for the former health secretary.
|
en
|
/pf/resources/icons/favicon-gp.ico?d=213
|
https://guernseypress.com/news/uk-news/2022/11/01/matt-hancock-from-pandemic-health-secretary-to-bushtucker-trials/
|
Already possibly one of the nation’s better known politicians for his role as health secretary during a once-in-a-century pandemic, Matt Hancock is about to encounter a whole new audience as he prepares to join I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!
Swapping the world of Westminster for jungle antics with Ant and Dec is certainly an unorthodox shift for the former minister, whose government career had an unfortunate ending after he resigned in the aftermath of his affair with an aide that broke his own coronavirus rules.
Only in recent days was Mr Hancock reportedly mulling a bid to become chair of the Treasury Select Committee, apparently opting instead for bushtucker trials instead of banks and bonds.
Appointed health secretary in 2018 after spending 18 months in the culture brief, he had been a prominent figure for the government during its handling of the coronavirus pandemic until his abrupt exit.
He had faced pressure to stand down after pictures emerged depicting the married minister appearing to kiss his adviser Gina Coladangelo, with CCTV images published in The Sun taken on May 6 when guidance on social distancing were still in place, with hugging between people from different households recommended against.
Around the same period, Boris Johnson’s former aide Dominic Cummings had shared text messages in which Boris Johnson was said to have called the health secretary “hopeless”.
Mr Cummings accused the senior minister of lying to the prime minister over promises to protect those in care homes during the first wave of Covid-19 infections by testing new residents before being admitted.
Mr Hancock dismissed claims he lied and called Mr Johnson’s “hopeless” jibe “ancient history”.
Mr Hancock, who in 2018 became the only MP in British politics to launch his own app, took only eight years to rise from West Suffolk MP to health secretary.
The Oxford and Cambridge educated father-of-three previously worked as an economist at the Bank of England and as chief of staff to George Osborne when he was shadow chancellor of the exchequer, before taking a seat in the Commons.
The Cheshire-raised politician first attended cabinet after being appointed Minister for the Cabinet Office in 2015 by then prime minister David Cameron.
Mr Cameron’s successor Theresa May later promoted him to the role of culture secretary.
The 42-year-old initially threw his hat into the ring to replace Mrs May in No 10 during the 2019 Conservative Party leadership contest but withdrew from the leadership race part way through and was quick to throw his weight behind Mr Johnson.
He was among the handful of ministers to retain his brief when Mr Johnson took power in July 2019, making him one of the most prominent ministers when coronavirus rocked Britain eight months later.
In his resignation video, he said that he was looking forward to “supporting the government and the prime minister from the back benches to make sure that we can get out of this pandemic”.
After Boris Johnson’s downfall this summer, he was an enthusiastic backer of Mr Sunak and speculation persisted that he still harboured a return to a Government role.
Even as Liz Truss’s government crumbled, his advice from the sidelines did little to dampen that speculation.
Once she resigned, he returned as a vocal Sunak backer – although his standing in the new leader’s camp was brought into sharp relief after the victorious Mr Sunak appeared to blank the former health secretary, who stood waiting to greet him at the front of the crowd at Conservative HQ.
His decision to join I’m a Celebrity has already prompted mockery, as well as swift repercussions politically – Chief Whip Simon Hart said the situation was so serious he should have the right to sit as a Conservative suspended.
Allies said he would use his appearance to promote his backbench work on dyslexia, as he tried to “embrace” popular culture.
“Politicians like Matt must go to where the people are – particularly those who are politically disengaged,” one ally said.
Others were less flattering.
Andy Drummond, deputy chairman (political) of West Suffolk Conservative Association, told PA news agency: “I’m looking forward to him eating a kangaroo’s penis.
“Quote me. You can quote me that.”
|
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8744
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dbpedia
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1
| 78
|
https://www.eadt.co.uk/news/21281449.suffolk-mp-matt-hancock-private-drink-controversial-financier/
|
en
|
Suffolk MP Matt Hancock had "private drink" with controversial financier
|
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2021-04-11T10:05:42+00:00
|
West Suffolk MP and Health Secretary Matt Hancock has found himself caught up in the controversy surrounding financier Lex Greensill and former…
|
en
|
/resources/images/13965305/
|
East Anglian Daily Times
|
https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/20655495.suffolk-mp-matt-hancock-private-drink-controversial-financier/
|
It has emerged that Mr Cameron took Mr Greensill for a “private drink” with Mr Hancock to discuss a payment scheme later rolled out in the NHS.
The Sunday Times also reported that the Treasury reconsidered Mr Greensill’s application for an emergency coronavirus loan after the former prime minister messaged a senior adviser to Boris Johnson.
Mr Cameron was said to have described the decision to exclude his employer’s firm, Greensill Capital, from the multibillion-pound scheme as “nuts” and pressed for the Chancellor to reconsider.
“What we need is for Rishi (Sunak) to have a good look at this and ask officials to find a way of making it work,” Mr Cameron wrote last year.
The developments are the latest in a lobbying controversy that has dogged the Conservative former prime minister in recent weeks.
Questions were mounting over his efforts to secure access for the finance company, which later collapsed putting thousands of UK steelmaking jobs at risk.
Mr Greensill was understood to have written to Mr Hancock’s office about the payment scheme in August 2019, copying in NHS England chairman Lord Prior, before the Health Secretary commissioned advice from officials.
An ally of Mr Hancock confirmed a drink took place between Mr Cameron, the Health Secretary and the Australian financier in October 2019.
Mr Greensill’s firm at the time wanted to introduce a flexible scheme to pay doctors and nurses either daily or weekly.
NHS SBS, a joint venture between the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and a French IT firm, went on to announce in October last year that Earnd, a mobile app that was then a division of Greensill, would be available free-of-charge to NHS employees to access their pay.
Mr Hancock had referred Mr Greensill to work directly with the NHS rather than his department, according to the ally, who insisted the final decision to use the scheme was for local NHS employers.
“Matt acted in entirely the correct way – he updated officials on the business that was discussed, as is appropriate,” the friend said.
Mr Cameron is yet to comment publicly about the “growing scandal”, as Labour has called it.
But a source close to the former prime minister said: “David Cameron was an enthusiastic champion of Greensill’s pay product, Earnd, and met with various people to discuss its rollout across the NHS.”
A DHSC spokesman said: “The wellbeing of NHS staff is the top priority of the department and Health Secretary.
“Our approach was and is that local NHS employers are best placed to decide how different pay flexibilities fit with their overall pay and reward offer for their staff.”
|
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8744
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2
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https://animate-tim.com/2021/06/25/matt-hancock/
|
en
|
Matt Hancock
|
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2021-06-25T00:00:00
|
https://youtu.be/Lxo3ePTJnF4 Poor hopeless Hancock I made this video this morning and within minutes of my posting it, we learn that Matt Hancock has the support of the Prime Minister (Boris Johnson accepted Mr Hancock's apology and "considers the matter closed") and, moreover, the support of other ministers. Labour Chair Annaliese Dodds is on record saying…
|
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https://s1.wp.com/i/favicon.ico
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https://animate-tim.com/2021/06/25/matt-hancock/
|
Poor hopeless Hancock
I made this video this morning and within minutes of my posting it, we learn that Matt Hancock has the support of the Prime Minister (Boris Johnson accepted Mr Hancock’s apology and “considers the matter closed”) and, moreover, the support of other ministers.
Labour Chair Annaliese Dodds is on record saying “If Matt Hancock has been secretly having a relationship with an adviser in his office – whom he personally appointed to a taxpayer-funded role – it is a blatant abuse of power and a clear conflict of interest”.
There are many ifs and Buts (butts?) but I suppose Matt Hancock can now become the figure of fun he always aspired to be. Grant Shapps defended Matt Hancock this morning and Matt says “I remain focused on working to get the country out of this pandemic-” cetainly, though some of his focus appears to have strayed towards Gina Coladangelo. Some ministers need to focus more than others I think.
We must thank Gina Coladangelo for all the hard work she is doing as an Executive director, and thank Matt Hancock for the example he is setting the nation and the entertainment he is generating across the world.
|
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8744
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0
| 63
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https://www.suffolknews.co.uk/bury-st-edmunds/news/political-figures-across-suffolk-react-to-david-cameron-s-re-9340943/
|
en
|
Political figures across Suffolk, including Dan Poulter, Matt Hancock and Cliff Waterman, react to David Cameron’s appointment as Foreign Secretary
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2023-11-21T15:51:58+00:00
|
Political figures across Suffolk have had their say on the shock appointment of David Cameron as Foreign Secretary.
|
en
|
/favicon.ico
|
Suffolk News
|
https://www.suffolknews.co.uk/bury-st-edmunds/news/political-figures-across-suffolk-react-to-david-cameron-s-re-9340943/
|
Political figures across Suffolk have had their say on the shock appointment of David Cameron as Foreign Secretary.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak appointed now Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton to the Foreign Office in the wake of the sacking of Suella Braverman and the subsequent move to the Home Office of James Cleverly.
Cameron had not been involved in front-line politics for over seven years, vacating 10 Downing Street after the European Referendum, in which he strongly campaigned for the UK to remain.
Political figures in Suffolk have reacted with a mix of happiness, disapproval and somewhat bemusement at his return.
Dr Dan Poulter, MP for Central Suffolk and North Ipswich, entered parliament when Cameron was first elected as Prime Minister, and said of his former leader: “I welcome David Cameron’s return to Government.
“At a time of unprecedented international turbulence with the terrorist acts of Hamas against innocent Israelis, an emerging humanitarian crisis in Gaza, and the ongoing war in Ukraine, we now have an internationally respected statesman as Foreign Secretary and there are very few people who could be better qualified to lead Britain's diplomatic efforts than Lord Cameron.”
Dr. Poulter also served in Cameron’s government, as a Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health Services.
Cliff Waterman, leader of West Suffolk Council, said that a comedy outfit was now running our country, thought that serious questions needed to be asked of the appointment and questioned Cameron’s integrity after the Greensill scandal.
He said: “When the government appoints a failed leader it’s not a good look – it shows that Rishi Sunak is very weak.
“Obviously there’s the Greensill scandal as well which begs a question of integrity, but also what is his opinion on the EU; he campaigned in favour of staying in, but those who voted for Boris Johnson at the last election are very much against links with Europe.
“There are so many things going wrong across the country; just look here in West Suffolk we’ve got a terrible potholes problem.
“There is a massive ticking time bomb, we just need an election, get this government out and have a fresh start.”
“We’ve got a comedy outfit running our country – bring on the next general election.”
Cllr Waterman also mentioned that, whilst the West Suffolk area is a traditionally safe Conservative area, people need to believe that changes can happen, and that Labour have a programme to revive the economy, including closing tax loopholes and planning and pension reforms.
Matt Hancock, MP for West Suffolk, was also first elected when Cameron won the keys to 10 Downing Street, and praised Rishi Sunak for the appointment in a tweet.
He said: “Brilliant decision by the PM to make David Cameron Foreign Secretary; superb for the UK – bringing his experience to guide us through difficult times.
“Excellent for the Conservatives, showing Rishi Sunak will fight the election on the centre ground – Bravo.”
Hancock served as Paymaster General in Cameron’s second government, and later played a more prominent role in the cabinet under Theresa May and Boris Johnson, serving as Culture and Health Secretary.
However, he has now had the Conservative whip removed and sits as an independent MP after appearing on I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here.
David Beavan, deputy leader of East Suffolk Council, said he thought that Cameron’s appointment was a show of desperation from the government, saying: “It’s great to see that the Tories are into recycling.
“They’re really scraping the bottom of the barrel now, they’ve run out of ideas; it’s the last throw of the dice for the government.
“I think it shows just how desperate they are – I’m looking forward to the next general election.
“They’ll be out by the next election anyways and at a local level we’re really looking forward to having a more responsible government to work with.”
Cllr Beavan stood in the 2019 parliamentary election at the South Suffolk constituency, parts of which will be transferred to the new Waveney Valley constituency, where Mid-Suffolk District Council leader Andy Mellen believes there is a real chance of putting on a show against the Conservatives.
“People I speak to are looking for someone other than the Tories to vote for, and here in the new Waveney Valley constituency, the Green candidate Adrian Ramsay is the only realistic alternative and his campaign is gathering momentum.
“Former Prime Minister David, now Lord, Cameron is someone with stature and experience, and he re-emerges onto the world stage at a time when there are a lot of big, intractable problems for him to grapple with.
“I hope he can make some positive progress with Ukraine, the Middle East and the other problems around the world.
“But beyond the current conflicts the horrific prospect of runaway climate change is looming, and here his record is not good.”
Cllr Mellen made reference to Cameron’s government in 2014 ripping up the Code for Sustainable Homes alongside other environmental regulations, which he says has led to a decade of homes being built to lower environmental standards, which costs residents more to heat and produces greater carbon emissions.
Cameron is able to serve in cabinet by virtue of Rishi Sunak giving him a peerage, which allows him to sit in the House of Lords.
Most departments of state often have a minister in them from the Lords to assist the passage of legislation, but rarely does a Secretary of State come from the Lords nowadays, with the last instance of this being Nicky Morgan’s spell as culture secretary from 2019 to 2020.
The last time the Foreign Secretary came from the Lords was Lord Carrington between 1979 and 1982, under Margaret Thatcher.
Jack Abbott, Labour MP candidate for Ipswich, believes Cameron’s appointment represents a lack of commitment to change, saying: “Bringing back David Cameron puts to bed any laughable notion that Rishi Sunak will offer any sort of change after 13 years of Conservative failure.
"Over the last few years we've seen a revolving door of Prime Ministers, and dozens upon dozens of Conservative MPs have played pass the parcel with crucially important jobs.
"While they must think some sort of game, their lack of seriousness and total incompetence has led to a cost of living crisis and our public services being pushed to breaking point. No wonder our country is in such a mess.
"We don't need another merry-go-round from the Conservatives. We need a completely fresh start with a Labour government which will get our future back."
It is expected the next general election will be held at some point around autumn 2024.
MPs Dr Therese Coffey and Jo Churchill were approached for comment.
|
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News and communications
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2019-02-01T12:31:51+00:00
|
Find news and communications from government
|
en
|
/assets/static/favicon-f54816fc15997bd42cd90e4c50b896a1fc098c0c32957d4e5effbfa9f9b35e53.ico
|
GOV.UK
|
https://www.gov.uk/search/news-and-communications
|
A temporary measure to manage pressures in prisons in the north of England has been reactivated, following longstanding capacity failures and recent outbreaks of far-right disorder.
Updated: 19 August 2024
David Lammy and Stéphane Séjourné write for The Observer on how a ceasefire could enable progress towards a two-state solution – the only long-term route to safety and security.
Updated: 18 August 2024
Cutting-edge new satellite launched by UK Space Command to provide crucial space-based intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance.
Updated: 17 August 2024
Minister Bryant wrote to the telecoms industry on 16 August, inviting them to a round table on 12 September to discuss telegraph pole deployment.
Updated: 17 August 2024
Foreign ministers of the UK, France, Germany and Italy gave a statement following an update on Israel-Gaza ceasefire negotiations.
Updated: 17 August 2024
Signing of new Government to Government agreement between the Government of Peru and the Government of the United Kingdom.
Updated: 16 August 2024
How to apply for compensation if you were a victim of recent terrorist attacks in either Mozambique or Mogadishu, Somalia.
Updated: 16 August 2024
The public have been asked to avoid an area of the Walsall canal in the West Midlands following a chemical spill
Updated: 16 August 2024
Applications for criminal legal aid must now be submitted via Apply for criminal legal aid.
Updated: 16 August 2024
Victims and witnesses of crime will benefit from improved waiting rooms in 10 court buildings across England and Wales.
Updated: 16 August 2024
Data released today (16 August 2024) confirms 460 people arrested in connection with the violent disorder earlier this month have faced their day in court and at least 99 have already been sentenced.
Updated: 16 August 2024
A temporary export bar has been placed on Alan Turing’s unpublished Second World War papers relating to his ‘Delilah’ project
Updated: 16 August 2024
The Fish Health Inspectorate (FHI) have found Koi herpesvirus (KHV) disease in fish at the following sites in England and Wales
Updated: 16 August 2024
Information for patients and their relatives and carers, employees and creditors of the five Sk:n Group of companies in liquidation.
Updated: 16 August 2024
Professor Alan Taylor confirmed as new member of Monetary Policy Committee.
Updated: 16 August 2024
LiveLink Aerospace’s counter-UAS sensor helps protect Royal Navy ships
Updated: 16 August 2024
From Tuesday 1 April 2025, door supervisors and security guards must undertake refresher training to renew their licence.
Updated: 16 August 2024
Farmers urged to take up free testing and source livestock responsibly as case numbers increasing in Europe
Updated: 16 August 2024
Twelve-year director disqualification for Covid support scheme misconduct
Updated: 16 August 2024
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dbpedia
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3
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https://www.click2houston.com/health/2023/06/27/uk-was-ill-prepared-for-pandemic-because-resources-were-diverted-to-brexit-ex-health-chief-says/
|
en
|
UK was ill-prepared for pandemic because resources were diverted to Brexit, ex-health chief says
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2023-06-27T00:00:00
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Britain's former health secretary has told an official inquiry that the U.K. was ill-prepared for a pandemic partly because government resources had been diverted away from pandemic planning to brace for a possibly chaotic no-deal Brexit.
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https://www.click2houston.com/health/2023/06/27/uk-was-ill-prepared-for-pandemic-because-resources-were-diverted-to-brexit-ex-health-chief-says/
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LONDON – Britain was ill-prepared for a pandemic partly because government resources had been diverted away from pandemic planning to brace for a possibly chaotic exit from the European Union without a deal, the U.K.'s former health secretary told an inquiry Tuesday.
Matt Hancock also said officials had to scramble to source protective equipment, set up mass testing and contact tracing systems “from scratch” once the coronavirus pandemic broke out because the U.K.'s planning attitude was entirely “geared towards how to clear up after a disaster, not prevent it.”
“The doctrine of the U.K. was to plan for the consequences of a disaster — can we buy enough body bags? Where are we going to bury the dead?” Hancock said.
“Large-scale testing did not exist and large-scale contact tracing did not exist because it was assumed that as soon as there was community transmission, it wouldn’t be possible to stop the spread, and therefore, what’s the point in contact tracing?” he added.
That assumption was “completely wrong” and a “colossal” failure, Hancock said.
Hancock acknowledged that an official pandemic preparedness board paused its work in 2018 to 2019 because resources were moved away to focus instead on the threat of a “disorganized Brexit.”
Britain's government was consumed in 2019 with the possibility of crashing out of the EU without a deal on the departure terms in place. A bitterly divided Parliament rejected then-Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit plan three times.
The U.K. eventually left the trade bloc in 2020.
As health secretary, Hancock became one of the best-known politicians in Britain as he led efforts to halt the spread of the coronavirus before he was forced to quit in June 2021, when he was caught breaking social distancing rules with an aide. Pictures of him kissing the aide in government offices were splashed across front pages at the time.
Hancock has previously faced criticism about the U.K.'s COVID testing measures and how authorities failed to manage the spread of the pandemic in care homes for the elderly. The U.K. had one of the highest COVID-19 death tolls in Europe, with the virus recorded as a cause of death for almost 227,000 people.
Hancock said an emotional sorry Tuesday to all those who died and were affected.
“I’m profoundly sorry for each death that has occurred. I also understand why, for some, it will be hard to take that apology from me,” he said.
Earlier, Hancock was confronted by members of the group COVID Families for Justice who held up pictures of relatives who died in the pandemic as he arrived at the inquiry in central London.
The wide-ranging inquiry, led by a retired judge, aims to investigate the U.K.’s preparedness for the coronavirus pandemic, how the government responded and what lessons can be learned for the future.
Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who led the U.K. during the pandemic, agreed in late 2021 to hold the probe after heavy pressure from bereaved families.
|
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8744
|
dbpedia
|
2
| 94
|
https://news.sky.com/story/greensill-what-is-the-lobbying-scandal-and-why-is-david-cameron-involved-12272518
|
en
|
Greensill: What is the lobbying scandal and why is David Cameron involved?
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[
"Rob Powell"
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2021-04-11T13:00:00+00:00
|
David Cameron is accused of lobbying the government via messages to the chancellor over a funding scheme for a firm he advises.
|
en
|
/resources/favicon.ico?v=2
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Sky News
|
https://news.sky.com/story/greensill-what-is-the-lobbying-scandal-and-why-is-david-cameron-involved-12272518
|
David Cameron has been in the headlines recently over his alleged involvement in a lobbying scandal with a firm he advises and the Treasury.
Sky News has broken down what is going on, who the key players are, and why the former prime minister is under fire.
What did David Cameron do?
Mr Cameron approached a number of government ministers on behalf of Greensill Capital - a financial services firm he started working for in 2018. He was trying to secure Greensill access to a loan scheme called the Covid Corporate Financing Facility (CCFF). The former prime minister wanted Greensill Capital to be able to issue loans using tax-payer cash through this scheme. According to newspaper reports, Mr Cameron stood to make millions of pounds through his share holdings in the firm.
Who did he approach?
Mr Cameron sent multiple text messages to the personal phone of the Chancellor Rishi Sunak and approached two junior treasury ministers. According to the Sunday Times, the former prime minister also sent an email to a senior Downing Street adviser saying it "seems nuts" to exclude companies like Greensill from the scheme.
Was he successful?
The proposals from Greensill Capital were ultimately rejected by the Treasury and the firm was not given access to the CCFF scheme. However the firm was allowed access to tens of millions of pounds of tax-payer cash to issue loans under a separate pandemic support scheme known as the Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CLBILS).
But did Mr Cameron's influence get the firm special access?
It's hard to say. Text messages sent by Mr Sunak to Mr Cameron show the chancellor said he "pushed" his team to examine Greensill's proposals. Official records also show that representatives from Greensill had 10 meetings with Treasury officials in just over three months last spring. Minutes from one of those calls reveal the conversation was taking place "at the Chancellor's request". Treasury sources say it is right they look at all proposals and were unaware of Mr Cameron's "it seems nuts" email at the time it was sent.
Did Mr Cameron do anything wrong?
The former prime minister was cleared of any wrongdoing by the official watchdog in March 2021 on the basis that he was an employee of Greensill Capital rather than a third-party lobbyist. He joined Greensill more than two years after leaving office, meaning he didn't have to clear the role with a specialist vetting committee. Critics say Mr Cameron has got off on a technicality and there should be stronger rules to increase transparency in this area.
Did Mr Cameron approach any other cabinet ministers?
Yes. In October 2019 he went for a "private drink" with Lex Greensill - the founder of Greensill Capital - and Health Secretary Matt Hancock. They discussed a payment scheme that the firm wanted the NHS to start using.
Was the payment scheme used by the NHS?
Yes. It was used in parts of the health service. But allies of the health secretary say everything was above board and he "updated officials on the business that was discussed" in the October drinks meeting. Advice was also commissioned from civil servants on the payment scheme when it was first put forward in August 2019. Sources say Matt Hancock was clear that other providers should be able to offer the work as well.
Subscribe to the All Out Politics podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Spreaker
Who is Lex Greensill?
Lex Greensill is a billionaire Australian financier who initially worked for multinational banks before founding Greensill Capital in 2011. The firm specialised in "supply chain finance" - a service designed to let companies have their bills paid more quickly through the use of short term loans. He was awarded a CBE for "services to the economy" in 2017.
Did Mr Cameron know Mr Greensill when he was prime minister?
Yes. In fact a business card published by the Labour party suggests Mr Greensill was a "senior advisor" to Mr Cameron while he was in Downing Street. At the time, Mr Greensill was instrumental in setting up a payment scheme for pharmacies that was based on his firm's 'supply chain finance' model. Greensill Capital began providing funding to pharmacies through this scheme in 2018.
What has happened to Greensill Capital?
The firm went into administration in March this year with the loss of 440 jobs. Thousands of further jobs are also potentially at risk in companies Greensill lent money to, including GFG Alliance - the owner of Liberty Steel. Before going into administration, Greensill Capital was stripped of a government guarantee to provide loans through CLBILS for breaching the terms of the support scheme.
What has Mr Cameron said on the matter?
Mr Cameron has accepted he should have acted differently over his role in the Greensill lobbying controversy, but insisted he broke "no codes of conduct and no government rules", but having "reflected on this at length" accepted there were "lessons to be learnt". In a lengthy statement, the former prime minister also said that while he accepts he could have done things differently, he "thought it was right... to make representations on behalf of a company involved in financing a large number of UK firms." He also denied have a close relationship to Lex Greensill prior to being involved in his business.
Why does this matter?
It matters because the private companies the government works with often stand to make a lot of money from the state. Rules about procurement are intended to make it a levelling playing field for firms to bid for public sector contracts. But there are concerns that former-politicians can use their influence and connections in Westminster to get priority access for companies they stand to benefit from. Mr Cameron warned of this issue while he was prime minister, predicting that lobbying was set to become "the next big scandal".
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8744
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dbpedia
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0
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https://www.newstatesman.com/comment/2022/11/matt-hancock-election-politician-media
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en
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What did we do to deserve Matt Hancock?
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[
"Martin Fletcher"
] |
2022-11-07T16:09:42+00:00
|
This embodiment of the vacuous, self-serving modern politician is profiting from his notoriety.
|
en
|
New Statesman
|
https://www.newstatesman.com/comment/2022/11/matt-hancock-election-politician-media
|
What is it about Conservative politicians? How do they manage not only to escape the consequences of their various misdeeds, but actually to profit from them?
Boris Johnson, who was forced from office in disgrace, is now starting to rake in obscene speaking fees (£315,000 for a 30-minute speech and “fireside chat” at the Council of Insurance Agents and Brokers in Colorado). Suella Braverman, who had to resign as home secretary on 19 October for using her personal email to send sensitive information, was reinstated by Rishi Sunak six days later.
Gavin Williamson, sacked as defence secretary by Theresa May for leaking National Security Council deliberations and as education secretary by Johnson for incompetence, is back in Sunak’s cabinet – at least for now. It remains to be seen whether his vile tirade against Wendy Morton, the former chief whip, for not inviting him to the Queen’s funeral suffices to get him sacked a third time.
And then there’s Matt Hancock, now earning £400,000 for appearing on ITV’s I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! Over at Channel 4 the makers of SAS: Who Dares Wins are said to be less than thrilled, the Sun reports, because Hancock had already signed up as one of their contestants in (and begun filming for) a series that will not be screened until next year. Alas, that’s what happens when you make a deal with a complete charlatan.
Lest we forget, just 17 months have elapsed since Hancock was forced to resign as health secretary for breaching the draconian social distancing rules that he had imposed on the nation during the Covid pandemic. He did so by having an affair with an aide, Gina Coladangelo. He is not a celebrity. He is a disgraced former minister who betrayed the trust not just of his wife and three children, but of the entire country.
There was a time when Hancock’s conduct would have permanently disqualified him from public life. Remember John Profumo? In 1963 he had to resign as war secretary for having an affair with a model and spent the rest of his life working voluntarily for an East End charity to make amends. We live in a very different age. Today politicians seem to rise and flourish not by being honourable, good at their jobs or figures of real substance, but through sycophancy, self-promotion and utter shamelessness.
Hancock is a classic example. A creation of David Cameron and George Osborne, he won his West Suffolk constituency in 2010 and was soon using a parliamentary question to plug a book he had written about the financial crash (Masters of Nothing). Cameron gave him his first ministerial job in 2012, when he was 33. Asked to respond to charges that the Conservative Party was full of callow career politicians with little experience of the real world, Hancock had the gall in an interview with the Spectator to compare himself to Winston Churchill and William Pitt, who both took office young.
He was promoted rapidly – too rapidly to make a real impact in any of the five different posts he held over the next four years. At an away-day for Tory MPs a colleague generated much mirth by quipping: “Anyone attempting to lick George Osborne’s backside should be careful because if you go too far you’ll find the soles of Matt Hancock’s shoes in the way.”
[See also: The sick satisfaction of torturing Matt Hancock on I’m a Celebrity]
In January 2018 May promoted him to the cabinet as secretary of state for digital, culture, media and sport, where he attracted derision by becoming the first MP to launch his own smartphone app. Seven undistinguished months later she made him health secretary. In a measure of his capacity for self-delusion he sought the Tory party leadership when May resigned the following year, presenting himself as “the candidate of the future”, but came sixth in the first round with just 20 MPs supporting him. He then withdrew.
Johnson, the winner, retained him as health secretary and he was still there when the Covid pandemic struck in March 2020. Hancock boasts of his part in “rolling out the world’s fastest vaccine programme”. He fails to mention the government’s woeful lack of preparedness for such a pandemic; its catastrophic transfer of infected patients from hospitals to care homes despite his claim to have thrown a “protective ring” around the latter; the uselessness of the £37bn track-and-trace scheme that he oversaw; and the spending of billions more on protective personal equipment, much of which was procured from Conservative Party cronies and turned out to be useless (a former pub landlord in Hancock’s constituency inexplicably received a £40m contract for testing vials).
Roughly 200,000 British citizens died of Covid-19 – giving the country one of the highest death rates in the world. In a text to his former aide Dominic Cummings, Johnson called Hancock “totally f***ing hopeless”.
Then came Hancock’s affair, resignation and the break-up of his marriage. Most politicians would have kept a low-profile for a decent period after such a fall from grace, but not Hancock. Only a few months later he was back boasting of a UN job offer (withdrawn), giving interviews, negotiating a book contract and being photographed swimming in the icy Serpentine lido in Hyde Park.
In this year’s two Conservative Party leadership races Hancock backed Sunak, doubtless hoping for preferment. “Few have worked more closely with him than me. He has fine judgement, seriousness of purpose and good character,” he gushed in a typically oleaginous yet self-promoting Tweet. But he failed to secure a place in Sunak’s cabinet, and the new Prime Minister blatantly snubbed him when greeting a cheering throng outside Conservative Party headquarters after his election.
Unabashed, Hancock is now pursuing a different course. He is following the illustrious examples of Nadine Dorries and George Galloway by cashing in on his notoriety through reality TV (95 per cent of the public have heard of him, though only 16 per cent like him).
He is seeking to portray his appearance on I’m a Celebrity as some sort of good, almost heroic deed. He will be swapping home comforts for the “extreme conditions of the Australian outback”, he says. He will use his appearances to promote his dyslexia campaign. He will give some of the proceeds to a Suffolk hospice, though he has conspicuously failed to say how much. “It’s our job as politicians to go to where the people are – not to sit in ivory towers in Westminster,” he argues.
Nobody is fooled by such self-serving tosh. Not his constituency association, which has accused him of a “serious error of judgement”. Not the Conservative Party, which has withdrawn the whip. Not Sunak, who is “disappointed” Hancock has forsaken his constituents in the midst of such a severe cost-of-living crisis. And not the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group, which said: “Our families were ripped apart by Matt Hancock’s actions, and turning on the TV to see him being paraded around as a joke is sickening.”
In the event, millions of viewers tuned in to the launch of the new series on Sunday night (6 November) to discover that Hancock was not yet on the set. He will appear in later episodes. Hopefully, when he does, this embodiment of the vacuous, self-serving modern politician will be voted off the programme in short order. And hopefully his Suffolk constituents will do exactly the same come the next election.
|
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8744
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dbpedia
|
1
| 79
|
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/boris-johnson-david-cameron-theresa-may-liz-truss-george-osborne-b1168553.html
|
en
|
Highs and lows of 14 years of Conservative rule
|
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[
"Boris Johnson",
"David Cameron",
"Theresa May",
"Liz Truss",
"George Osborne",
"Labour",
"Nick Clegg",
"Conservative",
"Andy Coulson",
"Rishi Sunak",
"MPs",
"David Davis",
"Commons",
"Brexit",
"Matt Hancock",
"European Union",
"Michael Gove",
"Bashar Assad"
] | null |
[
"Gavin Cordon"
] |
2024-07-04T01:45:00+00:00
|
After five prime ministers, a Labour election triumph would end a decade-and-a-half of the Tories in power.
|
en
|
/img/shortcut-icons/favicon.ico
|
Evening Standard
|
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/boris-johnson-david-cameron-theresa-may-liz-truss-george-osborne-b1168553.html
|
After five prime ministers, a Labour election triumph would end a decade-and-a-half of the Tories in power.
David Cameron, watched by his wife Samantha, addresses the nation from the steps of No 10 for the first time as prime minister (Chris Raeburn/PA)
PA Archive
Gavin Cordon4 July 2024
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Labour’s apparent impending victory in the General Election would bring down the curtain on 14 years of Conservative-led government at Westminster.
We look back at how the past decade-and-a-half unfolded.
– 2010 to 2015: The coalition years
The general election of May 6 2010 brought to an end Labour’s run of three straight victories but failed to deliver the outright victory the Tories were hoping for.
With his party 20 seats short of an overall majority, the Conservative leader David Cameron made “a big, open and comprehensive offer” to the third-placed Liberal Democrats to work together in government.
After five days of intensive talks, Mr Cameron emerged to announce that the two parties had agreed to form the UK’s first coalition government since the Second World War, with Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg serving as deputy prime minister.
The years that followed were dominated by the fallout from the 2008 global financial collapse which saw the Labour government of Gordon Brown pour tens of billions of pounds into bailing out the banks to prevent a complete implosion of the financial system.
In the course of the parliament, Mr Cameron and chancellor George Osborne slashed spending by around £100 billion in “austerity” cuts as they sought to rebuild the shattered public finances.
Despite the economic constraints, the government nevertheless pushed through major – and highly controversial – reforms to the NHS and benefits system, with the introduction of Universal Credit, while privatising Royal Mail.
In a surprise move, it introduced legislation to enable same-sex marriage, which had not been in the Tories’ general election manifesto and only passed with Labour support, with a majority of Conservative MPs either voting against it or abstaining.
In 2011, Mr Cameron announced that he was setting up the Leveson inquiry into press standards following claims that private detectives working for the News of the World had hacked the phone of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler.
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The prime minister, who had previously hired the paper’s former editor Andy Coulson as his director of communications, was among those called to give evidence, while Mr Coulson subsequently went to prison.
Overseas, he joined France in launching airstrikes against the forces of the Libyan dictator Colonel Gadaffi amid fears of a massacre of rebels who had risen up against his rule.
However, in 2013 he was forced to abandon plans for strikes against Syria’s President Bashar Assad, in response to the use of chemical weapons against rebels there, after losing the vote on a Commons motion calling for military action.
After the SNP secured an outright majority in the Scottish Parliament in the election of 2011, Mr Cameron agreed to allow first minister Alex Salmond to hold a referendum on Scottish independence.
Although the result of the vote in September 2014 was a defeat for independence, it nevertheless ushered in almost a decade of SNP dominance of Scottish politics.
– 2015 to 2017: The Brexit referendum
The 2015 general election saw the Tories unexpectedly returned with an outright majority while the Lib Dems paid the price for their support for the government’s austerity policies with a near-wipeout to bring the coalition to an end.
Back in No 10, Mr Cameron set about wooing communist China, the world’s rising economic superpower, rolling out the red carpet for a state visit for President Xi Jinping – and even inviting him for a pint at his local.
However, the new parliament was dominated by Mr Cameron’s promise to hold an in-out referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Union in an attempt finally to put and end to years of Tory wrangling.
His hopes of securing a vote to Remain suffered a major setback when outgoing London mayor Boris Johnson – then one of the most popular and most recognisable politicians in the country – agreed to front the Leave campaign.
Mr Cameron attempted to renegotiate the terms of Britain’s membership in an effort to boost support for staying in but was unable to secure the level of concessions he was hoping for – particularly on the free movement of labour.
When it came to the vote on June 23 2016, the result was a victory for Leave – by 52% to 48%. Within hours of the declaration, Mr Cameron emerged on the steps of No 10 to announce he was standing down.
Mr Johnson was widely expected to succeed him but his leadership bid was dramatically scuppered when his fellow Leave campaigner Michael Gove turned against him, declaring him unfit for office.
It was home secretary Theresa May, a Remain supporter albeit a fairly lukewarm one, who emerged from the wreckage as the last candidate standing, entering No 10 as prime minister on July 13.
In an attempt to shore up her position with Tory Leavers, she appointed Mr Johnson as foreign secretary while David Davis was made Brexit secretary overseeing negotiations with the EU on the terms of Britain’s departure.
Following the election of Donald Trump as US president, she became the first foreign leader to fly to Washington to meet him, marking the start of what was to be an increasingly fractious relationship.
– 2017 to 2019: Tories at war
Buoyed by an early bounce in opinion polls, in April 2017 Mrs May decided to call a snap general election in the hope of strengthening her hand in the forthcoming Brexit negotiations – both with Brussels and with her own MPs.
She proved, however, to be a poor campaigner, while Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn was an unexpected hit with younger voters.
The result was the loss of the Tories’ Commons majority – with Mrs May forced to turn to Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionists (DUP) to prop up her suddenly shaky-looking administration at Westminster.
What followed was an unprecedented period of parliamentary turmoil, with the Tories hopelessly divided between former Remainers who were pressing for a “soft” Brexit, and hardline Leavers demanding a clean break with the EU.
After a pre-dawn dash to Brussels, the prime minister finalised an agreement with European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker but the deal – including the infamous Northern Ireland “backstop” – was denounced by hardliners as “Brexit in name only”.
Meanwhile, troubles were piling up elsewhere with the disclosure that her “hostile environment” policy had led to scores of legal immigrants from the so-called Windrush generation being wrongly stripped of their rights while she was criticised for her tone-deaf response to the Grenfell Tower fire tragedy.
A cabinet meeting in Chequers intended to unite ministers behind her Brexit strategy, aimed at maximising UK access to EU markets, only brought further chaos when first Mr Davis and then Mr Johnson quit in protest.
With the mood in the party becoming increasingly rancorous, Mrs May survived a no confidence motion by rebellious Tory MPs but when she finally put her deal to a Commons vote in January 2019 she lost by 230 votes – the biggest government defeat in modern political history.
In the past it would have led to the fall of the government but with Tory MPs in no mood to vote for an election they knew they would lose, the Fixed Term Parliaments Act (FTPA) – passed under the coalition – meant she was simply left to limp on.
Two further votes and two further government defeats followed – albeit by smaller margins – but when an unlikely attempt to broker a deal with Labour collapsed she finally accepted she had run out of road and in May she emerged from No 10 to tearfully announce her resignation.
In the ensuing leadership contest, this time Mr Johnson emerged triumphant, easily beating Jeremy Hunt in the final run-off ballot of party members.
He straight away announced his intention to renegotiate the terms of Mrs May’s Brexit deal, eventually securing agreement with Irish premier Leo Varadkar to replace the backstop with a customs border between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK – a measure that was to prove almost as contentious.
The Commons remained deadlocked with a block of pro-Remain Tory MPs firmly opposed to his plans. In an attempt to shut down debate Mr Johnson ordered an extended prorogation of parliament only for the Supreme Court to rule he had acted unlawfully.
The position at Westminster was however becoming increasing untenable as Mr Johnson withdrew the Tory whip from more than 20 rebels – including ex-chancellors Kenneth Clarke and Philip Hammond – for voting with the opposition.
Finally, in October 2019, after three unsuccessful attempts to secure the two thirds majority needed to call a general election under the FTPA, the Commons agreed to an emergency Bill dissolving parliament, with polling day set for December 12.
– 2019 to 2021 Covid, scandal and chaos
Mr Johnson campaigned on the promise to “get Brexit done” combined with a commitment to “level up” those areas of the country which had been increasingly left behind in the preceding decade.
The result was a landslide, with an 80-seat majority for the Conservatives – the party’s biggest win since the days of Margaret Thatcher – as a series of previously safe Labour “red wall” seats in the North and Midlands fell to the Tories.
MPs returned to Westminster to rush through ratification of the Brexit withdrawal agreement before the Christmas break and at 11pm GMT on January 31 47 years of British membership of Europe came to an end.
But a new crisis was already looming with the emergence in the Chinese city of Wuhan of a terrifying new coronavirus infecting humans, designated Covid-19.
As the virus began its inexorable spread around the globe, Mr Johnson appeared slow to appreciate the threat, leaving health secretary Matt Hancock to chair a series of meetings of the Cobra civil contingencies committee.
On March 23, nearly two months after the first confirmed case in the UK, the prime minister ordered an unprecedented national lockdown, with people ordered to stay at home, bringing economic activity to a halt.
At the same time, chancellor Rishi Sunak unveiled an equally unprecedented furlough scheme for the state to pay the wages of millions of workers who would otherwise have been laid off.
The national mood of uncertainty was only heightened with the news that Mr Johnson had been admitted to intensive care after falling victim to the virus: for three days it appeared touch and go whether he would survive.
The government faced criticism for its at-times chaotic response to the crisis, with lockdowns lifted and then reimposed, a shambles over the acquisition of vital protective equipment for hospital staff and a confused test and trace programme.
However there were also plaudits for the speed with which it was able to role out a mass vaccination programme, once first inoculations became available.
By the time the outbreak subsided, at least 235,000 people in the UK had Covid recorded on their death certificate.
As the country gradually emerged from the pandemic, Mr Johnson found himself increasingly embroiled in scandal, including claims he had secretly arranged for Tory donors to pay for a lavish refurbishment of his Downing Street flat.
Health secretary Matt Hancock had to resign after CCTV footage was leaked to the press showing him cavorting in his office with his mistress in violation of social distancing guidelines.
Most damaging however was the emergence of reports of No 10 staff holding drinks parties – some attended by Mr Johnson himself – in apparent breach of the government’s own lockdown regulations.
The country was appalled at the increasingly lurid revelations – including a night of drunken revelry on the eve of the funeral of the Duke of Edinburgh – while the prime minister was accused of lying to parliament as he insisted no rules had been broken.
Following an investigation by the Met Police, he was subsequently issued with a fixed penalty notice, along with Mr Sunak and dozens of No 10 staff, becoming the first British prime minister to be sanctioned for breaking the law while in office.
President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 meant the focus temporarily shifted away from domestic politics, with Mr Johnson at the forefront of rallying international support for the beleaguered government of Volodymyr Zelensky.
However when it emerged he had been warned about the conduct of deputy chief whip Chris Pincher – who was accused of indecently assaulting two men in the Carlton Club – before he appointed him to the post, it was a scandal too far.
Health secretary Sajid Javid and Mr Sunak resigned in quick succession, triggering an avalanche of further resignations – many by ministers who felt they had been sent out to lie on Mr Johnson’s behalf.
The prime minister tried to hang on but it soon became clear the position was untenable and on July 7 he appeared on the steps of No 10 to announce he was quitting.
In the ensuing leadership contest it was foreign secretary Liz Truss who came out on top – beating Mr Sunak in the final ballot of activists, many of whom blamed him for bringing down Mr Johnson, who remained hugely popular among ordinary members.
Within two days of the new prime minister taking office, politics as normal was suspended as the country entered 10 days of national mourning following the death of Queen Elizabeth II.
When government business resumed Ms Truss was impatient to get on with delivering her keynote campaign promise of tax cuts to kick-start economic growth, even though she had not fully worked out how they would be paid for.
On October 20 she bowed to the inevitable and announced she as resigning, the fourth Conservative prime minister to do so in the space of a little over six years.
She had lasted just 49 days in office, making her the shortest-serving premier in British history.
There was no mood in the party for another extended leadership contest and after Mr Johnson decided against attempting an unlikely political comeback, Mr Sunak was elected unopposed.
He entered No 10 promising stability after the turmoil of the previous years, however that was not enough to turn around the Tories’ fortunes in the opinion polls.
Voters appeared in no mood to forgive after seeing living standards painfully squeezed, in part the legacy of Covid and the war in Ukraine, while the NHS struggled to recover from the pandemic.
Migration was also rising up the agenda once again, with many Tory MPs demanding tougher action to stop the small-boat crossings in the Channel as the plan to deport illegal entrants to Rwanda remained stuck in the courts.
In a final roll of the dice, a rain-soaked Prime Minister attempted to regain the initiative with the announcement that he was going for a July election, rather than wait to the autumn as had been generally expected.
After 14 years continuously in office, it was the beginning of the end for the Conservatives.
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MORE ABOUT
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https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/how-matt-hancock-turned-a-failure-into-success/
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en
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How Matt Hancock turned a failure into success
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[
"Andy Coulson"
] |
2022-11-06T10:26:06+00:00
|
Matt Hancock is a risk-taker who isn‘t afraid to stand up and take the blame. What will that mean for his ‘I’m a Celeb...’ appearance?
|
en
|
The Spectator
|
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/how-matt-hancock-turned-a-failure-into-success/
|
Eating kangaroo penis on live TV will not be the first gut wrenching challenge of Matt Hancock’s career. At the end of a long day in September 2007, Matt walked into my office looking like his dog, cat and pet parrot had all been shot. He closed the door behind him and said: ‘We have a big problem.’
It was the eve of the Conservative Party conference in Blackpool and Matt, myself and the entire opposition team had been working around the clock to prepare a package of game-changing policies to announce.
The secrecy of those policies was mission critical. Indeed it’s fair to say that David Cameron’s ambitions to become PM rather rested on it.
As an adviser to Shadow Chancellor George Osborne, Matt’s job was to make sure the policies were ‘bomb proof’ – that the sums added up. And he was rather good at it. But in the pre-conference rush one of his team had emailed across the entire policy package and without a password. Only they didn’t email Matt Hancock, they emailed Mike Hancock, the Lib Dem MP, in error.
In I’m A Celebrity parlance, Matt knew that the screw up meant an ‘I’m afraid it’s YOU’ exit could be coming his way.
At that moment he could have blamed others and blended into the wallpaper as I’d seen so many do on so many occasions in my career. But instead Matt took the bullet full in the chest. He and I walked into David Cameron’s office and gave him the unvarnished news. Matt then said unequivocally that it was his mistake and he was entirely to blame.
After a painfully long period of silence David swung his jacket over his shoulder and declared that they were good policies before they were leaked and would still be good policies after. He then said a cheerful good night leaving Matt grateful that his career had not come to an embarrassing end.
Much later, as I hurtled towards my own ‘Get Me Out Of Here’ experience, Matt’s ambition found a new gear. And he was off into life as an MP and later, of course, into Cabinet. At one stage he even fancied himself as party leader which, even to his supporters, seemed a bit of an overreach.
A brilliant Sun scoop then put paid to any serious political ambitions – at least for the foreseeable. And now many think that Matt should spend the rest of his life under a new identity in South America rather than on TV under Australian skies.
But while Matt’s decision to go ‘full fame’ is not one I would have advised, it is not entirely brainless. The timing and nature of the show has resulted in valid criticism and the good people of West Suffolk have every right to give him the boot now or later. But he’s not the first to roll the I’m A Celeb dice and in doing so leave his constituents high and dry. And it worked out pretty well for Nadine Dorries.
Matt knows all that and is hoping that when the wider public get a proper look at him on screen they’ll see someone who is game, not nearly as posh as people assume and who has a backstory that speaks to his grit as well as a pretty shameless ambition. And that if the I’m A Celeb bosses – and this is a very big if – give him a fair crack of the editing whip he might just surprise a few people.
Matt, like a lot of politicians, is a risk taker. And he has a skin thicker than most. That makes him, as his old boss George Osborne says, somewhat Tiggerish. But he’s also got a touch of another Winnie The Pooh character. And it’s the bit of ‘I know best’ Rabbit about Matt that may have resulted in him digging a hole just big enough to bury himself in.
But we’ll be watching. In the mind of a man who is on the comeback trail, that is a good place to start.
And Matt will remember that unexpected things can happen in life. Like Mike Hancock not bothering to read his emails. And in doing so allowing David Cameron to announce a set of policies that, one might argue, led the Conservatives back to power.
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0
| 23
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https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/article/2024/jul/18/the-politicians-named-in-covid-inquiry-report-over-failures-prior-to-pandemic
|
en
|
Hunt to Hancock: six politicians in the frame in Covid inquiry report
|
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"Peter Walker",
"www.theguardian.com"
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2024-07-18T00:00:00
|
While many of the failings are seen as institutional, the report names some politicians for their role in the crisis
|
en
|
the Guardian
|
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/article/2024/jul/18/the-politicians-named-in-covid-inquiry-report-over-failures-prior-to-pandemic
|
The first report by the official Covid inquiry has been damning about the UK’s seeming lack of preparedness for the pandemic. Much of the fault is seen as being institutional, but some politicians are mentioned in the 240 pages. Here are the main players:
Matt Hancock
As health secretary for almost three years, from 2018 to 2021, Hancock was at the helm as Covid hit but, as the report states, he inherited an inadequately prepared infrastructure.
When Hancock took over, his “day one” briefing from the health department’s chief civil servant included the idea that pandemic flu would be the biggest likely health emergency to strike, the report noted. This idea, based on a 2011 pandemic strategy, was a “flawed doctrine”, as Hancock told the inquiry.
However, the report concluded that Hancock shared responsibility with earlier health secretaries, as well as the experts and officials who advised them, and the UK’s devolved governments, for “failing to have these flaws examined and rectified”.
It added: “This includes Mr Hancock, who abandoned the [2011] strategy when the pandemic struck, by which time it was too late to have any effect on preparedness and resilience.”
Hancock allies said it was unfair to blame him for acting on the advice of experts.
Jeremy Hunt
Hunt’s role in the UK’s lack of preparedness for the pandemic was similar to Hancock’s, and was arguably bigger given he was health secretary for just under six years, from 2012 to 2018.
The report noted that Hunt could not remember being advised that the 2011 pandemic strategy should be revised, and that he had “no idea” why the experience of east Asian countries affected by the 2002-2004 Sars virus was not taken on board.
Overall, the 2011 strategy was “not subject to sufficient external challenge by either ministers or officials”, the report said. Saying that Hunt told the inquiry that in retrospect he and others “didn’t put anything like the time and effort and energy” into challenging the consensus, it added: “The inquiry agrees.”
It did, however, give Hunt some credit for challenging an assumption in a later pandemic planning test, 2016’s Exercise Cygnus, that intensive care beds would be emptied to accept flu patients, saying this helped create new protocols.
David Cameron and George Osborne
The prime minister and chancellor from 2010 to 2016 crop up a few times in the report in relation to pandemic planning, but arguably their most notable contribution was one that does not really get a mention: austerity.
The document cites eloquent testimony about the much-documented ways health inequalities meant Covid affected some people and communities much more than others. It also alludes to the fact that this did not happen in a political vacuum.
The UK “entered the pandemic with its public services depleted, health improvement stalled, health inequalities increased and health among the poorest people in a state of decline”, it cites two public health experts, Clare Bambra and Michael Marmot, as telling the inquiry.
While there had been predictions that the report might note the impact of the Cameron-Osborne years in creating this, it has no mention of the word austerity, and just a single use of the word poverty.
Boris Johnson and Theresa May
Johnson, the prime minister during the pandemic, is barely mentioned in this report, and May just once. But they face strong if implicit criticism – the idea that preparations for a no-deal Brexit might have impeded pandemic planning.
The report noted evidence from witnesses who said Operation Yellowhammer, intended to mitigate the effects of a possible departure from the EU without a trade deal, took up civil contingencies resources which could have been used elsewhere.
It concluded: “The fact, however, remains that the UK government’s preparedness and resilience system was, quite evidently, under constant strain. It was reliant on stopping work on preparing for one potential emergency to concentrate on another.”
|
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dbpedia
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https://www.gov.uk/government/ministers
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Ministers
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8744
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dbpedia
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1
| 38
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https://theweek.com/news/politics/961409/covid-inquiry-what-we-have-heard-so-far
|
en
|
Covid inquiry: what we have heard so far
|
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[
"Arion McNicoll, The Week UK",
"Arion McNicoll",
"The Week UK"
] |
2023-06-28T11:12:48+00:00
|
At the Covid inquiry former health secretary Matt Hancock has given his testimony, and revelations include that the UK was ill prepared for the Covid pandemic.
|
en
|
theweek
|
https://theweek.com/news/politics/961409/covid-inquiry-what-we-have-heard-so-far
|
Relatives of those who died during the Covid-19 pandemic turned their backs on Matt Hancock as he arrived to give his testimony at the Covid inquiry.
Some shouted “killer” at the former health secretary, who made his appearance during the second week of the witness stage of the public inquiry, which comes as part of a wider investigation into the UK’s pandemic preparedness.
Following testimony from high-profile figures including David Cameron and Chris Whitty, here are five key revelations that have emerged so far.
Social care plans were in disarray
As he arrived to give his testimony to the inquiry, grieving relatives “turned their backs on Matt Hancock”, reported the Mirror.
The former health secretary criticised the UK’s pandemic planning before Covid, saying it was “completely wrong”, and said he was “profoundly sorry” for each death.
Under questioning, Hancock revealed the scale of under-preparedness in social care for a pandemic, which he described as “terrible”. He admitted his department did not have in place a “single coherent plan” to identify vulnerable users of social care and there was insufficient national guidance for pandemic preparedness in the sector.
Former head of Public Health England, Duncan Selbie, later admitted to the inquiry: “Social care was just not on our radar…there’s no getting away from that.”
Was the UK preparing for ‘wrong type of pandemic’?
In his appearance at the inquiry, David Cameron was asked whether his government had adequately prepared the health system to be able to deal with the full range of possible pandemics.
The former prime minister “faced an hour-long grilling”, said The Independent, as he became the first politician to appear before the inquiry.
In his testimony, Cameron, who was PM between 2010 and 2016, admitted that it was a “mistake” for his government to have focussed too heavily on preparations for a flu pandemic rather than one like Covid-19.
He acknowledged that he had “regret” that “more questions weren’t asked about the sort of pandemic that we faced”, one of asymptomatic, highly infectious transmission like Covid.
‘Ready for flu, ready for anything’ was ‘incorrect’
The permanent secretary of the health and social care department since 2016, Chris Wormald, told the inquiry that the government’s pandemic planning had been affected by the incorrect assumption that if they were preparing for influenza pandemics, such as swine or bird flu, they were adequately addressing the biggest potential threat.
“The approach taken was ‘ready for flu, ready for anything’”, Wormald said, but added that this “may have been incorrect… The thinking at the time was, you made a plan for influenza as the most likely risk and is still one of the most dangerous risks and then you adapted that plan. That is thinking that we have moved on from.”
However, in his testimony Wormald also “denied that there was ever a national shortage of PPE”, the Daily Mail said.
The impact of austerity
George Osborne, the chancellor under David Cameron, “disputed allegations from medics and unions that his cuts left health and social care depleted”, Sky News said.
Dame Jenny Harries, the chief executive of the UK Health Security Agency, told the inquiry that cuts to local government funding in the years before the pandemic put public health services under “significant pressure”.
During his appearance, however, Osborne said he did not accept the assertion that “the consequences of austerity were a depleted health and social care capacity and rising inequality in the UK”. Rather, he suggested that without his cuts, Britain “would have been more exposed, not just to future things like the coronavirus pandemic but indeed to the fiscal crisis which very rapidly followed in countries across Europe”.
Osborne insisted that the policy of austerity “had a material and positive effect on the UK’s ability to respond to the Covid pandemic”.
Could lockdown have been avoided?
Current chancellor and the health secretary between 2012 and 2018, Jeremy Hunt said that by the time testing and isolation was considered for Covid, transmission rates were too high, so lockdown became the only viable option.
“Had we got on the case much earlier with that approach, we might have avoided that,” Hunt claimed.
Lessons were not learned from South Korea, he told the inquiry, which devised its own response to the Covid pandemic in response to an outbreak of Mers, another coronavirus, in 2015. Consequently, it had taken greater steps to slow down Covid when it emerged.
South Korea, Hunt told the inquiry, “did not have a lockdown in the first year of the pandemic”. Failing to learn from East Asia was a “blind spot”, he said.
|
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8744
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dbpedia
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0
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https://www.politico.eu/person/matt-hancock/
|
en
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Matt Hancock – POLITICO
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Matt Hancock MP has been Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport since January 2018. Before that, he was Minister of State for Digital from July 2016 to January 2018. Hancock entered government in September 2012 and has served in a number of Ministerial Roles, including for skills and business, and as Paymaster General. He oversaw the expansion of apprenticeships and championed the digital transformation of government. He was elected Member of the Parliament for West Suffolk in the 2010 general election where he served as a backbencher on the Public Accounts Committee and the Standards & Privileges Committee. Before entering politics, he worked as an economist at the Bank of England, and as Chief of Staff to the Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer. Hancock holds degrees from Oxford and Cambridge Universities.
|
en
|
https://www.politico.eu/wp-content/themes/politico/assets/images/favicon/favicon.ico
|
POLITICO
|
https://www.politico.eu/person/matt-hancock/
|
From ULEZ to fuckpigs: Westminster’s words of 2023
The POLITICO English dictionary rounds up the words that entered the British political lexicon in the past year — for better or worse.
Rishi Sunak resists Boris Johnson pile-on at COVID inquiry
The UK prime minister faces difficult questions over the push to reopen Britain’s pandemic-ravaged economy.
Boris at the COVID inquiry: Key flashpoints
From the speed of lockdowns to a macho culture in Downing Street, Britain’s former prime minister faced a two-day grilling.
Matt Hancock’s cringe COVID inquiry grilling
From accidentally declaring a mayor dead to chummy texts with Boris Johnson, it was a fierce two-day grilling at the UK pandemic inquiry for the former health secretary.
British state ‘surprisingly bad’ at responding to COVID-19, inquiry hears
Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty blames sluggish government machine for U.K.’s pandemic failings.
Nigel Farage braves snakes and mud pits in ‘I’m a Celebrity’ jungle debut
The former Brexit Party leader was mostly untroubled by the reptiles
Nigel Farage set for testicle-chomping ‘I’m A Celebrity’ reality show
The former MEP wants to show he’s ‘not nasty’ — and might have to chomp animal appendages to do so.
Rishi Sunak’s Cabinet reshuffle: Every big move
It’s not just David Cameron. POLITICO runs through the key appointments so far as the UK prime minister shakes up his Cabinet.
Suella Braverman is the most hated woman in British politics — and far nicer than you think
The UK home secretary is a bundle of contradictions. She might just be the next Tory leader, too.
Britain’s COVID-19 inquiry exposes the rot at the heart of Whitehall
Beyond the sweary WhatsApp messages lies a deeper British malaise.
Boris Johnson asked scientists if COVID could be killed by hairdryer up nose, ex-aide claims
COVID-19 inquiry hears latest claim from Johnson’s aide-turned-nemesis Dominic Cummings.
Cabinet of ‘fuckpigs’ and a team with ‘no plan’: 9 Boris bombshells from the UK’s COVID inquiry
Dominic Cummings and Lee Cain’s evidence rocked Westminster Tuesday.
Useless fuckpigs: How Dominic Cummings described Boris Johnson’s Cabinet
Sweary WhatsApp exchanges shed light on chaotic running of Downing Street during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Nigel Farage says he’ll be fine in reality TV jungle after dealing with EU ‘snakes’
Brexiteer ‘seriously’ considering a stint on ‘I’m A Celebrity … Get Me Out Of Here.’
Westminster’s most gruesome rivalries
POLITICO celebrates Halloween with a spook-tacular guide to the SW1 feuds that just won’t stay in the grave.
Top civil servant’s damning verdict on Boris Johnson
‘The team can’t deliver anything under these circumstances,’ message from Simon Case reads.
Rishi Sunak is attempting a leadership reset. He may be too late
The UK prime minister hopes to revive his flagging fortunes this fall with a government overhaul.
Why the UK’s economic upturn is a false dawn for the Tories
It looks like a recession is averted. But will that be enough?
The Westminster-Big Tech revolving door keeps spinning
The US tech giants’ lobbying teams include players from across the political spectrum.
Ex-UK health chief blames WHO for Britain’s lack of pandemic planning
Matt Hancock tells inquiry UK had planned for ‘the consequence of a disaster’ rather than trying to halt or mitigate one.
Every British MP suspended by their party since 2019
Westminster’s unwanted: endless scandals in British politics mean an accidental new bloc now outnumbers the Liberal Democrats.
UK’s Matt Hancock told to say sorry after lobbying MP watchdog
Hancock breaches Commons rules by backing under-investigation MP Steve Brine.
Deputy PMQs scorecard: Please make it stop as Dowden and Rayner stand-in
Dowden and Rayner’s Wednesday parliamentary show-down was not the best advert for British politics.
|
||||
8744
|
dbpedia
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2
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https://inews.co.uk/news/matt-hancock-nhs-reform-opposition-1068228
|
en
|
Matt Hancock’s fight for control of NHS faces mounting opposition on Tory backbenches
|
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"Isabel Hardman",
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2021-06-23T18:37:01+00:00
|
The Health Secretary has come up against opposition from his own MPs, with one telling i: "Do I want the Secretary of State to have even more power? What do you think?"
|
en
|
inews.co.uk
|
https://inews.co.uk/news/matt-hancock-nhs-reform-opposition-1068228
|
Matt Hancock faces a daunting battle over controversial moves to hand himself more powers over hospitals amid opposition from within the health service and some of his own MPs.
The Health Secretary is yet to win full support from Downing Street for his reform blueprint for the National Health Service, which will be published within weeks, i understands.
A key element of the planned Health and Care Bill will return control over NHS England and its associated bodies to Mr Hancock and his successors.
The politically charged move sets the scene for parliamentary skirmishes reminiscent of the storm which engulfed David Cameron’s government when it overhauled the NHS a decade ago.
The issue has been given an added edge by the multiple questions facing Mr Hancock over his handling of the nation’s response to the coronavirus crisis.
“If you look at what’s gone well and badly in the pandemic, then Hancock was responsible for testing, PPE, social care. What was the NHS responsible for? Making sure people got the care they needed and the roll-out of the vaccination programme,” a Whitehall source told i.
Although Mr Hancock has strong personal support from some of his backbenchers following the recent attacks on him by Dominic Cummings, other MPs raised fears over the wisdom of the move.
And multiple sources told i that Number 10 is not fully behind the reforms in their current form.
A senior Tory said: “None of us can work out why Matt wants all these powers. He doesn’t seem to realise that with great power comes great responsibility. He’ll get to boss people around more. But he’ll also get the blame when things go wrong.”
Another MP said: “Do I want the Secretary of State to have even more power? What do you think? Why are they overhauling the NHS right now? It’s going to take up so much time and energy when my constituents are sitting on waiting lists. What are they thinking?”
Other Conservative MPs said the Health Secretary’s position had grown since he was targeted for bitter criticism last month by Boris Johnson’s former chief adviser, Dominic Cummings.
“He is very active on WhatsApp. If someone says on WhatsApp that they have a problem with a local health issue he is always very responsive even though he is Secretary of State,” a former minister said.
The Commons health committee has said it welcomed the “direction of travel” proposed in the reforms, but said there was not “adequate detail on how the new powers proposed for the Secretary of State will be used”.
It added: “Nor does it set out the necessary safeguards to ensure that the powers do not open the door to the politicisation of the NHS.”
The Cameron government provoked a storm ten years ago when the former Health Secretary Andrew Lansley pushed through a major NHS reorganisation – even though the plans were not mentioned in the Tory manifesto.
One Whitehall figure has warned the new legislation could become “Lansley mark two”, referring to the battles endured by Lord Lansley to get his plans through Parliament.
What is included in the proposed reforms?
Powers for ministers
The Health Secretary’s authority over the health service, which was given day-to-day independence nine years ago, will increase. The Bill will grant ministers the powers to issue orders to NHS England and to block changes to the configuration of local hospitals.
Mr Hancock told MPs earlier this year that clinical decisions should be independent, but said that “when the NHS is the public’s top domestic priority” and “when the quality of our healthcare matters to every single citizen and every one of our constituents, the NHS must be accountable to ministers”.
Better integration of health and care
Ensuring hospitals, GPs, home care and care homes, community health services, and mental health services work more closely together through an Integrated Care System (IGC) in every part of England. The Government says it is removing “transactional bureaucracy” and patients are being given a statutory right to choose their treatment.
Restructuring the NHS
The IGCs will replace the clinical commissioning groups set up to buy care under the 2012 reforms. Hospitals, GPs and councils will sit on their boards.
Collaboration
NHS organisations will have a statutory duty to collaborate as rules requiring the competitive tendering of contracts are ditched.
Public health
A 9pm watershed will be introduced for television advertisements for food and drinks high in fat, sugar and salt from next April, along with a total online ban. Firms with more than 250 employees will also be forced to list calories on the food they serve.
Ministers will gain the powers to order that food packets carry health warnings.
Safety
The Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch will gain legal powers. It investigates healthcare incidents and “the most serious patient safety risks”.
|
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8744
|
dbpedia
|
1
| 43
|
https://www.suffolknews.co.uk/bury-st-edmunds/news/political-figures-across-suffolk-react-to-david-cameron-s-re-9340943/
|
en
|
Political figures across Suffolk, including Dan Poulter, Matt Hancock and Cliff Waterman, react to David Cameron’s appointment as Foreign Secretary
|
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2023-11-21T15:51:58+00:00
|
Political figures across Suffolk have had their say on the shock appointment of David Cameron as Foreign Secretary.
|
en
|
/favicon.ico
|
Suffolk News
|
https://www.suffolknews.co.uk/bury-st-edmunds/news/political-figures-across-suffolk-react-to-david-cameron-s-re-9340943/
|
Political figures across Suffolk have had their say on the shock appointment of David Cameron as Foreign Secretary.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak appointed now Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton to the Foreign Office in the wake of the sacking of Suella Braverman and the subsequent move to the Home Office of James Cleverly.
Cameron had not been involved in front-line politics for over seven years, vacating 10 Downing Street after the European Referendum, in which he strongly campaigned for the UK to remain.
Political figures in Suffolk have reacted with a mix of happiness, disapproval and somewhat bemusement at his return.
Dr Dan Poulter, MP for Central Suffolk and North Ipswich, entered parliament when Cameron was first elected as Prime Minister, and said of his former leader: “I welcome David Cameron’s return to Government.
“At a time of unprecedented international turbulence with the terrorist acts of Hamas against innocent Israelis, an emerging humanitarian crisis in Gaza, and the ongoing war in Ukraine, we now have an internationally respected statesman as Foreign Secretary and there are very few people who could be better qualified to lead Britain's diplomatic efforts than Lord Cameron.”
Dr. Poulter also served in Cameron’s government, as a Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health Services.
Cliff Waterman, leader of West Suffolk Council, said that a comedy outfit was now running our country, thought that serious questions needed to be asked of the appointment and questioned Cameron’s integrity after the Greensill scandal.
He said: “When the government appoints a failed leader it’s not a good look – it shows that Rishi Sunak is very weak.
“Obviously there’s the Greensill scandal as well which begs a question of integrity, but also what is his opinion on the EU; he campaigned in favour of staying in, but those who voted for Boris Johnson at the last election are very much against links with Europe.
“There are so many things going wrong across the country; just look here in West Suffolk we’ve got a terrible potholes problem.
“There is a massive ticking time bomb, we just need an election, get this government out and have a fresh start.”
“We’ve got a comedy outfit running our country – bring on the next general election.”
Cllr Waterman also mentioned that, whilst the West Suffolk area is a traditionally safe Conservative area, people need to believe that changes can happen, and that Labour have a programme to revive the economy, including closing tax loopholes and planning and pension reforms.
Matt Hancock, MP for West Suffolk, was also first elected when Cameron won the keys to 10 Downing Street, and praised Rishi Sunak for the appointment in a tweet.
He said: “Brilliant decision by the PM to make David Cameron Foreign Secretary; superb for the UK – bringing his experience to guide us through difficult times.
“Excellent for the Conservatives, showing Rishi Sunak will fight the election on the centre ground – Bravo.”
Hancock served as Paymaster General in Cameron’s second government, and later played a more prominent role in the cabinet under Theresa May and Boris Johnson, serving as Culture and Health Secretary.
However, he has now had the Conservative whip removed and sits as an independent MP after appearing on I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here.
David Beavan, deputy leader of East Suffolk Council, said he thought that Cameron’s appointment was a show of desperation from the government, saying: “It’s great to see that the Tories are into recycling.
“They’re really scraping the bottom of the barrel now, they’ve run out of ideas; it’s the last throw of the dice for the government.
“I think it shows just how desperate they are – I’m looking forward to the next general election.
“They’ll be out by the next election anyways and at a local level we’re really looking forward to having a more responsible government to work with.”
Cllr Beavan stood in the 2019 parliamentary election at the South Suffolk constituency, parts of which will be transferred to the new Waveney Valley constituency, where Mid-Suffolk District Council leader Andy Mellen believes there is a real chance of putting on a show against the Conservatives.
“People I speak to are looking for someone other than the Tories to vote for, and here in the new Waveney Valley constituency, the Green candidate Adrian Ramsay is the only realistic alternative and his campaign is gathering momentum.
“Former Prime Minister David, now Lord, Cameron is someone with stature and experience, and he re-emerges onto the world stage at a time when there are a lot of big, intractable problems for him to grapple with.
“I hope he can make some positive progress with Ukraine, the Middle East and the other problems around the world.
“But beyond the current conflicts the horrific prospect of runaway climate change is looming, and here his record is not good.”
Cllr Mellen made reference to Cameron’s government in 2014 ripping up the Code for Sustainable Homes alongside other environmental regulations, which he says has led to a decade of homes being built to lower environmental standards, which costs residents more to heat and produces greater carbon emissions.
Cameron is able to serve in cabinet by virtue of Rishi Sunak giving him a peerage, which allows him to sit in the House of Lords.
Most departments of state often have a minister in them from the Lords to assist the passage of legislation, but rarely does a Secretary of State come from the Lords nowadays, with the last instance of this being Nicky Morgan’s spell as culture secretary from 2019 to 2020.
The last time the Foreign Secretary came from the Lords was Lord Carrington between 1979 and 1982, under Margaret Thatcher.
Jack Abbott, Labour MP candidate for Ipswich, believes Cameron’s appointment represents a lack of commitment to change, saying: “Bringing back David Cameron puts to bed any laughable notion that Rishi Sunak will offer any sort of change after 13 years of Conservative failure.
"Over the last few years we've seen a revolving door of Prime Ministers, and dozens upon dozens of Conservative MPs have played pass the parcel with crucially important jobs.
"While they must think some sort of game, their lack of seriousness and total incompetence has led to a cost of living crisis and our public services being pushed to breaking point. No wonder our country is in such a mess.
"We don't need another merry-go-round from the Conservatives. We need a completely fresh start with a Labour government which will get our future back."
It is expected the next general election will be held at some point around autumn 2024.
MPs Dr Therese Coffey and Jo Churchill were approached for comment.
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Cabinet Office sheds more light on Matt Hancock's role
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2020-06-24T21:26:36
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New Minister for the Cabinet Office Matt Hancock will have the same responsibilities as his predecessor Francis Maude, the Cabinet Office conf...
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/_img/_favicons/apple-touch-icon.png
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Civil Service World
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https://www.civilserviceworld.com/professions/article/cabinet-office-sheds-more-light-on-matt-hancocks-role
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Matt Hancock will have "overall responsibility for the policy and work" of the Cabinet Office but is not a full Cabinet minister, the government has confirmed, as more details on his role emerged this afternoon.
The new minister for the Cabinet Office, who replaces Francis Maude, was appointed yesterday as David Cameron put the finishing touches to his ministerial team following the Conservatives' general election victory.
There was some confusion yesterday over the precise role former business minister Hancock would play, when Cameron announced that Oliver Letwin – previously minister for policy in the Cabinet Office – would now be in "overall charge" of the department, a responsibility which previously fell to Maude. It has now emerged that Hancock will have the same policy remit as his predecessor, but will report to Oliver Letwin.
Related articles
Who is Matt Hancock, the new man in charge of civil service reform?
Francis Maude out as minister for the Cabinet Office as Matt Hancock takes the reins
What does the 2015 Conservative manifesto mean for the civil service?
A description of Hancock's role provided by the Cabinet Office today in an updated ministerial profile matches that previously given to Maude, and includes responsibility for the civil service; public sector efficiency and reform; public sector industrial relations; government transparency; cyber security; and civil society.
The Cabinet Office this afternoon confirmed to CSW that while Hancock will be Cabinet-attending, he is a minister of state, with Letwin serving as the full Cabinet minister for the department.
Letwin, who continues as chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster – a largely ceremonial title – now starts work in his first full Cabinet post. A Tory MP since 1997, he served as a key behind-the-scenes player in the previous government, overseeing initiatives including the new network of 'What Works' research centres to support evidence-based policy.
There has been further reaction to Hancock's appointment since it was announced yesterday, with the Reform think tank this afternoon saying the new minister had taken on "one of the toughest jobs in government".
"Whitehall shrugged off Francis Maude's reform plan with ease," Reform's deputy director Richard Harries said. "The challenge now is to restart that process, build on the more successful elements like mutualisation, and continue to drive out efficiencies across departments."
Dave Penman of the FDA union meanwhile called on Hancock to demonstrate "clear vision" of how the Conservatives' plans for an estimated £30bn of public spending cuts would be met, warning that the civil service "cannot simply be treated as a tool for deficit reduction".
He added: "If it is to be smaller but more able, the government needs to outline how it will provide civil servants with the recognition, reward and resources they need to deliver the services the public expects.”
The prime minister chaired the first meeting of his new-look Cabinet this morning, announcing that he would be putting two bills – one lowering the benefit cap to £23,000 per year to fund apprenticeships and one doubling the amount of free childcare people are entitled to – at the heart of the first Queen's Speech of the parliament.
Meanwhile, Cabinet secretary Jeremy Heywood has said it will be "business as usual" for the civil service following the election of the new government.
In a post on his GOV.UK blog, Heywood said Whitehall stood "ready to support and implement the policies of the incoming administration", and praised the civil service for its "professionalism, integrity and impartiality" during the election campaign.
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https://www.channel4.com/news/factcheck/factcheck-qa-the-gaps-in-britains-lobbying-laws
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FactCheck Q&A: the gaps in Britain’s lobbying laws – Channel 4 News
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2021-04-14T18:06:59+01:00
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Campaigners say David Cameron’s activities prove that UK law on lobbying is not fit for purpose.
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Channel 4 News
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https://www.channel4.com/news/factcheck/factcheck-qa-the-gaps-in-britains-lobbying-laws
|
Former prime minister David Cameron insists he did not break any rules when he lobbied the government on behalf of the financial services company Greensill Capital.
Campaigners say the law on how businesses and others get access to UK government ministers is not fit for purpose.
What did David Cameron do?
The former Conservative prime minister started working for Greensill Capital in 2018 as a “part-time senior advisor”. The finance firm’s founder Lex Greensill had been an unpaid advisor to Mr Cameron’s government.
Last year, Mr Cameron texted the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, on the subject of whether Greensill would get access to emergency government Covid loans. It has also emerged that a private drink took place between Mr Cameron, Health Secretary Matt Hancock and Lex Greensill in 2019.
In the end, Greensill was not given money through the Covid Corporate Financing Facility. The company collapsed into insolvency in March this year.
Mr Cameron said in a statement that he was “breaking no codes of conduct and no government rules” in making representations to the UK government on Greensill’s behalf.
But he added: “As a former prime minister, I accept that communications with government need to be done through only the most formal of channels, so there can be no room for misinterpretation.”
The current Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, has launched an independent investigation into the affair.
What are the rules on lobbying?
Mr Cameron’s government passed the Transparency of Lobbying, Non-Party Campaigning and Trade Union Administration Act 2014, four years after he gave a speech predicting that lobbying would be the “next big scandal”.
There was strong criticism of the new law at the time from MPs across all parties, transparency campaigners and the lobbying industry.
Campaigners now say that Mr Cameron’s recent activities prove that the scope of the legislation was not wide enough.
The current system states that only “consultant lobbyists” need to register their activities.
That means that someone who works in-house to advance the interests of their company or organisation – as Mr Cameron accepts he did – does not have to register.
The Registrar of Consultant Lobbyists has already investigated the ex-PM’s conduct and confirmed that he was not required to register with them.
It raises obvious questions about how much lobbying is captured by the current transparency rules.
In 2015 Transparency International UK found that the then-new register only covered about 4 per cent of lobbyists, since the vast majority are not external consultants but work in-house.
There are other loopholes. Campaigners say external lobbyists could also conceivably work behind the scenes to help clients approach politicians – drafting letters or coaching executives on what to say – without declaring their activities.
And the 2014 Act defines lobbying very narrowly as a personal approach to a government minister or senior civil servant. Communication with an MP who is not a minister would not fall under the scope of the law.
What about ministerial meetings?
In theory, it should be possible to see which companies are meeting government ministers directly without using third-party lobbyists, thanks to separate transparency data published by the Cabinet Office.
Physical meetings and telephone calls are recorded here, but not texts or other messages. And the descriptions of what is discussed in the meetings are generally bland and uninformative.
It’s clear that not all communication between in-house lobbyists and ministers is published. The details of Mr Cameron’s communications with Mr Sunak and others only came to light because of newspaper investigations.
What happens in other countries?
Notably, Canada and the United States have much stricter lobbying rules. Both countries require many more lobbyists, both consultants and in-house employees, to register with the authorities.
In the US, companies are required to declare much they spend on lobbying politicians, and databases like OpenSecrets.org publish the details.
This exercise could not be replicated in Britain due to lack of transparency on how much money is spent on lobbying.
The US also has strict legislation governing lobbyists who act on behalf of foreign countries, whereas this is largely unregulated in the UK.
Is foreign influence a problem?
There is no British equivalent of America’s Foreign Agents Registration Act, which requires lobbyists working for clients overseas to make disclosures about their activities.
Little information is available on how foreign countries, some of them considered hostile to Britain’s interests, might seek to influence parliamentarians.
Last year, the Intelligence and Security Committee’s Russia Report stated that public relations professionals in the UK play a role “in the extension of Russian influence which is often linked to promoting the nefarious interests of the Russian state”.
The current legislation does not require foreign entities who hire lobbyists to register with the UK authorities.
There is no way of knowing how much foreign entities spend on lobbying in the UK, although figures from the US would suggest that some states spend considerable amounts of money promoting their interests in western countries.
Bob Seeley, a Conservative MP who wrote a report on foreign lobbying for the Henry Jackson Society think tank in February, told FactCheck: “If you compare how much companies need to declare in the US versus how little they do in the UK, then either it’s not happening here, which is difficult to believe, or it’s happening a lot, but we don’t know about it.
“Right now, we are an influence peddler’s paradise.
“We badly need a similar type of legislation to that the United States and Australia have. The US has had foreign lobbying legislation since 1938, to protect against covert Nazi influence and Australia has had theirs for a few years to help prevent undue Chinese influence, although they don’t refer to specific countries.”
The UK government has repeatedly said it is considering whether to follow allies like the US and Australia in adopting a foreign agent registration system.
Today a Home Office spokesperson told FactCheck: “The Government will introduce a foreign agent registration scheme as part of forthcoming legislation to counter hostile activity by states.
“This follows consideration of similar laws in like-minded countries including the US and Australia.”
The verdict
David Cameron’s activities are still under investigation, but the Registrar of Consultant Lobbyists has already said he was not required to register with the authorities as a lobbyist.
Campaigners say the affair proves current transparency rules are full of holes: a former prime minister was able to get direct access to senior ministers on behalf of a company without having to declare his activities.
Politicians from across the House of Commons have called for an overhaul of the current system. And some of the strongest calls for tighter legislation come from the lobbying industry itself.
Rachael Clamp, Chair of the Public Affairs Group at the Chartered Institute of Public Relations, said: “The attempt to build public trust through more transparency doesn’t work if the majority of lobbying is unseen. Under the legislation, ironically passed by the Cameron government, it is too difficult for the public to ever find out about lobbying activity such as this. What has come to light, in this case, serves to highlight how inadequate the legislation is.
“We are happy to call for the widening of the regulations on behalf of the industry to include all lobbying activity because failing to do so does more damage to the important work of lobbyists who, once again, are not involved in a lobbying scandal.”
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Matt Hancock
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Matthew John David Hancock (born 2 October 1978) is a British politician who served as Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General from 2015 to 2016, Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport from January to July 2018, and Secretary of State for Health and Social Care...
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Worldwide Politics Wiki
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https://worldwide-politics.fandom.com/wiki/Matt_Hancock
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Matthew John David Hancock (born 2 October 1978) is a British politician who served as Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General from 2015 to 2016, Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport from January to July 2018, and Secretary of State for Health and Social Care from 2018 to 2021. He was Member of Parliament (MP) for West Suffolk from 2010 to 2024. He is a member of the Conservative Party.
Hancock was born in Cheshire, with his family running a software business. He studied a BA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) at Exeter College, Oxford, and an MPhil in Economics at Christ's College, Cambridge. He was an economist at the Bank of England before serving as a senior economic adviser and later chief of staff to MP, George Osborne. Hancock was first elected as MP for West Suffolk at the 2010 general election.
Once in Parliament, Hancock served as a junior minister at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills from 2012 to 2015, and was the United Kingdom Anti-Corruption Champion from 2014 to 2015. He attended David Cameron's cabinet as Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General from 2015 to 2016. After Theresa May became prime minister following Cameron's resignation, Hancock was moved to the post of Minister of State for Digital and Culture. He was promoted to May's cabinet as Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. In July 2018, after the promotion of Jeremy Hunt to Foreign Secretary, Hancock replaced him as Secretary of State for Health and Social Care. After May's resignation, Hancock stood in the Conservative Party leadership election to replace her, but withdrew shortly after the first ballot and subsequently endorsed Boris Johnson. After Johnson became prime minister, Hancock retained his position as health secretary in his cabinet.
Hancock's tenure as health secretary was marked by the COVID-19 pandemic, which he played a prominent role in the UK government's response to. Hancock oversaw efforts to procure PPE, but the absence of a competitive tendering process for the award of some contracts proved controversial. He expanded COVID-19 testing and tracing, and also oversaw the early stage of the UK's COVID-19 vaccination programme. In June 2021, it was shown that he had breached COVID-19 social distancing restrictions by kissing and embracing Gina Coladangelo in his office. Coladangelo was at that time a director at the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), and Hancock was having an extramarital affair with her. Following this controversy, Hancock resigned as health secretary and returned to the backbenches. He was succeeded by Sajid Javid.
In November 2022, Hancock had the whip suspended after announcing he would be appearing as a contestant in the twenty-second series of the survival reality television show I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!, in which he finished in third place. He stood down as an MP at the 2024 general election.
Early life and education[]
Matthew Hancock was born on 2 October 1978 in Chester, Cheshire, to Michael Hancock and Shirley Hills. Hancock has an older sister and a brother.
Hancock attended Farndon County Primary School, in Farndon, Cheshire, and the fee-paying King's School, Chester. He took A-levels in Maths, Physics, Computing, and Economics. He later studied computing at the further education college, West Cheshire College. Hancock then studied at Exeter College, Oxford, and graduated with a first in Philosophy, Politics and Economics, and later earned a MPhil degree in Economics at Christ's College, Cambridge. He was diagnosed with dyslexia at university. Hancock became a member of the Conservative Party in 1999.
Early career[]
After university, Hancock briefly worked for his family's computer software company, Border Business Systems, and for a backbench Conservative MP, before moving to London to work as an economist at the Bank of England, specialising in the housing market. In 2005, he was an economic adviser to the Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, later becoming Osborne's chief of staff.
Parliamentary career[]
Hancock was selected as the Conservative candidate for West Suffolk in January 2010. He narrowly won the contest, defeating Natalie Elphicke (a solicitor who later became MP for Dover), by 88 votes to 81 in the final ballot. At the 2010 general election, Hancock was elected as MP for West Suffolk with 50.6% of the vote and a majority of 13,050.
In June 2010, Hancock was elected to the Public Accounts Committee. He served on this committee until November 2012. Hancock also served on the Standards and Privileges Committee from October 2010 to December 2012.
In 2011, Hancock became a member of the Free Enterprise Group, a group of Thatcherite Conservatives co-founded by Liz Truss. In January 2013, he was accused of dishonesty by Daybreak presenter, Matt Barbet, after claiming he had been excluded from a discussion about apprentices after turning up "just 30 seconds late". Hancock acknowledged on social media that he was running late, but said he turned up ahead of time for the interview and was unfairly blocked from going on set by producers. Barbet said Hancock knew he was "much more than a minute late" and he should have arrived half an hour beforehand to prepare for the interview.
In October 2013, Hancock joined the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills as the Minister of State for Skills and Enterprise.
In June 2014, Hancock, in his role as a minister, encouraged employers to become involved in offering more apprenticeships, allowing young people to learn and earn simultaneously.
On 15 July 2014, Hancock was appointed to the position of Minister of State for Business and Enterprise. On 27 July, he announced protection from fracking for National Parks, seen as a method of reducing anger in Conservative constituencies ahead of the election. Interviewed on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme, he rejected the suggestion that fracking was highly unpopular but he was unable to name any village that backed it.
Hancock served as Minister of State for Energy from 2014 to 2015. In this role he was criticised for hiring a private jet with senior diplomatic officials to fly back from a climate conference in Aberdeen, where he signed a deal with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto to use British expertise in Mexico. A Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) spokesman said the chartered flight was organised to fit around diary commitments, and the conference was not about climate change, but it was a visit to a university and discussion about investment. Hancock was later criticised for accepting money from a key backer of climate change denial organisation, Global Warming Policy Foundation.
In October 2014, he apologised after retweeting a poem suggesting that the Labour Party was "full of queers", describing his actions as a "total accident".
At the 2015 general election, Hancock was re-elected as MP for West Suffolk with an increased vote share of 52.2% and an increased majority of 14,984.
Hancock became Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General on 11 May 2015. Hancock launched a new social mobility drive to promote diversity within the civil service, outlining his vision in a speech in February 2016. He led David Cameron's "earn or learn" taskforce which aimed to have every young person working or studying from April 2017. He announced that jobless 18 to 21-year-olds would be required to do work experience as well as looking for jobs, or face losing their benefits.
In the 2016 UK referendum on EU membership, Hancock supported the UK remaining within the EU.
Hancock was again re-elected at the snap 2017 general election with an increased vote share of 61.2% and an increased majority of 17,063. He was again re-elected at the 2019 general election with an increased vote share of 65.8% and an increased majority of 23,194.
Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport[]
Hancock moved to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport as the Minister of State for Digital and Culture on 15 July 2016 after Theresa May became Prime Minister. As minister for digital policy, Hancock in June 2017 recommitted to a "full fibre" digital policy. This promised that 97% of the UK would enjoy "superfast broadband" at speeds of at least 24 megabits per second by 2020.
In August 2017, Hancock oversaw the strengthening of UK data protection law. As Digital Minister he announced people would have more control over their personal data and be better protected in the digital age.
On 8 January 2018, Hancock was appointed Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport in Theresa May's 2018 cabinet reshuffle, succeeding Karen Bradley. On his first day in the role he criticised the BBC for the amounts of pay its foreign journalists received, and said that some men at the corporation were paid "far more than equivalent public servants".
In early 2018, Hancock was the first MP to launch his own mobile app, eponymously named the "Matt Hancock MP App", which functioned as a social network for him to communicate with his constituents and give people updates in relation to his cabinet role. The head of privacy rights group Big Brother Watch called the app a "fascinating comedy of errors", after the app was found to collect its users' photographs, friend details, check-ins, and contact information. Hancock said his app collected data once consent was granted by the user. The app was eventually shut down at the beginning of 2023.
In May 2018, as Media Secretary, Hancock confirmed the highest stake on fixed odds betting terminals would be cut to £2, after Prime Minister May sided with him over the issue.
Secretary of State for Health and Social Care[]
May Ministry[]
Following Jeremy Hunt's appointment as Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, Hancock was appointed Secretary of State for Health and Social Care for England on 9 July 2018.
In November 2018, Hancock was criticised after appearing to endorse a mobile phone health app marketed by the subscription health service company Babylon in the Evening Standard. Babylon allegedly sponsored the newspaper article. The Labour MP Justin Madders wrote to Theresa May accusing Hancock of repeatedly endorsing the products of a company that receives NHS funds for patients it treats, which contravenes ministerial guidelines. The ministerial code includes that ministers should not "normally accept invitations to act as patrons of, or otherwise offer support to, pressure groups or organisations dependent in whole or in part on Government funding".
In April 2019, Hancock, who had previously said the NHS would face "no privatisation on my watch", was criticised by Labour for allowing 21 NHS contracts worth £127 million to be tendered.
2019 Conservative Party leadership candidacy[]
After Theresa May announced her intention to resign as Prime Minister on 24 May 2019, Hancock announced his intention to stand for the Conservative Party leadership. During this campaign, Hancock opposed the prorogation of Parliament to deliver Brexit and called on his fellow leadership candidates to join him on 6 June 2019. He proposed a televised debate with other candidates. He withdrew from the race on 14 June shortly after winning only twenty votes on the first ballot. Following his withdrawal, he endorsed Boris Johnson for the role.
Early Johnson premiership[]
Hancock continued in his role as Health Secretary in Prime Minister Boris Johnson's cabinet. He supported the prorogation of parliament in 2019 by Johnson which he had previously opposed while running for the Conservative leadership. On 24 September the Supreme Court ruled that the prorogation was unlawful.
In a September 2019 Channel 4 News interview, Hancock was asked to respond to allegations that at a private lunch in 1999, Johnson had groped the leg of journalist Charlotte Edwardes under a table. Edwardes also claimed that Johnson did the same to another woman at the same private lunch. In his reply to the Channel 4 News question, Hancock said of Charlotte Edwardes, "I know Charlotte well and I entirely trust what she has to say. I know her and I know her to be trustworthy", a view shared by fellow Conservative MP Amber Rudd. Both Johnson and anonymous Downing Street officials denied the allegation.
In October 2019, Hancock was lobbied by former Prime Minister David Cameron and financier Lex Greensill to introduce a payment scheme. Hancock was implicated in the Greensill scandal as the payment scheme was later rolled out within the NHS.
In November 2019, Hancock publicly apologised to Bethany, a teenager diagnosed with autism, for being kept in solitary confinement in various psychiatric facilities. Hancock apologised "for the things that have gone wrong in her care" and said her case in particular was "incredibly difficult and complex", calling Bethany's case "heart-rending" and saying that he had insisted on "a case review of every single person in those conditions."
COVID-19 pandemic[]
On 31 January 2020, COVID-19 was confirmed to have spread to the UK. Hancock said the Government was considering "some quite significant actions that would have social and economic disruption". After the government gave strict social distancing advice which was defied by large numbers of people, Hancock took a stronger line than the prime minister on condemning those still socialising in groups and derided them as being "very selfish". The Government later implemented legislation banning such groups from forming.
On 27 March 2020, along with Boris Johnson, Hancock himself tested positive for COVID-19. He stayed in self-isolation with mild symptoms for seven days, before delivering an update on COVID-19 testing targets and on Government plans to write off £13.4 billion of NHS debt.
In April 2020, Hancock was criticised when it emerged that the target he had set for 100,000 daily COVID-19 tests had been met only by changing the method of counting, to include up to 40,000 home test kits which had been sent, but not yet completed. This change was challenged by the UK Statistics Authority and labelled a "Potemkin testing regime".
Doctors' groups maintained that they helped deliver 45,000 masks to hospitals that did not have a sufficient supply at the beginning of the pandemic and that families of healthcare workers who died from COVID-19 had expressed concerns about the protection they got. Early in the pandemic NHS staff were photographed with poorly fitting personal protective equipment (PPE) and some made improvised gowns for themselves from bin bags. Doctors and MPs criticised Hancock for denying there was a problem.
On 5 April 2020, Hancock warned that all outdoor exercise in England could be banned in response to COVID-19 if people did not follow social distancing rules. He said: "So my message is really clear. If you don't want us to have to take the step to ban exercise of all forms outside of your own home then you've got to follow the rules and the vast majority of people are following the rules."
Hancock received criticism from journalists for perceived sexism after suggesting on 5 May 2020 that Labour MP and shadow health minister Rosena Allin-Khan change the "tone" of her comments. Allin-Khan, a doctor, had stated in Parliament that a lack of testing was costing lives and Hancock suggested she should "take a leaf out of the Shadow Secretary of State's [Jonathan Ashworth's] book in terms of tone".
On 15 August 2020, The Daily Telegraph reported that Hancock was to merge Public Health England and NHS Test and Trace into a new body called the National Institute for Health Protection, modelled on the Robert Koch Institute. The new body, renamed as the UK Health Security Agency, was set up before autumn amid "a feared surge in coronavirus cases".
On 11 October 2020, Hancock denied breaching a 10 pm drinking curfew in the Smoking Room bar in the House of Commons, put in place because of the pandemic. Eight days later, the Daily Mirror published a photograph of him riding in his chauffeur-driven car without wearing a mask.
On 2 December 2020, Hancock incorrectly claimed that the MHRA's fast approval of the first COVID-19 vaccine was possible because of Brexit. The MHRA stated that it had followed an expeditious procedure allowed under EU legislation which was still in force in the UK during the transition period.
In January 2021, shopping vouchers for families in need were reintroduced. On Good Morning Britain, Hancock praised the Government for reintroducing the scheme, despite being repeatedly reminded by Piers Morgan that he had opposed it in Parliament.
On 19 February 2021, after a legal challenge by the Good Law Project, a High Court judge ruled that Hancock had acted unlawfully by handing out PPE contracts without publishing details in a timely manner. A ruling released by the High Court stated: "There is now no dispute that, in a substantial number of cases, the secretary of state breached his legal obligation to publish Contract Award Notices (CANs) within 30 days of the award of contracts." The details were published within 47 days.
In April 2021, it was reported that Hancock had been given 20% of shares in Topwood Limited, a firm based in Wrexham which is owned by his sister and other close family members. The company specialises in secure storage, scanning and shredding of documents. It won a place on a "procurement framework" listing to provide services to NHS England in 2019, as well as contracts with NHS Wales. There has been no suggestion that Hancock intervened in the normal processes, and in April 2021, the company had not earned anything through the framework. Lord Geidt later produced a report on ministerial interests saying that the awarding of the contract to Topwood could be seen to "represent a conflict of interest" that should have been declared. Hancock responded by saying: "I did not know about the framework decision, and so I do not think I could reasonably have been expected to declare it."
In May 2021, the former Downing Street chief adviser Dominic Cummings claimed, "tens of thousands of people died who didn't need to die" during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic due to what he claimed to be "criminal, disgraceful behaviour" within Downing Street under the supervision of Hancock. Cummings also said that Hancock should have been fired as Health Secretary for "15 to 20" different things. Following his testimony, YouGov noted that more people in the general public thought Hancock should resign than stay in his post, despite questions over the accuracy of Cummings's statements. Prime Minister Johnson defended Hancock and his decision-making.
Over 20,000 care home residents who were elderly or disabled had died from COVID-19 in England and Wales. The High Court of Justice ruled in a case against Boris Johnson's government on 27 April 2022 that discharging people into care homes without testing them was unlawful. Lord Justice Bean and Neil Garnham ruled that the policies were not lawful since they disregarded the risk from non-symptomatic transmission of COVID-19 to elderly and vulnerable residents. The judges stated that in spite of "growing awareness" about the risk of asymptomatic transmission during March 2020, there was no evidence Hancock had taken the risk to care home residents into account. The judges stated: "The document could, for example, have said that where an asymptomatic patient (...) is admitted to a care home, he or she should, so far as practicable, be kept apart from other residents for up to 14 days. (...) there is no evidence that this question was considered by the Secretary of State."
Resignation[]
On 25 June 2021, it was revealed that Hancock had breached COVID-19 social distancing restrictions with Gina Coladangelo, an adviser in the DHSC with whom he was having an extramarital affair, after CCTV images of him kissing and embracing her in his Whitehall office on 6 May were published in The Sun newspaper. The Government's guidelines allowed intimate contact with people from a different household only from 17 May. The previous year, Hancock had failed to declare he had appointed Coladangelo as an unpaid adviser at the department and later to a paid non-executive director role on its board, for which Coladangelo would earn between £15,000 and £20,000 annually from public funds. Coladangelo became a close friend of Hancock after meeting him while they were both undergraduates at Oxford University.
Later that day on 25 June, Hancock said that he had "breached the social distancing guidelines in these circumstances" and apologised for "letting people down". Boris Johnson later said that he accepted the apology and considered the matter "closed". However, Hancock resigned on the evening of 26 June, stating "those of us who make these rules have got to stick by them", and he had not because of his "breaking the guidance". He was replaced as Health Secretary the same day by Sajid Javid.
Former Cabinet ministers Alan Johnson and Rory Stewart both said there had never been cameras in their offices during their time in Government, with Johnson saying: "I could never understand why there was a camera in the Secretary of State's office. There was never a camera in my office when I was Health Secretary or in any of the other five Cabinet positions." It was reported that the CCTV footage was leaked by a DHSC employee who opposed the Government's lockdown restrictions, and on 27 June it was confirmed that an internal investigation was undertaken by the department to find the culprit, for fear of future CCTV footage being leaked to states hostile to the UK, for the purposes of blackmail.
News of the scandal was met with a mixture of public anger and ridicule. The Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group warned that Hancock's actions could undermine adherence to COVID-19 restrictions, similar to the Dominic Cummings scandal. Amanda Milling, Co-chairman of the Conservative Party, suggested that Hancock's affair was a factor in the Conservative Party's failure to win the Batley and Spen by-election on 1 July 2021.
In July 2021, the Information Commissioner's Office established an inquiry into the leak in the CCTV images. On 29 July, the council of the second largest town in his constituency, Newmarket, passed a no-confidence vote against Hancock as its MP. Mayor Michael Jefferys cast the necessary vote to pass the motion.
According to the Independent, Hancock faced severe criticism due to a shortage of PPE in the NHS early in the pandemic, the award of contracts for supplying masks and the decision to transfer elderly patients to care homes without COVID-19 testing. Hancock defended his handling of the pandemic and stated: "We suddenly needed masses more PPE and so did everybody else in the world."
Return to the backbenches[]
On 12 October 2021, Hancock announced his appointment as the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa special representative for financial innovation and climate change, an unpaid position advising the Commission on the African economy's recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. Four days later, the United Nations announced on 16 October that the offer had been rescinded.
During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Hancock welcomed seven Ukrainian refugees into his family home in Suffolk in May 2022 through the "Homes for Ukraine" scheme.
In December 2022, he announced his intention to stand down at the 2024 general election.
In June 2023, Hancock was told to apologise to Parliament after being found to have breached the MPs Code of Conduct, by committing a “minor breach” of Commons rules by sending an unsolicited letter to the parliamentary standards commissioner in an attempt to influence the commissioner's investigation into fellow Conservative MP Steve Brine.
Pandemic Diaries[]
In April 2022, it was announced that Hancock would publish his diaries during the COVID-19 pandemic called Pandemic Diaries with Biteback Publishing, cowritten by Isabel Oakeshott. The royalties were planned to be donated to NHS charities. The book was to be released in December 2022.
The book was not based on a diary, but was written after the fact. It was based on Hancock's recollections, as well his records of communications. It dismissed allegations that moving patients into care homes caused deaths, arguing that the staff in care homes were the vector of disease. The book was also critical of Dominic Cummings.
Reviews commented that the book presented too positive an image, making Hancock seem unduly prescient with the benefit of hindsight, arguing there may be elements of revisionism.
Gaby Hinsliff reviewing in The Guardian said that there were kernels of truth about how politicians make decisions in the account but comments on how the book was written with the benefit of hindsight, allowing Hancock to make himself seem prescient. Rod Dacombe writing in the i, said that the diary was absurd and devoid of literary flair. Adam Wagner, writing in Prospect magazine, said that the book had a focus on score settling and self-aggrandisation but that there were some genuine revelations. He noted that more will be known when the UK Covid-19 Inquiry reports. Wagner argues Hancock's removal of exceptions for protest from proposed lockdown regulations on the grounds that protests could undermine public trust in measures and his criticism of protestors in the book are suggestive that protests were banned based on the political views of protestors, which Wagner thinks would likely constitute government overreach.
Oakeshott leaked some of the private WhatsApp messages she had access to in a Daily Telegraph article published in February 2023. The Telegraph published a series of articles about these leaks in a series called The Lockdown Files. One message from April 2020 suggests Hancock told aides that professor Chris Whitty had done "an "evidence review" and recommended "testing of all going into care homes, and segregation whilst awaiting result". Hancock allegedly stated this was a "good positive step". Later, Hancock allegedly stated he would rather avoid a commitment to test all people going into care homes from the community and "just commit to test & isolate ALL going into care from hospital". A spokesman for Hancock said, "These stolen messages have been doctored to create a false story that Matt rejected clinical advice on care home testing".
Appearance on I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here![]
Hancock was a contestant on the 22nd series of the reality television series I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!, filmed while Parliament was in session. An agreement was reached with the show's producers that Hancock could communicate with his constituency team throughout his time in the jungle if necessary. Explaining his decision to participate in the show, Hancock said, "I want to raise the profile of my dyslexia campaign to help every dyslexic child unleash their potential — even if it means taking an unusual route to get there, via the Australian jungle"! Hancock also explained that he was driven by the intention to display his "human side" and to use reality TV as a means to convey "important messages to the masses". It was reported that Hancock would be paid £400,000, which was "one of the largest show fees" paid to a contestant. His spokesman said that a donation would be made to St Nicholas Hospice in Suffolk and causes supporting dyslexia.
Hancock joined the show on 9 November 2022 with comedian Seann Walsh. After he entered the jungle camp, Hancock was questioned by his fellow contestants, including Charlene White, Scarlette Douglas and Babatunde Aléshé, about his time as Health Secretary. Although he expressed remorse about breaking social distancing guidelines, he pointed out that he had not broken any laws and said that he did not regret the political decisions he made during the pandemic.
On the episode aired on 16 November 2022, Hancock said that he told Boris Johnson not to run for prime minister again during the October 2022 Conservative Party leadership election, and said that former prime minister Liz Truss's political career is "totally finished" with "no ambiguity at all."
On 27 November 2022, Hancock finished in 3rd place.
Reaction[]
Within the show[]
Hancock's participation in the show was met with a mixed reaction by some of the other contestants. In the episode aired on 18 November 2022, fellow contestant Boy George said in a conversation with Seann Walsh that he found Hancock "slimy and slippery", and later told Hancock that he found it difficult to "separate" the politician from the person. Another contestant, journalist Charlene White, said she feared she would lose her job if she was too sympathetic towards Hancock.
By others[]
In response to participating in the show, the Conservative Party suspended the whip for Hancock—in effect removing him from their parliamentary group but retaining him as a party member.
On 5 November, it was reported that an online petition to stop Hancock from appearing on the show had attracted nearly 40,000 signatures. The Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice and 38 Degrees groups flew a banner over the camp which read: "Covid bereaved say get out of here!".
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who had worked with Hancock during his tenure as chancellor, said he was "disappointed" at Hancock's decision to participate in a reality television show and expressed his discomfort at the level of degradation Hancock was subjecting himself to.
Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards Kathryn Stone stated her office had received "dozens of complaints" about Hancock being on the television show. Stone said that Hancock's decision to join the show raised "important questions about members' proper activities while they're supposed to be fulfilling their parliamentary duties and representing their constituents". Ofcom received just under 2,000 complaints about the show in its first week, including complaints over his appearance on the show and complaints criticising how Hancock was treated by other contestants.
Hancock broke government rules about post-ministerial jobs by not consulting the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments before he joined the show, according to Lord Pickles, the committee chair. However, Lord Pickles advised ministers that taking action against Hancock would be disproportionate.
On 23 May 2024, Rishi Sunak restored the whip to Hancock.
Personal life[]
Hancock married Martha Hoyer Millar, an osteopath, in 2006. She is a granddaughter of the 1st Baron Inchyra. They have a daughter and two sons. Hancock forbids his children to use social media. The family lived in Little Thurlow in his West Suffolk parliamentary constituency.
In June 2021, following an affair with his political aide Gina Coladangelo, sources reported that he had left his wife for Coladangelo. Hancock confirmed he was still with Coladangelo during a conversation with Babatunde Aléshé on I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!.
Hancock lives in his constituency, and also has a flat in London.
Hancock trained as a jockey in 2012 and won a horse race in his constituency town of Newmarket. Hancock supports Newcastle United, and auctioned his "pride and joy" signed team shirt to raise money for the NHS in May 2020.
Hancock told The Guardian in 2018 that he has dyslexia, something that he said first became apparent two decades earlier while he was studying at Oxford.
On 25 January 2023, police arrested a 61-year-old man for allegedly assaulting Hancock on the London Underground.
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Profile: Matt Hancock, the Osborne acolyte who managed to survive and prosper
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This ambitious 39-year-old is grappling valiantly with the Leveson problem, and no one does a better digital transformation.
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Conservative Home
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https://conservativehome.mystagingwebsite.com/2018/05/10/profile-matt-hancock-the-osborne-acolyte-who-managed-to-survive-and-prosper/
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How did Matt Hancock survive? Indeed, this protégé of George Osborne has not merely survived the purge of the Cameroons which took place as soon as Theresa May entered Downing Street.
Hancock has prospered. Under the new regime, he has risen into the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, where he has just helped with the tricky task of defusing the Leveson problem.
At Westminster, he inspires a mixture of admiration, amusement, astonishment and frank dislike, and rival theories abound to explain how he got where he is today.
In these rough notes, no pretence is made of having penetrated to the heart of the Hancock mystery. As always, one attempts, when composing these profiles, to suggest profitable avenues of enquiry to younger and fitter students of modern politics as they set to work on their doctorates.
Hancock is a modern man, and that is one reason why he has bubbled to the surface. He has a capacity, and willingness, to express unbounded, if painfully bland enthusiasm for any modish cause – a valuable quality in a Culture Secretary.
He is particularly enthusiastic about digital transformation, and is reckoned by Whitehall warriors to have done well to keep it out of the hands of the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, where it could equally well belong.
In February he brought out the Matt Hancock app, which produced a burst of derision at his expense, with even the Prime Minister and the Chancellor of the Exchequer making jokes about it.
One of Hancock’s many useful characteristics is an ability to get people to laugh with him, rather than at him.
Beneath the laughter could be detected a note of respect. Even his critics saw the app might turn out to be something of a masterstroke, which would help him to engage with his constituents in West Suffolk, while proving that he possesses the unselfconscious egotism shared by many of the most successful users of social media.
For Hancock is exceptionally ambitious. Almost everyone who has worked with him notices this. He was recruited in May 2005 by George Osborne, who at the age of 33 had become, in the last months of Michael Howard’s leadership of the Conservative Party, Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, and was putting together a team of high-grade advisers.
Hancock was born in 1978 in Cheshire, where his parents ran a software company which nearly went bankrupt. As he later recalled:
“I was deeply affected by the recession of the early Nineties, when my family business was days away from going under and it was not only my parents’ jobs that were on the line but the 30 or so people who they employed, and every day we waited for the key cheque to come in, and our house was on the line, and eventually it did — and that was seared across my soul.”
He was sent to King’s School Chester, an ancient independent foundation, read PPE at Exeter College, Oxford, took an M Phil in Economics at Christ’s College, Cambridge, and obtained a job at the Bank of England.
Such a record might suggest an interest in a career as an economist, or a backroom boy. But Hancock soon demonstrated he was more interested in power, and in becoming a practical politician, than in economic theory.
He was a founder member of the “small, merry band” round Osborne, which soon included Rupert Harrison and Rohan Silva. At the end of 2005, David Cameron was elected as the new Conservative leader and instituted an ambitious programme of modernisation.
Hancock became Osborne’s chief of staff, sat with Ed Llewellyn (who played the same role for Cameron) in the room between their bosses’ rooms, attended the morning meetings in Cameron’s room and the preparation sessions for Prime Minister’s Questions.
“He was there throughout,” a Cameroon says. “He really was part of the gang.” A shadow minister of those years, pursuing a less gilded path, recalls:
“I knew him as one of the SpAds who wanted more power than shadow ministers. If Matt said something, it was his master’s voice. It carried more authority than, say, Hugo Swire.”
A mandarin who saw much of him at this period found him “slightly less charming in the privacy of Whitehall” than in public encounters:
“I have to say I never took to the man. Clearly able in a Bank of England sort of way. But devoid of principle, transparently ambitious and pleased with himself beyond measure.”
Another observer recalls Hancock at one of the late-night receptions at the Conservative Party Conference, spotting Andrew Neil entering the room, and immediately abandoning the two women to whom he was talking in order to go and meet the great journalist.
For the 2010 election, Hancock was anxious to find a safe parliamentary seat, and in January of that year he gained selection for West Suffolk, defeating Natalie Elphicke by 88 votes to 81 in the final round, and also beating Sam Gyimah, Sheila Lawlor, Lucille Nicholson and Anthony Frieze.
In George Osborne: The Austerity Chancellor, published in 2012, Janan Ganesh expounded the difference between Hancock and Harrison, who took over as Osborne’s chief of staff and was already the main source of economic advice to him:
“Hancock and Harrison have similarly powerful minds but quite distinct personalities. In many ways, Hancock resembles Osborne… He has a pitiless focus on the political bottom line and a pugnacious approach to his Labour opponents. His Threadneedle erudition vies with a more martial spirit, and does not always win. Harrison, for all that he has been politicised by years of Osborne’s tutelage, remains an economist who does politics rather than a political operator who also knows about economics.”
Before long, in September 2012, Hancock climbed onto the lowest rung of the ministerial ladder, becoming Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Skills in the same reshuffle which saw Sajid Javid and Esther McVeigh enter the Government.
Hancock, under Osborne’s patronage, was clearly a rising star, and was interviewed for The Spectator by James Forsyth:
“When I ask how he responds to the criticism that today’s Tory party is full of career politicians who have little experience outside politics and are too young, he replies: ‘Well, I remind people that Winston Churchill is widely regarded as one of the finest statesmen our country has ever seen … and likewise William Pitt became prime minister in his twenties, and both of these men achieved great heights over their careers.’ I’m tempted to suggest that this means that Hancock is running behind schedule, but think better of it.
“There is another figure from the Tory pantheon with whom Hancock feels a special connection. ‘I have a huge affinity for Disraeli, not least because I come from a provincial background and I went to the local village school and have arrived latterly in Westminster where I’m trying to ….’ At this point I feel obliged to interrupt; the idea that this Oxford PPE graduate is some kind of outsider seems a bit much. My response prompts a flash of anger from Hancock: ‘I worked bloody hard to get there,’ he snaps.”
These are exalted comparisons for an MP of two years’ experience to venture upon, and confirm the rather naive ambition displayed by Hancock at this time.
There was at this period much ill-feeling among Conservative MPs who felt that because they were not friends of George, they were getting nowhere. At an away-day for Tory MPs in the autumn of 2014, an unkind joke at Hancock’s expense went down well:
“The Prime Minister led riotous laughter when Yorkshire Tory MP Philip Davies mocked Osborne’s chief ally, Business Minister Matthew Hancock, saying: ‘Anyone tempted to lick George Osborne’s backside should be careful because if you go too far you will find the soles of Matt Hancock’s shoes in the way.’
“Cameron was still chuckling the next day, telling MPs after breakfast: ‘I hope you have all got the unpleasant image of Matt Hancock out of your minds.’”
But Hancock was seizing the chance to prove himself as a man of government, which he proceeded to do, receiving repeated promotions, and after the Conservative victory in the 2015 general election becoming Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General, with the right to attend Cabinet.
A colleague who saw much of him at this time says:
“He’s quite knowledgeable about macro-economic things but also very interested in social policy and the modern world of technology. So he’s in tune with the the times.
“He’s not a great orator. He’s not a poet. He’s somebody who thinks and dissects and makes things happen. He was certainly a very good and effective administrator.”
In June 2016, this upward progress was brought to a sudden halt by the result of the EU Referendum. Cameron resigned, May won the leadership election, Osborne was sacked, and so were the other leading Cameroons, rooted out with exemplary severity by the new Prime Minister and her two main advisers, Nick Timothy and Fiona Hill.
As one leading Cameroon remarked this week: “We were all out and he miraculously survived.” For although Sajid Javid, Greg Hands and Claire Perry, all of whom had enjoyed Osborne’s patronage, remained in the Government, none of them had been as close to Osborne as Hancock had.
Another close observer says: “Hancock was clinging to the edge of the cliff with Fiona Hill stamping on his fingers.”
How did he manage to hold on? His decision to back May for the leadership at a reasonably early stage must have helped, but some people are convinced he was saved by Jeremy Heywood, the Cabinet Secretary, who had become a close ally while Hancock was running the Cabinet Office.
Others deny this, and point out that other friends of Heywood were thrown overboard. They posit that Hancock was just junior enough to survive, for May did not attempt to purge the lower ministerial ranks.
One reason why Hancock stayed in office is that he decided to swallow his pride and accept demotion to the post of Minister of State for Digital and Culture, with no right to attend Cabinet.
It is possible that he has such faith in his ability to run things that he thought as long as he remained in a position to demonstrate this, he would very soon be promoted again.
And one may infer that he did not feel crushed by his experience, for he at once made a great fuss about losing his ministerial car, and somehow managed to regain the use of one.
He is not an influential figure, for he does not have much of a following in the parliamentary party. But at the age of 39, he could have a long political life ahead of him, and he is good at not ruffling feathers and displaying a sort of unostentatious amiability which helps to calm things down.
Hancock is capable of dealing with tangled questions which could go very badly wrong. He wished, rightly, to draw a line under the Leveson Inquiry, but also went through some complicated manoeuvres to ensure that compulsory low-cost arbitration of complaints against the press, and prominent apologies when complaints are upheld, are part of the settlement.
He writes occasional lucid pieces for ConservativeHome, for example about the challenge in the digital age of measuring productivity correctly, plays cricket with enthusiasm, has ridden as an amateur in charity races at Newmarket and seems unabashed by giving dreadful karaoke performances of songs such as Don’t Stop Me Now.
Hancock has not been stopped, but what, apart from digital transformation, does he stand for? It is possible even he does not know. It is also possible that for a Tory man of government, this is not a fatal handicap.
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https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/suffolk-mp-matthew-hancock-promoted-to-minister-of-state-612160/
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Suffolk MP Matthew Hancock promoted to minister of state
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2013-10-07T13:42:00+00:00
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Suffolk MP Matthew Hancock has moved up the ministerial ranks in a government reshuffle becoming a twin-hatted minister of state for education and…
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Eastern Daily Press
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https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/21066842.suffolk-mp-matthew-hancock-promoted-minister-state/
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The 34-year-old, a former aide of chancellor George Osborne, has been promoted from a junior ministerial role to the more senior post by prime minister David Cameron.
In his new role he will also take on responsibility for enterprise, particularly small businesses.
The MP took to Twitter shortly after Mr Cameron announced his move on the social media site to say:'Delighted PM has asked me to be Minister of State for Skills & Enterprise in BIS & DfE. A lot done, a lot more to do.'
It is a step up from his role as parliamentary undersecretary of state, where he has been in charge of further education, the government's skills strategy and apprenticeships, among other things.
A minister of state is the middle in a hierarchy of three types of minister, with a secretary of state role the next step on the career latter.
Mr Hancock, who was elected in 2010, was an economist at the Bank of England between 2000 and 2005 before working for the then shadow chancellor Mr Osborne.
He stepped down after he was selected as the Conservative candidate for West Suffolk.
He became a member of the influential Public Accounts Committee shortly after becoming an MP, before he was given the junior minister post last year.
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https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9882817/David-Cameron-landed-genomics-giant-Illumina-123m-contract-writing-Hancock.html
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US genomics giant Illumina landed a £123m contract 'after David Cameron wrote to Matt Hancock'
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[
"dailymail",
"news",
"David Cameron",
"Matt Hancock"
] | null |
[
"Henry Martin",
"Henry Martin For Mailonline",
"www.facebook.com"
] |
2021-08-11T10:03:52+01:00
|
David Cameron, a paid adviser for US biotech gene-sequencing company Illumina, told Matt Hancock he 'strongly endorsed' the firm's invitation to the then-Health Secretary in April 2019.
|
/favicon.ico?v=2
|
Mail Online
|
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9882817/David-Cameron-landed-genomics-giant-Illumina-123m-contract-writing-Hancock.html
|
Former prime minister David Cameron was at the centre of a fresh lobbying row today after it was revealed a firm he advised won a £123million contract after he contacted the then health secretary Matt Hancock personally.
The ex-Tory leader, who has been criticised for his work with finance house Greensill Capital, is facing further questions over his post-power business activities with a second firm.
Mr Cameron was a paid adviser for US biotech gene-sequencing company Illumina, and wrote to Mr Hancock in April 2019 to invite him to a conference attended by the firm.
Despite ignoring an invite from the firm's executive chairman Jay Flatley weeks earlier, Mr Hancock agreed to go after receiving Mr Cameron's letter, written from his taxpayer-funded post-prime ministerial office, The Times reported.
The event was held at the Four Seasons Hotel in Hampshire in September 2019. A week later the company was awarded a multimillion-pound contract for genetic sequencing without competition with Genomics England - a company owned by the Department of Health and Social Care.
Mr Cameron had written to Mr Hancock saying: 'I understand Jay [Flatley, the executive chairman of Illumina at the time] has sent this direct to your office, but I wanted to i) ensure that you had seen it personally; and ii) strongly endorse their invitation to this significant conference.'
Mr Cameron denied lobbying on any contracts for the company. He said his role was solely to promote the benefits of genome sequencing.
A government spokesperson told MailOnline: 'This contract, signed to help save lives through better diagnosis, was awarded in the correct way, through the proper process and any suggestion of undue ministerial involvement in the decision making is completely wrong.
'Extensive due diligence was carried out and as set out in the transparency notice the contract was directly awarded because Illumina was the only company considered to have the technical capability to deliver this crucial work.
'The 2019 contract was a follow-on contract to the original sequencing contract with Illumina in 2014 and the company's expertise is being used to help the government roll out the world's first whole genome sequencing programme to better diagnose patients with rare disease and certain cancers.'
A spokesperson for Matt Hancock said: 'The UK's genomic sequencing capacity is one of the biggest in the world and has saved countless lives. Mr Hancock had no involvement in the awarding of these contracts and all normal processes were followed.'
But Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner said: 'There is rampant cronyism, sleaze and dodgy lobbying that is polluting our democracy under Boris Johnson and the Conservatives. They hand public money to their mates without a second thought.
'With NHS staff suggesting that it hasn't been possible to make full use of the capacity the contract provided, the Government must answer questions about why it awarded such a huge sum of money without competition in the first place.'
An Illumina spokesman told MailOnline: 'Illumina always follows the correct and necessary process in its negotiations with customers. We have worked with Genomics England since 2013 when we won a competitive tender process for the £78M contract for the 100,000 Genomes Project.
'Our ISO-accredited facilities in Cambridge were chosen by Genomics England as being the most appropriate in the UK in terms of being able to deliver this advanced genomics programme. For the £123M award, Genomics England again did their due diligence and issued a Voluntary ex ante transparency (VEAT) notice which sets out their reasoning for choosing a provider, and invites responses from competitors.
'The 2020 agreement included the sequencing of Covid samples as ''Research Samples'' within the framework of the 2019 agreement.
'The UK is acknowledged to be a world-leader in genomics. The vast majority of David Cameron's work with Illumina is outside the UK, representing the best practices of the UK in genomics to other countries.'
Jay Flatley joined Illumina as a CEO in 1999 and served in that role until 2016, when he took up the role of Executive Chair through 2019, eventually becoming Chair of the Board.
He stepped down from the Board of Directors earlier this year.
A presentation slide found on the company's website outlines how under his leadership, the firm went from having 30 employees in 1999 to more than 4,800 in 2015. Revenue growth also rose from $500,000 in 1999 to $2.2 billion in 2015.
It comes as Mr Cameron faces pressure to reveal how much money he made from finance firm Greensill Capital after denying claims he cashed in more than £7million.
He was earlier this week accused of bringing in a seven-figure sum from his 25-days-per-year role at the company which later collapsed, putting thousands of public sector jobs in jeopardy.
The BBC's Panorama programme claimed to have discovered documents revealing he made £3.25 million after cashing in shares from the company in 2019, and a salary of roughly £700,000 a year for work as a part-time adviser.
Mr Cameron - who has never revealed how much he was paid - told the programme his remuneration was a private matter.
After the story broke his spokesman said: 'David Cameron did not receive anything like the figures quoted by Panorama.'
But he declined to give an alternative figure in defence of the former premier, who worked for Greensill after quitting No10.
Mr Cameron had also met vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi in March to discuss genetic sequencing, and Illumina was given further contracts with Public Health England worth up to £870,000, the Times reports.
The government denied that contracts had been discussed.
Mr Cameron had visited Illumina's San Diego headquarters after leaving office in 2016, and became a consultant and chairman of the company's international advisory board the following year.
He had listed Illumina as a 'commercial interest' in a statement issued following revelations of his lobbying of ministers on behalf of Lex Greensill.
A spokesman for Mr Cameron said: 'He has never lobbied the government on behalf of the company or been involved in any contract or commercial discussions.'
A source close to Mr Hancock told The Times that he had replied to Illumina's invitation when his schedule was clearer.
Freedom of information disclosures have also reportedly revealed that health ministers Nadine Dorries, Helen Whately and Jo Churchill received lobbying letters from Illumina.
|
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8744
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dbpedia
|
2
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https://metro.co.uk/2021/04/18/minister-says-david-cameron-and-matt-hancock-did-nothing-wrong-14429618/
|
en
|
Minister says David Cameron and Matt Hancock ‘did nothing wrong’
|
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[
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] | null |
[
"Sam Courtney-Guy"
] |
2021-04-18T00:00:00
|
The two Tory titans are battling accusations of cronyism over their links to companies which stood to profit from ministerial favours.
|
en
|
Metro
|
https://metro.co.uk/2021/04/18/minister-says-david-cameron-and-matt-hancock-did-nothing-wrong-14429618/
|
A Cabinet minister has defended two major Tory figures embroiled in separate cronyism scandals against accusations of wrongdoing.
Environment secretary George Eustice said former prime minister David Cameron ‘meticulously observed the rules’ and had done no wrong when lobbying for failing finance firm Greensill Capital.
He also rejected accusations of conflicts of interest against Matt Hancock over the health secretary’s stake in a family company with NHS contracts.
Mr Cameron sent texts to Rishi Sunak in April last year which appear to have prompted efforts by the chancellor to grease the wheels for emergency Covid loans sought by Greensill.
The company was told it did not qualify and eventually collapsed, but Boris Johnson has ordered a formal probe into whether lobbying rules were broken or need to be changed.
Asked about former prime minister’s conduct, Mr Eustice told Sky’s Sophie Ridge On Sunday: ‘Well look, he himself has said that with hindsight it probably would have been better if, rather than texting ministers, if he had instead written letters to set out his views more formally.
‘But I think the real point is. ‘has he done anything wrong?’ Well, on the face of it, no. There’s a review that is going on, we mustn’t prejudge that.
In a statement last week Mr Cameron accepted that he should have communicated ‘through only the most formal of channels’ and there were ‘important lessons’ to be learned.
Mr Eustice denied the former PM ‘took advantage’ of any rules, adding: ‘He meticulously observed the rules there that he himself actually put in place after some concerns around lobbying a decade ago.
‘He put in place these restrictions on what ministers can do for a period of two years.
‘But look, he himself has conceded that with hindsight, if he had his time again, he wouldn’t have texted Rishi Sunak and wouldn’t have texted others – he would instead have written through formal channels.’
Mr Hancock was found to have accepted shares in Topwood Limited, an NHS contractor part-owned by his sister, which he declared in March this year.
Mr Eustice insisted the health secretary followed the rules when it came to declaring his 15 per cent stake in the company, which specialises in secure storage, scanning and shredding of documents.
The environment secretary added: ‘The reason we know about this is because Matt Hancock did what all ministers do in this case, which is to declare that interest.
‘And so he did the right thing, he declared that. He had no role whatsoever around that business – so, yes, there is nothing wrong with ministers having financial interests, providing they declare them in the appropriate way.
Asked whether lobbying rules were ‘broken’ if ministers are allowed to hold stakes in companies profiting from their Government department’s contracts, the Cabinet minister replied: ‘I’m not sure I would agree with that.
‘Ministers can move around a lot – famously we tend not to spend too long in one particular role.’
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.
|
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8744
|
dbpedia
|
1
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https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/greensill-scandal-what-david-cameron-lobbying-row-timeline-meaning-explained-958242
|
en
|
What is the Greensill scandal? A timeline of the David Cameron lobbying row so far – and what it means
|
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[] |
[] |
[
""
] | null |
[
"Chloe Chaplain"
] |
2021-04-15T13:12:45+00:00
|
Back in 2010, then-leader of the Opposition David Cameron warned political lobbying was going to be one of the next big scandals to come out of Westminster - and he was right
|
en
|
inews.co.uk
|
https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/greensill-scandal-what-david-cameron-lobbying-row-timeline-meaning-explained-958242
|
Back in 2010, when he was still leader of the Opposition, David Cameron warned political lobbying and the lack of transparency around it was going to be one of the next big scandals to come out of Westminster.
Mr Cameron predicted correctly, although he probably didn’t imagine it would be he at the centre of such a scandal.
Nevertheless, the row over the access financier Lex Greensill had to the highest levels of Government – through Mr Cameron – and concerns over the blurred lines between private companies and public policy have been escalating over recent weeks, leaving many questions unanswered.
Here’s how the scandal unfolded.
2010
David Cameron, then the leader of the Conservative Party, gives a major election campaign speech titled ‘Rebuilding Trust in Politics’.
In it he warned ministerial lobbying would follow in the shadow of the 2009 expenses row and become the next scandal to corrode public faith in politicians.
He said the issue of “secret corporate lobbying” had “tainted our politics for too long”, and, through “the quiet word in your ear, the ex-ministers and ex-advisors for hire”, it had exposed “the far-too-cosy relationship between politics, government, business and money”.
He said his party “believe[d] in competition, not cronyism”, and argued the Conservatives would “be the party that sorts all this out”.
2011
Lex Greensill was brought in to work with the Government by the former Cabinet Secretary, Jeremy Heywood.
Under Mr Cameron’s premiership he continued to work as an unpaid advisor.
He promoted his scheme to encourage large companies to use supply chain finance (SCF) to enable their suppliers to access low cost credit. It was then adopted by NHS trusts.
2012
Greensill had initially worked on supply-chain finance, which allows businesses to pay off debts quickly through Citibank, but the firm worked independently from 2012.
2018
Two years after resigning as Prime Minister (which is the amount of time passed during which the regulator cannot intervene in an appointment), Mr Cameron is appointed as an adviser to Greensill Capital.
2019
Lex Greensill wrote to Matt Hancock’s office about using the payment scheme in the NHS. The pair later met for a drink.
2020
Mr Cameron contacted Chancellor Rishi Sunak, as well as two other Treasury ministers, asking for Greensill to get the largest possible Government-backed Covid loans on offer through the Covid corporate financing facility (CCFF).
Greensill was refused access to the CCFF, but it was accepted as an accredited lender on the coronavirus large business interruption loan scheme (CLBILS), which allowed it to offer government-backed loans of up to £50m.
March 2021
Swiss banks closed funds linked to the business over concerns about its true value, plunging the firm into crisis.
Greensill sought insolvency protection in Australia and a rescue deal.
In the same month, the Financial Times reported it had attempted to contact Mr Cameron for a comment regarding the company’s ties to the Government.
On 8 March, Greensill Capital filed for administration. Steelmaker Liberty, which is backed by Greensill, paused production.
19 March 2021
It is reported that Mr Cameron lobbied senior Government officials to give Greensill Capital special access to the largest Covid loans just months before the lender collapsed.
21 March 2021
Another report in The Sunday Times revealed that Mr Cameron text Mr Sunak back in 2020 in the hope of gaining Greensill access to the Government-backed loans.
25 March 2021
Formal investigation launched into whether Mr Cameron broke lobbying rules by the registrar of consultant lobbyists. He is cleared of any wrongdoing.
30 March 2021
A business card emerged that appeared to confirm that Lex Greensill had a role at the heart of Downing Street, prompting Labour to renew its calls for a full investigation into Cameron’s role.
2 April 2021
i revealed that more than 60 members of Mr Cameron’s administration have taken up private-sector jobs with some link to their Government portfolio within two years of stepping down.
This prompted further questions as to the “revolving door” of politics and leads to calls for reform of the regulator, Acoba.
4 April 2021
Labour called for changes to lobbying laws and demanded the register of lobbyists is extended to include in-house advisors.
8 April 2021
The Treasury released messages sent by Mr Sunak to Mr Cameron in which he said he had “pushed the team” to find a way for Greensill to gain access to the loans.
11 April 2021
Mr Cameron published a detailed statement on the issue in which he denied breaking the rules but conceded he had reflected on his conduct and that “important lessons” would be learned.
12 April 2021
Cabinet Office announced an inquiry into Greensill lobbying, which is to be led by the legal expert Nigel Boardman.
13 April 2021
Lord Pickles, chair of the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (Acoba), revealed in a letter to the Cabinet Office that a senior civil servant was given permission to advise Greensill Capital while still being paid in a Government role.
Chief commercial officer Bill Crothers was also allowed to advise Greensill part-time while on the public payroll in 2015.
14 April 2021
Labour tried to force a motion which would require the establishment of a specific parliamentary committee to lead the probe into Greensill lobbying amid concerns the Broadman review would not be independent enough. It was voted down by Tories in the Commons.
Meanwhile the Treasury Select Committee announced its own probe.
The Cabinet Office called on all departments to reveal details of staff with second jobs.
15 April 2021
i revealed a senior member of the independent lobbying regulator runs his own firm advertising his access to ministers at the highest echelons of power.
Andrew Cumpsty sits on Acoba, which monitors appointments of former ministers and civil servants, and runs a communications company and a business lobby group that boasts of its connections to ministers and Conservative Cabinet members.
Lord Pickles, Chair of Acoba, defended the decision to MPs. However, he added that the recent revelations suggest there have been “no boundaries at all” in the heart of Whitehall.
The Public Administration and Constitutional Affiairs Committee and the Public Accounts Committee both announced their own probes into the row.
|
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https://news.sky.com/story/the-mps-who-have-announced-they-are-standing-down-at-the-next-general-election-12758551
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en
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The MPs who have announced they are standing down at the next general election
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2022-11-30T10:27:00+00:00
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Those who have announced their intention to leave parliament in the next few years range from the longest standing female MP, Harriet Harman, to one of those only elected at the last election in 2019, Conservative MP Dehenna Davison.
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Sky News
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https://news.sky.com/story/the-mps-who-have-announced-they-are-standing-down-at-the-next-general-election-12758551
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Even though the next general election may not be until January 2025 at the latest, a number of MPs have already announced they will not be standing the next time the country goes to the polls.
Those who have announced their intention to leave parliament in the next few years range from the longest standing female MP, Labour's Harriet Harman, to one of those only elected at the last election in 2019, Conservative MP Dehenna Davison.
Read more: How does the number of MPs stepping down compare to previous years?
Here is a full list of all the MPs standing down at the next election:
James Heappey (CON)
Armed forces minister James Heappey announced he will leave his government post and stand down at the next election.
The MP for the Wells constituency in Somerset decided to leave parliament because of personal reasons, a source close to him told Sky News.
The announcement came amid growing disquiet among Conservative MPs and military insiders that the budget failed to announce new funding for the armed forces.
However, a source close to Mr Heappey said while "of course he thinks there should be more money - it's not why he's resigning".
Brandon Lewis (CON)
Brandon Lewis, the former Northern Ireland secretary, also confirmed he will stand down as an MP at the next general election.
Mr Lewis, also a former chairman of the Conservative Party, said he was proud of "the small part I have been able to play in public life".
Theresa May (CON)
The former prime minister has joined the scores of Tory MPs standing down at the next election after 27 years of representing her constituency of Maidenhead.
In an exclusive statement to her local newspaper, Mrs May said she had taken the "difficult decision" to quit the Commons, saying causes including her Global Commission on Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking "have been taking an increasing amount of my time".
The 67-year-old also pledged her support to Rishi Sunak and said she believed the Conservatives could win the next election.
"As I pass the baton on I will be working with my successor to secure a Conservative victory in Maidenhead. I remain committed to supporting Rishi Sunak and the government and believe that the Conservatives can win the election," she said.
"I have always said there is no greater privilege than being an MP; I have served as home secretary and prime minister but none of that would have been possible without the people of Maidenhead and the constituency which I have been proud to call my home."
Kwasi Kwarteng (CON)
Kwasi Kwarteng, the former chancellor and Conservative MP for Spelthorne, has announced he will stand down at the next election.
An MP since 2010, he was appointed chancellor by Liz Truss during her brief tenure as prime minister, but was later sacked after his mini-budget caused turmoil in the markets and forced her to resign.
Prior to serving as chancellor, Mr Kwarteng served in roles including Brexit minister and was business minister before he was promoted to the Cabinet as business secretary by Boris Johnson in January 2021.
Shortly after the Truss administration collapsed, Mr Kwarteng admitted he and Ms Truss "blew it" and got "carried away" with bringing in sweeping economic reforms.
Writing on social media, Mr Kwarteng said: "I informed my association chair of my decision not to stand at the next general election.
"It has been an honour to serve the residents of Spelthorne since 2010, and I shall continue to do so for the remainder of my time in parliament."
Bob Neill (CON)
Sir Bob Neill first entered parliament when he was elected in the 2006 Bromley and Chislehurst by-election.
Now a senior backbencher, Sir Bob has also held government posts in the past, including as a local government minister during the coalition years.
He has also chaired a number of parliamentary committees and currently leads the justice select committee.
In a post on X, Sir Bob said he was standing down to spend more time with his family.
"I am grateful for the huge privilege to be MP for Bromley & Chislehurst, but there comes a time to put family first," he wrote.
"But I shall look for other ways to champion the causes I have fought for in parliament: the rule of law, stroke care, opera and the arts, Gibraltar and more."
Mike Freer (CON)
Conservative minister Mike Freer announced he was quitting parliament after more than a decade, telling Sky News: "There comes a point when you just have to say, enough."
Mr Freer, who has served as the MP for Finchley and Golders Green since 2010, said an arson attack on his constituency office in north London on Christmas Eve was "the last straw".
It was the latest in a string of incidents - including what he described as a "narrow miss" after the killer of his colleague, Southend MP Sir David Amess, had also watched his Finchley office before killing Sir David at a constituency surgery.
Mr Freer told Politics Hub With Sophy Ridge he had reached the moment where "the level of risk becomes too much".
He also said the impact on his family "when they see you going out to do some part of your job in a stab vest" was "really not fair on them".
The Tory MP also called for action from social media companies to "get to the root cause" of the problem, saying people are "being given the green light to feel they have got open season on their public servants" through the platforms.
Oliver Heald (CON)
Oliver Heald, an MP for 32 years, will not stand in the election this year, saying he wants to spend more time with his grandchildren.
"It has been a great privilege to serve the people of this wonderful constituency since 1992 and to have won the confidence of the majority of electors in eight general elections. I shall continue to work hard for the people of North East Hertfordshire until the election and I shall continue to support the Conservative cause and the prime minister," he said.
Mr Heald served as pensions minister under John Major, as solicitor general under David Cameron and as justice minister under Theresa May.
Sir James Duddridge (CON)
Sir James Duddridge, a former minister and the MP for Rochford and South East, said it had been an "honour" to serve as the constituency's MPs but that he would not stand at the next election.
In a letter to his local association, he wrote: "I have notified my Association Chairman of my decision not to stand at the next General Election. It has been an honour to serve as the MP for Rochford and Southend East since 2005. I will continue to serve my constituents, and I look forward to new challenges."
Bob Stewart (IND, former CON)
The 74-year-old former army officer, who surrendered the Conservative whip after he was convicted of racial abuse, said it was "time for a new candidate" for his seat, which is expected to change at the next election.
Mr Stewart, who has represented the London constituency of Beckenham since 2010, revealed his decision in a brief statement on X which did not refer to his recent court case.
Mr Stewart said in the post: "Serving Beckenham as its member of parliament for 13 years has been an honour and privilege.
"I am incredibly grateful to everyone who has given me this opportunity.
"However, it is time for a new candidate, so I will not be seeking re-election at the next election."
The geographical boundary of the Beckenham constituency is expected to become Beckenham and Penge at the next general election following a review aimed at equalising population sizes across the seats at Westminster.
Earlier this month, Mr Stewart was found guilty at London's Westminster Magistrates' Court of racially abusing an activist by telling him to "go back to Bahrain".
Nick Gibb (CON)
Long-serving schools minister Nick Gibb will take up a diplomatic role after the election after serving as the MP for Bognor Regis and Littlehampton for 26 years.
Mr Gibb, who served as schools minister under David Cameron, Theresa May, Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak, said he remained an "enthusiastic supporter of the prime minister's leadership".
"I am proud that over my 10 years as a minister standards in schools have risen. England is 4th in the world in reading as a result of the phonics reforms and we are rising internationally for maths and English. We have transformed the curriculum so that it is knowledge rich," he said.
John Baron (CON)
John Baron will stand down at the next election after serving as an MP since 2001.
Mr Baron was first elected as the MP for Billericay & District from 2001 and then Basildon & Billericay from 2010.
He said that although he believed Rishi Sunak would win the next election due to his "competence and compassion", he had decided the "time has come for me to move on".
"It has been a great honour and privilege to serve my constituents, and I thank all for their support and kindness over the years. I have been lucky to make many friends."
Jamie Wallis (CON)
The MP for Bridgend, who came out as transgender in March 2022, said he was seeking a new seat outside Wales - but that he was doing so "with a sense of humour".
In July that year, Mr Wallis was disqualified from driving for six months and fined £2,500 after being found guilty of three traffic offences.
In an interview with Sky News' Sophy Ridge in 2022, Mr Wallis - who still prefers the pronouns he and him - revealed he had felt this way for a "very long time".
"I have gender dysphoria... that is the medical diagnosis that is required for a legal change of gender but it is also the condition that describes that lack of reconciliation between what you look like and what your body says and how you feel on the inside."
Lisa Cameron (CON)
Formerly of the SNP, Lisa Cameron defected to the Tories last year over what she called the "toxic and bullying SNP Westminster group".
Dr Cameron said she and her family have been forced into hiding after receiving a barrage of threatening messages, including one in which someone said: "I hope you burn".
The MP for East Kilbride, Strathaven & Lesmahagow, a former NHS psychologist, criticised her treatment by the SNP and its leadership after she spoke out about her colleague, Patrick Grady.
Mr Grady was suspended from the House of Commons for two days last year after he was found to have made an "unwanted sexual advance" to a member of party staff in 2016.
Dr Cameron defied calls for a by-election to be held in her seat and she she would remain the MP until the next election.
Chris Grayling (CON)
Former transport secretary Chris Grayling recently announced he will not defend Epsom and Ewell at the next election - the seat he has held since 2001.
The MP said he had been successfully treated for prostate cancer earlier this year and the diagnosis had led him to decide it was "time for change".
Mr Grayling served in both David Cameron and Theresa May's governments, most recently as transport secretary from 2016 to 2019 - where he earned the nickname "failing Grayling" after presiding over a series of mishaps.
Alok Sharma (CON)
Conservative former cabinet member Sir Alok Sharma is also standing down from parliament.
Sir Alok, who chaired the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, has been critical of Rishi Sunak after he watered down the government's climate commitments.
Sir Alok said "it'd be incredibly damaging for business confidence, for inward investment, if the political consensus that we have forged in our country on the environment and climate action is fractured.
"And, frankly, I really do not believe that it's going to help any political party electorally which chooses to go down this path."
In his letter to his constituency announcing his decision, the MP for Reading West said he will still "champion in parliament the causes I care deeply about, especially climate action".
Sir Alok's seat, which he has held since 2010, is being changed as part of the review of constituency boundaries before the next election, expected in 2024. It will be renamed Reading West and Mid Berkshire.
Ben Wallace (CON)
Ben Wallace was appointed defence secretary by Boris Johnson when he became prime minister in 2019.
He stayed in the job when he was ousted from Downing Street and remained in-post during the short tenure of Liz Truss - and that of Rishi Sunak.
The announcement he is stepping down at the next election came after rumours he had tried and failed to become the next leader of NATO.
"I went into politics in the Scottish parliament in 1999. That's 24 years. I've spent well over seven years with three phones by my bed," he told The Times.
It also came after he told a press conference that the UK was not an "Amazon" delivery service for weapons to Ukraine - in contrast to his long-standing support of their fight against Russia.
Dominic Raab (CON)
Former justice secretary and deputy prime minister Dominic Raab will stand down at the next election after serving as an MP since 2010.
His decision comes a month after he quit Rishi Sunak's cabinet over claims he bullied civil servants.
Mr Raab is currently the Conservative MP for Esher and Walton in Surrey, where a slender majority of 2,743 has made his seat a key target for the Lib Dems.
Mr Raab has "become increasingly concerned" about the pressure the job has placed on his young family, according to a letter explaining his decision seen by The Telegraph.
Last month, a bullying probe into the former cabinet minister's behaviour concluded he acted in an "intimidating way" and was "unreasonably and persistently aggressive" in meetings.
Sajid Javid (CON)
Sajid Javid has written to the chair of his constituency party in Bromsgrove to say he will not stand at the next general election.
He was unsuccessful in his bid for Conservative Party leadership in 2022 and had previously held a number of positions in cabinet, including chancellor, health secretary and business secretary.
"It has been a decision I have wrestled with for some time, but I have ultimately concluded not to stand again for what would be my fifth election," he said.
"Being the local MP and serving in Government has been the privilege of my life and I am immensely grateful for the opportunity to serve. I always sought to make decisions in the national interest, and in line with my values, and I can only hope my best was sufficient."
Bromsgrove is considered a safe Conservative seat, with Mr Javid winning a majority of just over 23,000 votes in the 2019 general election.
Matt Hancock (IND, former CON)
The former health secretary wrote to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on 7 December to let him know he would not be standing for the Conservatives at the next election.
He was suspended from the party in November after he announced he was going on reality TV show I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here but said in his letter the chief whip "made clear" last week he would restore the whip "in due course, but that is now not necessary".
Revealing he will not be standing 10 days after finishing third on I'm A Celeb, Mr Hancock said: "There was a time when I thought the only way to influence the public debate was in parliament, but I've realised there's far more to it than that.
"For my part, I want to do things differently. I have discovered a whole new world of possibilities which I am excited to explore - new ways for me to communicate with people of all ages and from all backgrounds."
The 44-year-old MP, who has a 23,194 majority in his West Suffolk constituency, said he wants to champion issues "dear to my heart", including better support for dyslexic children.
Nadine Dorries (CON)
In announcing her intention to stand down at the next general election, former culture secretary Ms Dorries blamed the "sheer stupidity" of her colleagues who "got rid of Boris Johnson".
The Conservative MP for Mid Bedfordshire fought back tears as she delivered the news on her TalkTV show, saying the decision had followed "much soul-searching".
Ms Dorries is a staunch supporter of the former PM and has not hidden her views on Rishi Sunak since he became prime minister.
She said: "Those MPs who drank the Kool-Aid and got rid of Boris Johnson are already asking themselves the question: who next?
"And I'm afraid that the lack of cohesion, the infighting and occasionally the sheer stupidity from those who think we could remove a sitting prime minister, who secured a higher percentage of the vote share than Tony Blair did in 1997, just three short years ago...
"That [they think] they could do that and the public would let us get away with it, I'm afraid it's this behaviour that I now just have to remove myself from."
As she began welling up, she added: "And so despite it being a job that I've loved for every year I've done it, I'm now off. Oh gosh, I've just said it out loud, there's no going back now."
George Eustice (CON)
Former environment secretary George Eustice said it was a "difficult decision", but after 15 years as the MP for Camborne and Redruth, he wants to take the opportunity to have another career outside politics.
The senior Tory was secretary of state under Boris Johnson, from February 2020 until September 2022.
Announcing his decision, Mr Eustice said: "By the time of the next election, I will have been in politics for 25 years, including almost 15 years as a member of parliament.
"I will also be 53 and I want the opportunity to do a final career outside politics so have decided not to seek re-election. This has been a difficult decision for me."
A recent finding by UK Polling Report predicted Mr Eustice is set to lose his seat to Labour with a 17.3% drop in votes.
Sir Graham Brady (CON)
Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the influential 1922 committee of backbench Tory MPs, announced in March that he would be bringing his chapter as a politician "to a close" while still "young enough to pursue other opportunities and interests".
The 55-year-old has represented Altrincham and Sale West for the past 26 years and has been the chairman of the 1922 Committee since 2010, bar a brief period in 2019.
But it is only in the last few years he has become something of a household name - with his visits to Number 10 seen as spelling the end for recent prime ministers.
Chris Pincher (IND, former CON)
Chris Pincher, the MP whose conduct kickstarted the end of Boris Johnson's premiership, has told Conservative officials he won't be standing at the next election.
Mr Pincher, who has been the MP for Tamworth since 2010, resigned from his job as deputy chief whip in July last year following allegations about his conduct.
Julian Knight (IND, former CON)
Julian Knight, 51, was suspended as a Conservative after a serious sexual assault allegation was made against him.
The MP for Solihull since 2015 has always maintained his innocence and on 2 April, the Metropolitan Police dropped the investigation without questioning Mr Knight.
But he remained suspended from the Tory party as the chief whip, who organises the party's MPs, said "further complaints" had been made against him.
He has said he will not try to get the Tory whip restored and will remain as an independent until the next election, when he will stand down.
Dehenna Davison (CON)
Ms Davison, who was elected as Bishop Auckland's first-ever Conservative MP in 2019 under former prime minister Boris Johnson, has announced she intends to stand down at the next election.
The Levelling Up minister, regarded by many as a rising star in the Tory Party, said she now wanted to devote more time to "life outside politics - mainly to my family".
"I've dedicated the vast majority of my time to politics, and to help make people's lives better. But to be frank, it has meant I haven't had anything like a normal life for a 20-something," she said.
Ms Davison, 29, was thought to have represented a new style of Conservatism which demolished large swathes of Labour's "Red Wall" of seats in the snap election three years ago.
William Wragg (CON)
Senior Tory Mr Wragg has also confirmed he will not run again.
He is the vice-chairman of the influential 1922 Committee of Tory backbenchers and has held the Hazel Grove constituency in Greater Manchester since 2015.
He took the seat from the Liberal Democrats and, in doing so, became the first Conservative MP to represent the constituency since 1997.
Mr Wragg had been one of the Conservative MPs most critical of former PM Mr Johnson and also publicly demanded Liz Truss quit as leader in October following her disastrous mini-budget.
The MP for Hazel Grove took a short break earlier this year to recover from depression.
Chris Skidmore (CON)
Former universities minister Mr Skidmore has announced he will be standing down at the next election.
His Kingswood constituency will cease to exist when the new parliamentary boundary changes come into force.
Mr Skidmore said in a statement that "there has been no greater honour in my life" than to represent the constituency, in southwest England.
Mr Skidmore signed the UK's net zero by 2050 commitment into law in 2019 when serving as a minister in former PM Theresa May's government.
Sir Gary Streeter (CON)
The long-standing South West Devon MP will also not seek re-election.
Sir Gary has held his seat since its conception in 1997 and prior to that he was the MP for Plymouth Sutton for five years.
In a statement, the Conservative MP said: "It has been an honour and privilege to represent this consistency for over 30 years, but the time has come for me to step back and let a younger person take over."
Sir Gary, who was knighted in 2018, said he had "great confidence that under Rishi Sunak's leadership our country will recover strongly from recent challenges".
Chloe Smith (CON)
The former work and pensions secretary is another Conservative MP who has announced she will not continue her parliamentary career.
Ms Smith, who served in Liz Truss's cabinet during her brief tenure in Number 10, has held the Norwich North seat since 2009.
When elected, she became the youngest MP aged just 27.
She has also held ministerial jobs across several departments including the Treasury and Northern Ireland Office.
Douglas Ross (CON)
The leader of the Scottish Conservatives has said he will not stand again at Westminster in order to focus on Holyrood as an MSP.
He has served as Member of Parliament for Moray since 2017.
Sir Charles Walker (CON)
Broxbourne MP Sir Charles has announced he will not seek re-election after more than 15 years in Westminster.
He has served as chair of the procedure committee and was knighted in 2019 for "political and public service".
On his return to the backbenches, Sir Charles became a vocal opponent of COVID lockdown restrictions, including an infamous speech where he promised to walk around London with a pint of milk in protest against an extension to emergency powers being extended in March 2021.
Nigel Adams (CON)
Conservative MP Nigel Adams has confirmed he will step down at the next general election.
Mr Adams, a former minister, was first elected as Selby and Ainsty's MP in 2010 and has successfully defended the seat three times.
In a statement, Mr Adams said: "By then [the next election] I will have served 14 years as an MP which I think is a decent innings in public life."
Crispin Blunt (CON)
The Conservative MP for Reigate marked his 25th year in parliament by confirming he will stand aside when the country next goes to the polls.
Earlier this year, Mr Blunt apologised for "significant upset and concern" caused by his defence of fellow MP Imran Ahmad Khan following his conviction for sexually assaulting a teenage boy in 2008.
He is also the uncle of actress Emily Blunt.
Sir Mike Penning (CON)
The Conservative MP for Hemel Hempstead has confirmed he wishes to retire at the next election, having reached the age of 64.
He described it as "one of the most difficult decisions of my life".
Adam Afriyie (CON)
The Windsor Conservative Association (WCA) announced in the summer that Mr Afriyie had decided to step down.
The former trade envoy said with Brexit "concluded" it was the "right time" to relinquish his post.
Andrew Percy (CON)
The MP for Brigg and Goole is another to have confirmed he does not intend to continue in his role.
Mr Percy's constituency would be abolished by the parliamentary boundary review proposals.
He was formerly the Northern Powerhouse minister.
Mark Pawsey (CON)
The MP for Rugby and Bulkington since 2010 has said he will not seek re-election at the next general election.
In a statement to his local Conservative association, Mr Pawsey said he had come to the decision "after much consideration".
"I am sure that a new Conservative candidate will go on to win in Rugby whenever the election is called," he added.
Edward Timpson (CON)
The MP for Eddisbury has confirmed he plans to stand down at the next election "to return in part to legal practice, but also advocacy roles for vulnerable children and families".
Mr Timpson, the son of Sir John Timpson - the chairman and owner of the Timpson chain of shoe repair and key-cutting shops - said he is proud to have been the longest-serving minister for children and families during his time as an MP.
Responding to Mr Timpson's announcement, former PM David Cameron said: "Westminster needs to retain the skills and advice of specialists like Edward, and the Conservative Party does too-particularly in an area where we are not famed for being as strong as he is. I know we won't have seen the last of him."
Jo Gideon (CON)
Conservative MP Ms Gideon has announced she will not contest her Stoke-on-Trent Central seat when the country goes to the polls.
Elected in 2019, Ms Gideon has a very small majority of just 670.
Releasing a statement confirming the move, Ms Gideon, 70, said: "I have not come to this decision lightly."
Sir Paul Beresford (CON)
The MP for Mole Valley, who will be 77 this year, has announced he intends to retire at the next general election.
He confirmed his decision in an email to constituents, saying: "In truth, I did give serious thought to contesting the 2024 election and serving in one more Parliament and the decision to step back has not been easy.
"With this said, I am very much of the view that anyone elected as an MP owes it to their constituents to throw themselves entirely into the role - and when you find yourself beginning to wonder what life without midnight sittings of the House and a dairy built around the whims of the Whips' Office might look like - it is probably time to step back."
Sir Paul holds a 12,041 majority at present, but his Mole Valley constituency is due to be split before the next election - with just 60% of the current constituency making up the bulk of the new Dorking and Horley seat.
Stephen McPartland (CON)
The Conservative MP for Stevenage has said that "after much soul searching" he will not stand for re-election the next time the country goes to the polls.
Writing a letter to the PM informing him of his decision, Mr McPartland, who has been an MP since 2010, said: "I will always support the Conservatives as the party that gave a working class kid from Brixton the opportunity to become prime minister."
Mr McPartland is known for being independently minded, probing the government hard on cladding a recently being the only Conservative to vote against the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Bill.
Stuart Anderson (CON)
The MP for Wolverhampton South West only took the seat from Labour in 2019, but has confirmed he will not seek re-election due to "personal and family reasons".
In a statement, he said it had been "the greatest honour of my life" and he would continue to serve his constituents until the next election "with pride".
Mr Anderson, who currently serves as a Treasury whip and only has a majority of 1,661, said his local group of Conservatives "will continue to build" on the "strong track record" he will leave behind.
Nicola Richards (CON)
Ms Richards, who was elected in West Bromwich East in 2019, has announced she will not be standing in the new constituency of West Bromwich due to changes in her "domestic circumstances".
Henry Smith (CON)
The Crawley MP has held the seat since 2010, having previously been a councillor in the area.
But he confirmed he would be leaving politics behind him at the next general election, saying it was "time for a new generation".
A member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Mr Smith said in a statement that he was "proud to lead the Leave EU campaign" in his constituency, as well as supporting the area through COVID, and raising awareness of blood cancer.
"I will continue to campaign for lower taxation, secure borders, environmental protection, our security and a dynamic economy," he added.
Sir Robert Goodwill (CON)
Sir Robert Goodwill, who has represented Scarborough and Whitby since 2005, said his decision to step down was because of his age and family interests, according to Scarborough News.
The 6-year-old served as a minister in both David Cameron and Theresa May's governments and is currently the chairman of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee.
Robin Walker (CON)
The Worcester MP has held the seat since 2010 and served as an education minister and Northern Ireland minister in Boris Johnson's government.
He said he was stepping down because he needed to prioritise his family.
Pauline Latham (CON)
Mid Derbyshire MP Pauline Latham, who won the seat in 2010, said she thought "long and hard" about her decision to stand down as an MP at the next election, but she now wants to dedicate herself to "certain other projects".
Gordon Henderson (CON)
The Sittingbourne and Sheppey MP Gordon Henderson said he will stand down at the next election as "by then I will be 76 years old and will have been working full time for 60 years".
"I believe the time is right for me to retire and let a younger person pick up the reins," he said.
Craig Whittaker (CON)
The Calder Valley MP, who has represented the constituency for 12 years, said he wanted to spend "more quality time" with his family.
John Howell (CON)
John Howell, 67, has served as MP for Henley-on-Thames for 15 years, said he did not want to remain an MP due to his age and other interests.
Matthew Offord (CON)
The Hendon MP said his last 13 years in the job has required "great sacrifices in my personal and professional lives, and I have concluded that the next general election is the time for me to leave the baton for someone else to take up".
Steve Brine (CON)
The current chair of the Health and Social Care Select Committee, Mr Brine, said he would be seeking to start a "new chapter" in his life following 13 years representing Winchester in Hampshire - where he has a small majority of just 985.
He said after the next national ballot, he would "pursue some of the issues I care about - in health and perhaps elsewhere".
But much of the letter focused on wanting to spend more time with his children.
Ian Blackford (SNP)
The former Westminster leader for the SNP has announced he will be stepping down at the next election following "a period of reflection" after losing his senior role.
He told Sky News in a broadcast exclusive that going forward, he would be working on a paper on Scotland's industrial future and continuing as his party's business ambassador.
Harriet Harman (LAB)
Labour's Ms Harman, the longest continuous serving female MP in the Commons, has announced that she will not be standing for the party at the next election.
Ms Harman, who has represented the south London constituency of Camberwell and Peckham since 1982, revealed the news on Twitter.
Alex Cunningham (LAB)
The Stockton North MP has announced that he is to stand down after 12 years.
"After more than 30 years in public life as first a local councillor, I've decided the next general election would be the right time for me to retire and hopefully do many of the other things I've never been able to fit in."
Dame Margaret Hodge (LAB)
Veteran Labour MP Dame Margaret Hodge is another who will step aside.
Dame Margaret, who has been the MP for Barking in east London since 1994, described the decision as "really tough".
During her time in politics, she has served as a minister in several departments, including education, work and pensions, and culture, and chaired the influential Public Accounts Committee.
More recently, Dame Margaret was a prominent critic of former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and accused him of denying the problem of antisemitism within the Labour Party.
Barry Sheerman (LAB)
One of the country's longest-serving MPs, Mr Sheerman will also be leaving parliament.
The MP for Huddersfield since 1979 said standing down at the next election was the right time for him and the party.
Mr Sheerman, who has been a shadow work and pensions and home affairs minister, added he was proud of the work he had done over the past 42 years, but was looking forward to spending more time with his family.
He is the longest-serving Labour MP and the second-longest continuous-serving MP in the House of Commons after Father of the House Sir Peter Bottomley.
Alan Whitehead (LAB)
At the start of the year, Mr Whitehead confirmed he will not contest his constituency of Southampton Test again.
Mr Whitehead has held the constituency for Labour since 1997.
Ben Bradshaw (LAB)
The Labour MP for Exeter said that after 25 years in the role it is time to "hand on the baton"
He described himself as being "emotional" about the decision, but told BBC Radio Devon: "If I stood again I could be pushing 70 by the end of the next parliament and I never really wanted to go on that long."
Wayne David (LAB)
The Labour MP for Caerphilly has announced that "with some sadness" he will be stepping down.
In a statement, he said: "The reason is quite simple - I will be 65 in a few months' time and if I were re-elected at the next election, I could still be an MP at the age of 70.
"While some may disagree, I think at that age I would not be able to represent my constituents as effectively as I would like. It is time to make way for a younger person."
Paul Blomfield (LAB)
Mr Blomfield has been Sheffield Central's MP since 2010 and announced he would be stepping away from parliament in February.
In 2016, he was appointed as Labour's shadow Brexit minister, and he was a member of the shadow cabinet until December 2020 when the UK officially left the EU.
Dame Rosie Winterton (LAB)
The Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons said it had been an "honour" to have served as MP of Doncaster Central since 1997 when she announced she would not contest the next election.
Dame Rosie, who was known as a well-respected Labour Party disciplinarian, held positions within the government under the leadership of former prime ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.
Dame Margaret Beckett (LAB)
Britain's first female foreign secretary is to retire after nearly four decades as MP for Derby South.
Dame Margaret, who is also Britain's longest-serving female MP, was first elected to the House of Commons to represent Lincoln in 1974 when just 27 MPs were women.
Jon Cruddas (LAB)
Long-term Dagenham and Rainham MP Mr Cruddas has also announced he is to step down.
The Labour MP has held the seat for 21 years, a position he has described as "the greatest honour of my life".
Colleen Fletcher (LAB)
Announcing her intention to stand down, Ms Fletcher, who has held the Coventry North East seat for Labour since 2015, said it was time to move on and pursue new challenges.
Sir George Howarth (LAB)
After more than 30 years representing the seat of Knowsley, Sir George Howarth - a former junior minister in the Northern Ireland and Home Office under Tony Blair - said it was "the right time for a new candidate" to represent the area he grew up in.
Hywel Williams (PLAID CYMRU)
The MP for Arfon has announced he is standing down at the next general election "after much thought and discussion with my family".
At the 2017 general election Mr Williams held Arfon with a majority of just 92 votes, making it the most marginal seat in Wales.
In the following election, in 2019, he extended Plaid's majority to 2,781.
However, the constituency will disappear under proposals to cut the number of Welsh MPs from 40 to 32.
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https://yorkshiretimes.co.uk/article/Oh-Rarely-Prime-Minister
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Oh Rarely, Prime Minister!
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Strip the Prime Minister’s utterances of the verbal formulations and tricks, the phoney politenesses - the honourable membering, the if I may say so-ing, the with all due respecting – and what have you got?
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https://yorkshiretimes.co.uk/Oh-Rarely-Prime-Minister
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frontpage
Opinion
Oh Rarely, Prime Minister!
Strip the Prime Minister’s utterances of the verbal formulations and tricks, the phoney politenesses - the honourable membering, the if I may say so-ing, the with all due respecting – and what have you got? Not that much when it’s all boiled down to actual meaningful content, even when he’s trying to make a point rather than avoid answering a question.
Imagine if all he spouted were delivered in one of those accents commonly associated with dullness, the parochial or stupid instead of one synonymous with the patrician class, intelligence and natural leadership. I assume he would not be leader of the Tory Party.
For reasons entirely to do with indoctrination and inherited perceptions, Boris Johnson’s accent and the way he delivers his words seem to many people’s ears to freight them with more weight than they deserve. Even the halting delivery, the occasional suggestion of an aristocratic stammer, slightly reminiscent of the Queen’s father’s, George VI, are all part of the act.
It’s interesting that Johnson and people from his background rarely if ever go in for the sort of unconscious speech accommodation, as the sociolinguists call the modification of accent - which is a form of politeness to suit the company and situation. Why would they when they have been brought up to believe that theirs is Received Pronunciation, received no less from the very highest of the high, conferring for life the mark of prestige, wealth, education, automatic membership of the social elite. Interestingly. Tony Blair, the great chameleon and social climber, could never be accused of this. It was often said he was a Cockney when addressing a meeting ‘darn sarf’ and had a distinct tendency to modify nouns with ‘wee’ when north of the border (and become dewy eyed over his Fettes College days in Edinburgh). Margaret Thatcher from Lincolnshire tried to copy it and sounded like a gross parody but succeeded through sheer force of will that Bojo hasn't got.
Johnson’s particular distortion of syllable and sound, I’m guessing, is peculiar to Eton. His school chum, David Cameron, has many of the same affectations – as did another unrelated Johnson the cricket commentator, Brian, who was at Eton from 1925-31 and got a good grounding in it. After Johnson’s death, Henry Blofeld, another old boy, moved into the vacant commentary box chair as almost the perfect clone in manner and sound. Have a guess where Jacob Reece-Mogg went to school.
All of these men will say ‘ter’ instead of ‘to’, for example – and I notice that the odious Matt Hancock, born in Chester and with no connection to Eton, has recently taken up this alternative pronunciation. He might be destined to go places but for his obvious lack of ability. Still that is not an insuperable barrier as Johnson himself and most of his cabinet have proved.
When Johnson says ‘rarely’, we have to remind ourselves he actually means ‘really’. ‘Where’ is his way of saying ‘we’re’. ‘You’re’ emerges as ‘yore’. ‘Because’ is ‘becuz’. It’s ‘terday’ and ‘termorrow’ but, bizarrely, ‘yestoday’.
Now, personally, I love the rich diversity of regional accents and my party piece used to be to guess a stranger’s geographic origins. I rejoice in the memory of asking a lady many years ago if she came from Dudley, one of the easiest accents to get. ‘Yis,’ she said in amazement, ‘but how did yow now? Oi deedn’t theenk Oi’d got an akzent at awl.’
I’ve stopped embarrassing myself trying to do this as my hearing is not as distinct as it was and neither in many cases are accents. I have no possible objection to the way anybody forms their vowels or stretches their intonation – although I admit some urban accents do grate. What I strongly object to, however, is the assumption that any one accent is of its nature better than any other.
As long as it’s recognised that what Johnson speaks is actually nothing more than a dialect belonging to a certain narrow class of people then I can accept it for what it is. The problem is that those who possess it often seem to have a distinct tendency to project both their voice and their ego. They seem to naturally assume superiority. Perhaps this is not surprising given that since Robert Walpole, the first, there have been a score of British prime ministers, including six in the last century and two in this, who went to this most elite of educational establishments.
Strangely of those comparatively recent politicians I most admire among those who attained the highest office, Lloyd George, Clem Atlee, Harold Wilson, James Callaghan and, lest this looks like a political bias, let me add Edward Heath and John Major as worthy in some ways – none are old Etonians.
Irrational though it may be whenever I hear that voice of authority, that particular peculiar stentorian patrician baritone, I am guaranteed in principle, consciously and unconsciously, to resist anything it is telling me to do. My hackles rise immediately.
I appreciate as much as anybody that it’s very difficult to escape from being unduly influenced rather more by the form of delivery than the actual content. Some years ago I was part of a panel involved with selection of ‘exemplar material’, as the educational jargon had it, looking to establish a bank of filmed evidence of what constituted particular grades in the GCSE English Language oral examinations – for use by teachers and examiners as touchstones for assessment.
I remember harbouring the suspicion that one guileless boy with a strong Barnsley accent was more worthy of a higher grade than a very well-spoken girl who in the course of her five-minute presentation had managed to slip in a couple of references to her father being an Oxford professor. After much discussion, it was eventually agreed that in actual pithy content the boy had delivered far more and his meaning was clear and unambiguous.
Strip away the accent, the verbal camouflage, the empty rhetoric, the knowledge of the latest buzz words, the classical references, the ability to name drop and, above all, the sense of entitlement that rings bright and it becomes clear that Johnson is by no means the most articulate of individuals. Neither, of course, was Michael Foot, leader of the Labour Party, who had no difficulty piling one clause upon another but could never climax an actual sentence - and here, I suppose, we are straying away from accent to other aspects of linguistics.
Some of the best phonetically-pure and resounding English I recall hearing was in Scotland. In the course of researching my doctoral thesis on Robert Burns, I made it my business to study and record the accents of Ayrshire where the poet came from. It was my conviction and discovery that Burns was not the ‘heaven-taught ploughman’ of popular conception though certainly a genius, and what he wrote was a product of his background and time. Ayrshire folk still speak in a remarkably rich and engaging way, their language brimming over with choice phrases and happy extemporisations.
I would suggest the average man or woman in the street in auld Ayr – which the bard said ‘ne’er a town surpasses for honest men and bonnie lasses’ - is likely to be more articulate and more interesting than Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson.
Oh rarely!
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https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/apr/10/revealed-david-cameron-stood-to-gain-from-218m-greensill-trust
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en
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Cameron ‘lobbied senior Downing St aide and Matt Hancock’ to help Greensill
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Former PM also reported to have emailed a No 10 adviser after Treasury rejected his attempts to access Covid loan scheme
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en
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the Guardian
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https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/apr/10/revealed-david-cameron-stood-to-gain-from-218m-greensill-trust
|
David Cameron lobbied a senior Downing St aide and Matt Hancock, the health secretary, on behalf of a now collapsed company run by the scandal-hit financier Lex Greensill, it has emerged.
In further revelations that show the lengths the former prime minister went to in his attempts to secure political access for Greensill Capital, which paid him as an adviser, Cameron emailed a No 10 adviser after the Treasury rejected his attempts to secure the company access to a Covid emergency loan scheme.
Cameron said it was “nuts” to exclude Greensill’s company from the scheme, according to emails seen by the Sunday Times. As a shareholder, Cameron stood to gain from Greensill’s long-term success. However, his shares are worthless after its collapse.
A Downing St spokesperson said: “Throughout the pandemic, an immense number of businesses contacted Downing Street with representations; these were passed on to relevant departments.”
It also emerged on Saturday night that, in 2019, Cameron took Greensill along with him to a “private drink” with Hancock. They lobbied Hancock to introduce a payment scheme that was later introduced for NHS staff. There are no minutes of Hancock’s meeting with Cameron and Greensill. Later, NHS Shared Business Services (NHS SBS) announced a pilot scheme with Earnd, an outfit owned by Greensill, to pay NHS workers weekly or daily. It was a free service. An ally of Hancock said: “Matt acted in entirely the correct way – he updated officials on the business that was discussed, as is appropriate.”
A Department of Health and Social Care Spokesperson said: “The wellbeing of NHS staff is the top priority of the department and Health Secretary. Our approach was and is that local NHS employers are best placed to decide how different pay flexibilities fit with their overall pay and reward offer for their staff.”
Bridget Phillipson, the shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, called on chancellor Rishi Sunak, who was repeatedly lobbied by Cameron, to “make a statement to parliament at the earliest opportunity and answer questions on this growing scandal. And we need a full and thorough investigation into what happened”.
The Observer can reveal that Cameron was in line to profit from a $30m (£21.8m) employee benefit trust registered in Jersey thanks to his role with the collapsed Greensill Capital. The revelation comes amid calls for the former prime minister to disclose just how much he was in line to gain from his role advising the firm. It follows a week in which further details emerged of Cameron’s lobbying of ministers, as he sought to persuade them to hand Greensill access to government-backed financial aid schemes.
Cameron repeatedly texted chancellor Rishi Sunak to grant the lender access to the Bank of England’s Covid Corporate Financing Facility (CCFF). Text messages released last week show Sunak telling Cameron he had “pushed the team to explore an alternative with the Bank that might work”. There was also a call between the men, but it is not known if officials listened in on the call or whether notes were taken.
While access to the CCFF was ultimately rebuffed, Britain’s public spending watchdog is considering a request to investigate how Greensill Capital was later accredited to the Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CLBILS), handing it the ability to access government-backed loans of up to £50m.
Greensill records show 13,931 shares were held in two blocks by an offshore wealth manager, named as Jersey-based Sanne Fiduciary Services. A spokesperson for Sanne confirmed that these shares were held by two employee benefit trusts, reserved for stock options issued to employees. It is understood that none of the shares in these trusts had been distributed to staff by the time Greensill collapsed.
Sanne said in a statement that it acted as a trustee to two employee benefit trusts established by Greensill Capital, and that it was a common structure used by companies who wanted to hold shares until they can be distributed to staff. Asked whether Cameron was one of the intended recipients of shares held in the trusts, Sanne and a source close to Cameron did not deny this was the case. A source close to Cameron said: “These Sanne stake figures bear no relation to David Cameron’s remuneration and presumably refer to a large number of employees and advisers.”
The source disputed reports that Cameron told friends he was set for a $60m windfall if Greensill floated on the stock exchange. “The figures being bandied around about his subsequent remuneration from Greensill are becoming increasingly inaccurate,” the source said. “His reported ‘boast’ to friends about his remuneration is fiction, but people keep repeating it.”
Meanwhile, the National Audit Office (NAO) is examining whether to investigate claims that Greensill Capital’s access to the scheme created a risk to public funds. While the NAO cannot look into Greensill’s business, it is able to investigate issues where value for public money is at stake. Anneliese Dodds, the shadow chancellor, has now written to Gareth Davies, head of the NAO, asking for an investigation.
The government has stated that the decision to accredit Greensill to the loan scheme was taken independently by the British Business Bank (BBB) and involved a “robust accreditation process”. The BBB later withdrew the state guarantee to Greensill’s loans. A spokesperson for Greensill Capital did not comment.
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https://jacobin.com/2021/04/david-cameron-greensill-scandal-corruption
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en
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It’s Time to End the UK’s Minister
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Former British prime minister David Cameron has been exposed using his contacts in government to help out his new bosses at finance firm Greensill Capital. The scandal points to the cronyism among Britain’s elites — and how a wider culture of privatization and outsourcing provides a breeding ground for corruption.
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https://jacobin.com/2021/04/david-cameron-greensill-scandal-corruption
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In the current series of BBC crime drama Line of Duty, a policeman at war with corruption is unhappy with how things are going at the top of government. “God give me strength . . . a bare-faced liar, promoted to our highest office! When did we stop caring about honesty and integrity?” Ted Hastings asks his commanding officer. Line of Duty has handled current affairs without shoehorning in hackneyed Brexit or Donald Trump allegories. But Hastings’s rant clearly had Boris Johnson in its sights.
Something is very wrong with standards in British public life, with an almost constant stream of contracts-for-friends stories from government. By this point, official procurement rules seem to exist mainly to add layers of expensive bureaucracy to the cronyism that’s going on anyway.
The latest such story came with revelations that former prime minister David Cameron successfully lobbied the current Tory government for expensive favors to his new finance bosses, when rules were relaxed due to the coronavirus outbreak. But this time, the scandal has been pursued more energetically than usual by journalists — because it just keeps getting worse.
The State, Class, and Greensill Capital
In March, finance firm Greensill Capital filed for insolvency, in turn threatening thousands of jobs in the beleaguered UK steel industry. Its founder, Lex Greensill, is an old banking colleague of former civil service chief Jeremy Heywood, and was first made a government adviser in 2011, early in David Cameron’s spell as prime minister. Greensill quickly moved to the heart of Cameron’s new health supply chain finance scheme, which was backed by his former employer Citigroup. Greensill was also placed in a network aimed at ensuring government is getting the “best value for taxpayers,” lauded by government chief procurement officer Bill Crothers. Crothers, while still a civil servant, became an adviser to Greensill Capital’s board.
Greensill Capital completely took over the National Health Service’s pharmacy supply chain finance scheme shortly before Cameron joined the firm as an adviser in 2018. Cameron met with his former Conservative cabinet colleagues on Greensill Capital’s behalf, traveled to Saudi Arabia with Greensill shortly before the pandemic hit, and lobbied German officials overseas when Greensill Capital came under fire in Berlin. In April, Cameron began lobbying Chancellor Rishi Sunak and other government figures, pushing for Greensill Capital to be involved in government-backed coronavirus crisis loans. He also asked for access to NHS staff data to facilitate selling the NHS a payday loan app for desperate and underpaid health workers. The soon-to-collapse Greensill Capital was quickly made a lender for the government’s Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme. Cameron failed to declare himself in the register of lobbyists his own government had created; claiming his twenty-five-day-a-year contract makes him an “employee,” as if he was hired for skills unrelated to his political career.
The case is particularly egregious. But it is also just one detail in a tapestry of elite networks around the state routinely swapping favors on the public purse with little regard for performance. During this episode, Greensill also met with Dido Harding, the Conservative life peer who failed out of her private-sector role at a telecoms company and into running the UK’s £37 billion unmitigated disaster of a coronavirus test and trace system. Meanwhile rules were waived to procure PPE during the pandemic, which would have been a reasonable response to unprecedented circumstances if it had actually gotten results rather than funneled absurd quantities of cash to cronies for substandard equipment. The Greensill affair broke within a week of news of prime minister Boris Johnson’s more literal affair with entrepreneur Jennifer Arcuri, who also benefited from thousands in public money. If you had a pound for each of these incidents in the last year alone, you could probably afford the £12,000 for a seat at the Conservative donors’ dinner involved in a similar recent scandal, where a tycoon had the housing secretary railroad planning authorities into approving a previously rejected development and dodging a £45 million payout to one of the UK’s poorest urban areas.
According to Martin Williams’s Parliament Ltd, in 2015, around 2,400 companies had politicians on their boards, and parliamentarians were taking £1 in external income from every £4 they earned as politicians. Two hundred ministers and senior civil servants took up lucrative lobbying jobs in 2018 alone. Such figures out of context might be benign; in the context of industries from mining to arms that lobby aggressively for favorable tax and labor policy, basically endemic tax avoidance, elite schools that still provide most senior public figures, porous boundaries between the state and private sector, and huge and opaque political donations, they point to state capture by elite networks with collective interests and overlapping dependencies. While this is all entirely legal; would it be surprising to suggest that such an environment provides a breeding ground for corruption?
“The Most Corrupt Place on Earth”
In David Cameron’s time as prime minister, there seemed to be at least some accountability for brazen grifting in public life, up to and including resignations. One feels somewhat sorry for operatives who once diligently covered up financial misdemeanors and now probably feel they need not have bothered; scandal after scandal explodes with seemingly zero repercussions. But the Cameron administration, as the Greensill affair shows, played its part in a long sequence of events leading to today’s age of lurid unaccountability.
Leaving aside very simple cases of blackmail or stealing for direct personal gain, much of what we call “corruption” is a fairly modern understanding of phenomena that have always defined Britain’s government and politics. The country has always had a numerically small and socially distinct elite, educated together before being conveyed seamlessly into the commanding heights of government, politics, and industry. Only relatively recently did politics and the economy become diversified, expansive, and widely owned and contested enough to warrant a more rigorous and objective framework of rules around relationships involving government.
But even as Britain modernized, new incentives emerged for elite cooperation around government behind closed doors. Margaret Thatcher’s privatization program shifted vast wealth and assets — accumulated with public money — to business in a swift time frame, driving incidents like the Westland affair. A command-and-control method of administration was gradually replaced with (undemocratic) decentralization; a shift “from government to governance,” in the words of Antonino Palumbo and Richard Bellamy. New Labour extended this shift with its obsessions with “choice” in public services. British neoliberalism both increased the role of profiteers in the design and delivery of public services, and created vast and complex bureaucratic infrastructure (often under the guise of cutting red tape!) to manage commissioning and oversee “competition.” All of this created difficult-to-understand systems that do a poor job of delivering actual results but are easy for a small number of experts to game. Indeed, even the logic of “best value for taxpayers” itself incentivized cronyism, as specialist private firms lost out on government contracts to all-purpose giants like Serco Group and Carillion who could lowball prices, develop close dependent relationships with ministers, and rarely be held accountable for failure.
Outside formal politics, the environment was even worse. As a deindustrialized Britain became ever more dependent on high finance, and its elite became smaller, richer, narrower, and too important to hold to account. Even the 2008 crash and high-profile cases like that of Fred Goodwin, whose comic levels of irresponsibility at the head of Royal Bank of Scotland and role in its collapse led to the stripping of the knighthood New Labour had granted him, did not fundamentally change the prevalence of misconduct or the casino economy it took place in.
This has been confirmed in recent years. The Libor rigging scandal underlined the scale of outright fraud bankers could carry out; only a few were properly caught. Huge firms with close relationships with both major parties encouraged and oversaw industrial-scale global tax avoidance. Britain’s sponsoring of the world’s tax havens through its overseas territories came to light in the Panama and Paradise papers, which implicated politics, business, and celebrity alike. London’s financial centers and overheated property market became a vast sink for cash of indeterminate legality, greased by a system that basically facilitates money-laundering, prompting a mafia expert to judge it “the most corrupt place on Earth.”
The Left and Anti-Corruption
When the casino economy ran out of chips in 2008, the Conservatives (then in opposition) deftly manipulated the situation. They shifted anger at a bipartisan parliamentary expenses scandal into a general narrative that “the state” or even “all of us” had spent too much. Political misconduct was used to pin the blame for a global crash on Labour, and then justify austerity and privatization. Such tricks continued once David Cameron was in government. After railing against Labour’s “quangos” — the orchestra of governance organizations charged with overseeing but not running public functions — he began simply stacking them with his own people.
Anti-lobbying laws aimed at curbing private influence in politics were used against charities criticizing inequality and climate change, as well as trade unions. Cameron was then out-Cameroned by the Brexit campaign’s spivs and millionaires, experts at railing against a system they had profited from and condemning the establishment, only to double down on the same processes. By 2020, the Conservatives had completed a sharp ideological shift, and their onetime savior Cameron was reduced to hanging around outside the Treasury with his new paymasters’ begging bowl.
The Conservatives have remained hegemonic for over a decade, in spite of everything. But public attitudes are malleable and conflicting. People think politicians are self-serving and on the take, and they mistrust most public institutions; however, the UK remains just shy of the top ten on the Corruption Perceptions Index. There is an inherent sense of fair play that sparks outrage at incidents of individual misconduct like that of ex-Johnson aide Dominic Cummings’s lockdown-breaking adventure, but large-scale cronyism or mismanagement stories rarely spark the same level of anger. Whether the Greensill affair “lands” remains to be seen.
Labour are pursuing it reasonably doggedly but avoiding political critique. As party leader, Jeremy Corbyn repeatedly pointed out that the aggressive outsourcing and privatization of the NHS provides boundless opportunities for corruption at worst and a raw deal for the public at best. When he presented undeniable evidence of the scale of planned privatization, the media responded by accusing him of being handed the evidence by Russia. Labour’s new leadership are instead sticking to a technocratic argument that may be more acceptable to columnists, but will probably be less likely to cut through to people.
Some advice for the Left can be drawn from all this. First, tackling the behavior of elite networks together is an area where currently loose concepts like a “transatlantic Left” can be operationally useful, defined by more than activists comparing notes. The current sell-off of UK doctors’ surgeries to an American private health care giant is one small example. Second, activists often fear vocally talking about corruption. This is because we argue, rightly, that there is little to distinguish illegal and legal capitalism in terms of negative impacts on people’s lives. We also fear the misuse of “corruption” in ideological battles; whether it’s right-wing tropes about trade unions as cartels, liberals placing every problem at the foot of dark money and Russia, or the new hard right’s “drain the swamp” rhetoric, which is usually a short jump to racist conspiracy theories.
Yet this is precisely why we ought to battle corruption. If individual venality is a lesser function of systemic issues, the reverse is also true: systems that incentivize venality will concentrate a lot of it around the corridors of power. If too many people watching these scandals draw the conclusion that there is only an issue when the law is broken, or that corrupt individuals are the root of all problems, or that “taking money out of politics” is achievable through a few restrictions on lobbying alone, then that is an argument for championing the anger at incidents like Greensill and setting them in context. If we do not, the hard right will; Viktor Orbán, Narendra Modi, Jair Bolsonaro, and Trump all came to power by weaponizing widely held perceptions of a rotten political establishment and seeding them with arguments for racism, austerity, war, climate denial, and handouts for the rich.
Let’s set the Greensill affair in context: a former prime minister used the outbreak of a deadly pandemic to acquire preferential financial treatment for his bosses, while billions were being handed out to government-linked businesses who seem to have charged us up to £800 per protective overall. Meanwhile, the health workers fighting a lethal virus while wearing trash bags for want of proper PPE are now being offered a paltry 1 percent pay raise. From refusing to raise sick pay to corralling people into offices when the virus was still running riot, policy decisions were made by and for elites. Neither individual greed and stupidity nor structural flaws can explain this disaster completely; they have combined to produce something more rotten than the sum of their parts.
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https://www.counterfire.org/article/cameron-getting-caught-and-the-new-corruption/
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en
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Cameron, getting caught and the new corruption
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The Greensill scandal is not about one man, it shows corruption is now a method of government in Britain, argues Chris Nineham
The story of David Cameron’s relationship with Lex Greensill is one of shameless personal corruption.
|
en
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Counterfire
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https://www.counterfire.org/article/cameron-getting-caught-and-the-new-corruption/
|
The Greensill scandal is not about one man, it shows corruption is now a method of government in Britain, argues Chris Nineham
The story of David Cameron’s relationship with Lex Greensill is one of shameless personal corruption. But the scandal is really about a system of government.
Former prime minister Cameron’s relentless lobbying among his political chums on behalf of Greenshill for personal gain is repellent.
It is made worse by the fact that Greensill pioneered ‘supply chain finance’, a practice which involved false accounting methods and has led to the collapse of Greensill Capital and a number of client companies with a huge loss of jobs and potential losses to the taxpayer.
It’s even more sickening given that Cameron campaigned against lobbying when he was prime minister. In one 2010 speech that must now make even him wince he argued:
‘There is a deepening suspicion that politicians are out to serve themselves and not the country. A couple of months ago I said that this was the next big scandal waiting to happen. I warned that the culture of excessive lobbying and quiet words in the Minister’s ear was threatening to do even more damage to the battered reputation of Parliament.’
But this affair is about much more than lobbying, or one former prime minister’s undoubted lack of a moral compass. In one sense Cameron was unlucky. It is almost certain that his behaviour only emerged because of Greensill Capital’s spectacular failure. But it has opened up a window on Whitehall and tells us a lot about the modern way of doing government.
Two things about it strike you immediately. One is the sheer number of red lines which Cameron appears to have crossed. The other is the way people in positions of power seem to have regarded Cameron’s behaviour as completely normal.
To recap what we know so far, back in 2011 when he was prime minister, Lex Greensill was made an advisor at Number 10 around the time he was setting up his company Greensill Capital. Despite the fact that Greensill was a relative novice in the business world and had zero government experience he had his very own business card describing him as a ‘senior advisor’ to ‘the prime minister’s office’.
The main purpose of this appointment appears to have been to give him access to the government contracts and apparently Greensill spent his time pitching financial projects across Whitehall.
In 2015 Bill Crothers, one of Whitehall’s most senior civil servants, began working for Greensill as an advisor while still in office and then left Whitehall to become a full time advisor for Greensill. This move was approved by the Cabinet permanent secretary.
Fast forward to 2018 and Cameron, having failed to raise much from after dinner speeches or a flopped memoir, is given an advisor’s job by his friend Lex Greensill.
As a result in 2019, he arranged a private drink with Greensill, himself and Matt Hancock to discuss a payment scheme for the NHS. Sure enough in 2020, ‘Earnd,’ a mobile app connected to Greensill, was adopted for use by NHS employees to access their pay. Bill Crothers was present at this meeting.
In January 2020, just over a year after the murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi, Cameron arranged a meeting between Greensill and the Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman in return for an extra grant of shares.
In the following months Cameron used his access to lobby cabinet ministers, senior civil servants and a No 10 special adviser for preferential treatment for Greensill. In particular he texted, emailed and apparently phoned Rishi Sunak to persuade him to include Greensill Capital in the Covid Corporate Financing Facility (CCFF). The ploy failed but Sunak replied saying he had ‘pushed’ his officials to try and find ways of admitting Greensill to a bank of England loan scheme.
All this would seem to break a number basic principles. Isn’t there supposed to be a separation between the political and business worlds and isn’t the government meant to make decisions in the interests of the electorate rather than particular businesspeople? Aren’t former politicians supposed not to deploy their contacts for personal gain? And isn’t Britain’s civil service part of a neutral state that is carefully protected from particular commercial pressures?
Apparently not. Here we have a businessman embedded in the heart of government, a former prime minister using his contacts to pursue business interests and ministers apparently happy to give preferential treatment to friends of friends.
The fact is the separation between commercial interests and the state has always been largely formal. The heads of the civils service, senior politicians and big business have always had close informal contact and the civil service has always run on the idea that the national interests and the interests of big business are pretty much the same thing.
When in 1974 Labour was elected on its most radical manifesto ever, industry minister Tony Benn was confronted by a senior civil servant warning him not to try and implement his programme. As he wrote in his diaries, Benn’s experience was that the Department of Industry acts ‘simply as a mouthpiece for the CBI’.
But things have changed. Since then, Thatcher and her successors have broken down many of the limited divisions that did exist. The public sector has been opened up to business as services have been sold off or outsourced at a spectacular rate. By 2018, half of total government spending on goods and services – more than £93 billion – went to third party providers.
Thatcher and her successors, Blair and Cameron in particular, went further and opened Whitehall itself up to business. Thatcher gave unaccountable and often industry-funded bodies called ‘quangos’ more and more control over state operations. Blair imported business expertise into government at levels unprecedented in peace time.
Under Cameron, regulatory bodies like the Food Standards Authority were replaced directly by groups of business representatives. In 2011 a ‘buddy’ scheme was introduced for 38 big companies in trade and industry to give them a direct line to minsters and top civil servants. By the end of 2012 the 38 companies involved, more than two-thirds foreign-based, had held 700 face to face meetings with ministers.
Cameron’s cabinet secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood even suggested opening up policy making itself to an external bidding process.
It is not surprising then that while in the past the civil service has made much of its internal career paths and its members’ commitment to public service, now nearly half of top civil servants are recruited from the private sector. A steady stream of ministers and top bureaucrats go on to high paid city jobs. This blurring of boundaries which amounts to a corporate takeover of Whitehall is quite simply the new normal.
Comically, as if to prove the point, Nigel Boardman, the lawyer heading up Johnson’s inquiry into lobbying, is a non-executive board member of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and belongs to a partnership of corporate lawyers with a history of campaigning against the regulation of lobbying!
All this shows that in the minds of Tories, government and business are virtually the same thing. As a result, corruption is endemic. This is why they have mostly failed to respond to the pandemic. They had neither the mechanisms nor the mindset to co-ordinate a government-led response. When faced with a problem, their instinct is to throw money at their private sector chums. So that is what they did.
One thing Cameron was right about. This is a set-up which is almost designed to undermine public confidence in Westminster, Whitehall and the establishment circus that surrounds it.
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https://www.globalgovernmentforum.com/ministerial-code-no-longer-working-and-needs-overhaul-warns-uk-think-tank/
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Ministerial code no longer working and needs overhaul, warns think tank
|
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2021-07-08T16:41:04+00:00
|
The UK’s ministerial code, which governs ministers’ behaviour, needs to be “overhauled” and underpinned by statute, the IfG says
|
en
|
https://www.globalgovernmentforum.com/ministerial-code-no-longer-working-and-needs-overhaul-warns-uk-think-tank/
|
The UK’s ministerial code, which establishes the standards that govern ministers’ behaviour, needs to be “overhauled” and underpinned by statute, according to a leading think tank.
Multiple incidents – including revelations following the resignation of health secretary Matt Hancock – have shown that the ministerial code is “no longer working”, according to the report, published last week by London-based Institute for Government (IfG).
Indeed, the UK prime minister Boris Johnson has himself “undermined the code”, it notes. “While the prime minister will always be ultimately responsible for standards in government – or the lack of them – a strengthened code, with proper independent investigations, will help rebuild confidence that standards still matter,” the IfG adds.
Code controversies
The report references a lack of transparency in government, highlighting the way in which former prime minister David Cameron lobbied multiple ministers on behalf of Greensill Capital.
It also points to questions surrounding then secretary of state for health Matt Hancock’s affair with Gina Coladangelo, who he appointed to a publicly funded position with responsibility for scrutinising Hancock’s own department. Hancock resigned after a film emerged of him breaking social distancing rules with Coladangelo.
“How and why Gina Coladangelo was first appointed as an adviser and then a non-executive director in the Department of Health and Social Care, the apparent conflicts of interest even before any romantic relationship started and the wider reports of Hancock’s use of a personal email account are all controversies the ministerial code should have guarded against,” the report states.
Indeed, the IfG says that controversies have occurred in multiple departments under the current government.
“During this government we have seen the prime minister’s independent adviser on ministerial interests resign when Johnson disagreed with his assessment that the home secretary, Priti Patel, had breached the code in her behaviour towards civil servants,” the report notes.
“The communities secretary, Robert Jenrick, was not even investigated over his handling of planning decisions in favour of a housing development by a Conservative Party donor. And the prime minister himself has been accused of failing to live up to the code, including by being unable to explain definitively who had first paid for the refurbishment of the No.11 Downing Street flat.”
Recommendations
The report recommends that the ministerial code – and its principles – be given a statutory underpinning, alongside the role of the prime minister’s independent adviser on ministerial interests, currently Lord Geidt.
The prime minister’s independent adviser should also have a more robust role, according to the IfG. This should include the ability to start investigations and publish findings without prior prime ministerial agreement and to propose changes to the ministerial code.
It also says that the code should be updated, including making it clear that ministers must not conduct government business using personal mobile phones, clarifying the rules on ministers’ use of social media, and improving transparency on who ministers meet.
Further recommendations include explaining possible sanctions against ministers in breach. At the moment, the report notes, there is only one specific sanction in the code, which is that ministers who intentionally mislead parliament should resign. The new code should explain that a range of sanctions are available, the report says.
“Suspending ministers would be tantamount to requiring their resignation, but fines or public apologies, either in writing or to parliament, or having their breach investigated and the key findings published, would be strong deterrents,” the IfG advises.
“In any case, the model of a range of penalties is helpful, with resignation still an important sanction when a minister has committed a serious breach or lost the confidence of the prime minister,” it adds.
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https://www.civilserviceworld.com/professions/article/francis-maude-out-as-minister-for-the-cabinet-office-as-matt-hancock-takes-the-reins
|
en
|
Francis Maude out as minister for the Cabinet Office as Matt Hancock takes the reins
|
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2020-06-24T21:26:15
|
As David Cameron finalises post-election Cabinet, former business minister Matt Hancock is unveiled as Francis Maude's replacement
|
en
|
/_img/_favicons/apple-touch-icon.png
|
Civil Service World
|
https://www.civilserviceworld.com/professions/article/francis-maude-out-as-minister-for-the-cabinet-office-as-matt-hancock-takes-the-reins
|
Matt Hancock is to succeed Francis Maude as minister for the Cabinet Office, Downing Street has confirmed, as David Cameron put the finishing touches to his new Cabinet following the Conservatives' election victory.
Hancock – who has previously served as a minister of state at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) – will take forward the efficiency and civil service reform post at the Cabinet Office and will attend Cabinet.
He will also serve as paymaster general, while Oliver Letwin moves from his minister for policy role to taking "overall charge" of the Cabinet Office in what appears to be a split of the roles previously occupied by Maude. Maude – who remained in post the full five years of the last parliament, overseeing major reform to the civil service – is to take on a new role as minister for trade at the Foreign Office and BIS.
Cameron announced that Letwin would attend Cabinet as a "full member" in his roles as Duchy of Lancaster. CSW is currently awaiting further details of how responsibility will be divided between the two ministers.
Related articles
Who is Matt Hancock, the new man in charge of civil service reform?
Reshuffle: Cameron names DCMS, DECC and BIS secretaries
What does the 2015 Conservative manifesto mean for the civil service?
The Francis Maude interview: "Buy-in is great, but the civil service doesn’t have a veto on its own reform"
Hancock's appointment has been welcomed by the Institute for Government think tank, who also paid tribute to the "extensive work and personal commitment" shown by Francis Maude over his five years in the job.
"Political leadership is crucial to securing lasting changes to the way central government operates and to building support in the civil service for reform," said the Institute's director Peter Riddell.
"Mr Hancock has already shown himself an energetic minister, encouraging apprenticeships and promoting business and innovation. He now faces big challenges, not only in achieving the large efficiency savings which the Conservatives promised in their election manifesto, but also in extending digital government and further reforming the operation of Whitehall."
Dave Penman, general secretary of the FDA union, said Hancock would need to demonstrate "clear vision" of how the Conservatives' plans for further spending reductions would be met, warning that the civil service "cannot simply be treated as a tool for deficit reduction".
He added: "If it is to be smaller but more able, the government needs to outline how it will provide civil servants with the recognition, reward and resources they need to deliver the services the public expects.”
A spokesperson for the PCS union – whose general secretary Mark Serwotka frequently clashed with Maude over changes to public sector pay and terms during his tenure – meanwhile said that Hancock would have a "tough act to follow" in matching the outgoing MCO's "capacity for disharmony".
Meanwhile, it has been confirmed that Labour's Lucy Powell is to stay in post as shadow minister for the Cabinet Office following the party's election defeat. Powell, who served as a key adviser to former leader Ed Miliband, has been in the job since November of last year, replacing Michael Dugher.
Lord Falconer, who led the party's discussions with the civil service before its election defeat, has been handed the shadow justice brief for the opposition.
Wider reshuffle
Away from the Cabinet Office, the prime minister has largely opted for continuity in his post-election reshuffle. However, he has made some significant changes to his top team this afternoon, including the replacement of Eric Pickles as communities secretary.
Pickles is to be replaced by Greg Clark, his former junior at the Department for Communities and Local Government. The outgoing secretary of state said he "could not wish for a better successor" than Clark, and promised "more announcements later in the week" on his new role.
Clark can now be expected to oversee the Tories' manifesto pledge to extend the 'Right to Buy' policy – which allows social housing tenants to buy their own homes – to housing association properties.
The party has also pledged further devolution of major transport, economic development and social care powers to cities which opt to introduce elected mayors, a manifesto promise likely to draw on Clark's experience of bringing in new 'City Deals' as a DCLG minister.
In further changes announced today, the prime minister confirmed that the former culture, media and sport committee chair John Whittingdale would take the helm at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), replacing Sajid Javid, who moves to become business secretary. Amber Rudd has been promoted from energy minister to secretary of state, succeeding Liberal Democrat Ed Davey. David Mundell, Scotland's only Conservative MP, becomes Scottish secretary.
Continuity
Cameron's other appointments saw much of his Cabinet remain in place, with the Department of Health, Department for Transport, Department for International Development and the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs all keeping their pre-election secretaries of state.
Jeremy Hunt will continue to serve as health secretary; Patrick McLoughlin stays on as secretary of state for transport; Justine Greening keeps her international development job; Theresa Villiers remains as Northern Ireland secretary; Stephen Crabb continues at the Wales Office; and Liz Truss stays on as environment secretary.
Some commentators had speculated that Cameron might use the reshuffle to announce a series of machinery of government changes, with DCMS and the Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland offices identified as likely candidates for abolition or merger. However, the appointment of Javid at DCMS, and the reappointment of Villiers at the NI office and Crabb at the Wales office suggests the prime minister has shied away from a major overhaul of Whitehall.
It was announced over the weekend that Iain Duncan Smith would been kept on as work and pensions secretary, joining chancellor George Osborne, home secretary Theresa May, education secretary Nicky Morgan, defence secretary Michael Fallon and foreign secretary Philip Hammond as Cabinet ministers who will stay in their jobs in Cameron's new majority government.
Michael Gove meanwhile moves to the post of justice secretary, with his predecessor Chris Grayling taking on the job of Commons leader, responsible for overseeing government business in the House.
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https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-63653325
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en
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Matt Hancock on I'm A Celebrity: Has the controversial MP been forgiven?
|
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[
""
] | null |
[
"Katie Razzall"
] |
2022-11-27T22:46:37+00:00
|
The ex-health secretary was eliminated from I'm a Celebrity, so was his appearance a failure?
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en
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/bbcx/apple-touch-icon.png
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https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-63653325
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Former Health Secretary Matt Hancock came third in the jungle final, having made it there against the odds.
His appearance on I'm a Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! had caused public outcry.
The MP defended his decision to leave his constituents behind, saying he wanted to raise awareness of dyslexia and show that politicians are human beings.
But has reality TV proved a path to redemption or a PR stunt?
'A bit of forgiveness'
Early on in his time in the jungle, Hancock told the other contestants he was looking for "a bit of forgiveness".
A Place in the Sun's Scarlette Douglas said it brought tears to her eyes.
But what about the rest of us, watching at home?
For many in his constituency and wider, the sight of Hancock (with his reported £400,000 fee) gadding around Down Under so soon after his actions during the pandemic plainly stuck in the craw.
Let's not forget, less than 18 months ago, Hancock was caught on camera in an excruciating clinch with his aide, now partner, Gina Coladangelo. He'd broken the social distancing rules he'd helped create (and told the rest of us we must follow).
As health secretary, he even more damagingly presided over a hospital discharge policy at the start of the pandemic that saw elderly patients, some of whom it turned out had Covid, moved into care homes. It allowed the disease to spread rapidly. Many thousands of people in those homes died in the first stages of the pandemic.
Many argue that there's a lot to atone for. Was reality TV the way to do it?
Modern day stocks
The medieval shaming of being pelted with rotten vegetables in the stocks has been replaced by daunting trials of sufferance inflicted by exotic animals, living and dead - Hancock was stung by a scorpion and ate both a camel penis and a sheep vagina.
This type of TV can be a vehicle for humiliation. The producers know it, the public loves it. It's presumably why Hancock did six consecutive Bushtucker trials at the start - five of which were the result of a public vote.
But Hancock wasn't humiliated. If people wanted to see him fail, he didn't. Instead he was good at the trials. That may be why the public started choosing other celebrities to do them instead. Hancock the hero wasn't what they were after.
Or did they begin to warm to this politician who seemed, frankly, capable?
Some newspapers have reported a behind the scenes PR campaign to garner votes for Hancock. But people may have genuinely felt some sympathy for him after the spiky reception he received from some of his fellow celebrities when he arrived.
As the former Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries, who has also been on the show, pointed out, Hancock outlasted contestants she said had been "unpleasant, mean and gossipy" about him.
One of those she named, Chris Moyles, when he was eliminated on Thursday joked: "I'm gutted Matt Hancock is more popular than me. What is going on?"
Just over a year ago, the UK's early response to the pandemic, when Hancock was health secretary, was judged "one of the UK's worst ever public health failures", by two Parliamentary committees.
The Government always said it was guided by the science and that scientists didn't know at the start that people without symptoms could spread Covid.
Perhaps the public, or at least those watching I'm a Celebrity, happily distinguish individuals from wider collective political decisions.
The programme's voting system may also have kept Hancock in the show far longer than many expected. If viewers had been voting to oust rather than voting to keep, he might not have lasted as long as he did.
Or, as David Yelland, the former Sun editor who now has years of experience running a communications company, told me, it may be that keeping Hancock there just made "good TV".
Despite his success, getting to the programme final, Yelland believes Hancock's reputation has actually gone down amongst the wider public while he has been in the jungle. People "have a lower opinion of him than when he started this strategy".
Stunt or genuine contrition?
Whether Hancock is genuine or a master of PR is key to whether he can truly earn the forgiveness he said he sought.
He's not the first politician to try to reinvent himself through reality TV. Who can forget George Galloway crawling around pretending to be a cat on Celebrity Big Brother? The former Labour and Respect MP purring and lapping up cream is an image that can never be unseen.
Ditto Ed Balls' Gangnam Style on Strictly, although in his case, moving from Westminster to waltzing actually worked and Balls is now a respected media presenter.
Neither, though, had sunk to the levels of public opprobrium that Hancock has.
Sir Craig Oliver worked with Matt Hancock and says he wishes him well.
"He has fallen very far, very fast," the former director of communications for David Cameron told me.
But by entering the jungle, "he took a huge gamble," Sir Craig says. "Lots of people including me would have said 'don't do it'. People were expecting such a terrible pasting for him. What he has done is show his 'can do, don't let anything knock you down, thick skin positive attitude'. He will see it as job done."
However Sir Craig believes "the jury is very much out" on whether it's enough to create a new career as a media personality.
Yelland says "there may be ways he can make money but that's not really the point. I think he has to apologise for what happened on his watch, serve his constituents and seek to restore his reputation first".
Seeking forgiveness
When a politician transgresses, it's very public. The former MP and Conservative Cabinet minister, Jonathan Aitken went to jail in 1999 for perjury and perverting the course of justice.
He has since been ordained a priest and is now a deacon.
I asked him whether Hancock will be forgiven. He told me forgiveness and redemption, according to Christian teaching, "are not something we can earn, except by being genuinely humble, genuinely penitent and totally sincere in our wish to be forgiven".
Aitken revealed that after he left prison, Celebrity Big Brother came calling. "I turned it down," he said. "I thought it would be a circus and not a real way of moving along the road of forgiveness."
But the former Conservative MP doesn't view Hancock's decision to take part in I'm a Celebrity cynically.
"I think he is signalling that he knows he has done something of some enormity, to all the people who trusted him in politics, to his wife," Aitken says.
"He may even have succumbed to the temptation to over-atone. He's fallen publicly and he thinks he has to atone in public."
Can Hancock be forgiven?
He said he wanted to offer a politician's human side and, in that sense, he has. We know, for example, he likes Ed Sheeran, has "cooked over a firepit all my life" and, age 14, feared his family were going to lose everything "when the business nearly went bust".
Despite his three weeks on the programme, there are still many who will never forgive him. Not least the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice who flew a banner over the camp.
So what's next?
Sir Craig told me: "You can never say never in politics, but it's very hard to see him coming back to the frontline."
Even if his career in top flight politics is over, that doesn't mean we won't be hearing a lot more from Hancock, certainly in the short term.
His book, Pandemic Diaries, will be published in December, and there'll be another reality TV appearance, in Channel 4's Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins.
And if all this positioning does bring about a long-lasting and lucrative media career, who's next? Liz Truss in next year's I'm A Celebrity, anyone?
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0
| 15
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https://observer.com/2022/04/anatomy-of-a-scandal-feels-real-about-power-and-politics-despite-soap-opera-cheesiness/
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en
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‘Anatomy of a Scandal’ Feels Real About Power and Politics Despite Soap Opera Cheesiness
|
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2022-04-15T11:30:44
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The Netflix limited series 'Anatomy of a Scandal' makes points about power and politics but is marred by cheesy soap opera execution.
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en
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Observer
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https://observer.com/2022/04/anatomy-of-a-scandal-feels-real-about-power-and-politics-despite-soap-opera-cheesiness/
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Last summer, Britain’s health secretary, Matt Hancock, resigned after it emerged that the married MP had relationship with a married colleague in his office. Those real-life events give Netflix’s Anatomy of a Scandal, a limited series about a philandering MP charged with rape, the feeling of plausibility. Based on Sarah Vaughn’s popular 2018 novel, the series feels oddly prescient, resonating deeply in a Britain where the government is controlled by Eton and Oxford elite who are rarely held to account, even in the worst of wrongdoings.
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But Anatomy of a Scandal, created by David E. Kelley and Melissa James Gibson, is presented with far more dramatic flair than any real-world scandal. The story centers a handsome MP, James Whitehouse, played by Rupert Friend, who is put on trial after being accused of rape by the woman he was having an affair with. The accusation and resulting trial sends his wife, Sophie, embodied with grace by Sienna Miller, into a tailspin. In the courtroom, Barrister Kate Woodcroft (Michelle Dockery) has to contend with James’ charm and refusal to acknowledge that he may have overstepped with his young, impressionable aide Olivia (Naomi Scott).
That narrative is compelling, especially as flashbacks to James and Sophie’s Oxford days reveal secrets that have been long-hidden. The problem is in the execution, as directed by S.J. Clarkson, who helmed all six episodes. The camera is constantly tilting and twisting itself, like in some kind of Lifetime thriller, and the attempts at cinematic grandeur come across as a cheesy soap opera. At one point, as James is being questioned by Kate on the stand, the lights dim and reveal the two alone in the courtroom. In another scene, when James first hears of Olivia’s accusation, James is literally flung backwards in slow motion, the physical jolt mirroring his inner gut punch. It’s an unnecessary gimmick. The story is dramatic enough; these overwrought visual choices take away from the complexity of the circumstances.
Much like The Undoing, Anatomy of a Scandal relies on courtroom scenes and stylized flashbacks to tell its tale. As the episodes unfold, we learn more and more about James’ university years, during which he was a privileged, entitled kid whose best friend was the now-Prime Minister Tom Southern (Geoffrey Streatfield). Some bad stuff happened back then—suddenly David Cameron’s Piggate doesn’t seem so far-fetched—and the consequences of James’ past actions are informing his future. A serious twist comes at the end of episode four that recasts what we know of Kate and ripples into the finale. Miller, Dockery and Friend take the show seriously, even with all of the odd camerawork and soap-y moments, which sells the plausibility of the plot just enough to keep it interesting.
Clarkson, known for her work on Jessica Jones, may have had an uphill battle with the subject matter, particularly the discussions of consent. The viewer will want James to be held accountable—as we want all entitled male politicians to be held accountable for their misdeeds—but Anatomy of a Scandal avoids that big cathartic moment. Olivia is cast as unreliable, even as Kate aptly argues her case, and James’ testimony amounts to the fact that she lying. Other recent TV shows, like I May Destroy You, have played with the issues around consent, memory, and rape to much greater success.
What’s more successful is the show’s conversation around power and who is allowed to wield it. Vaughn recently said that James was partially inspired by Boris Johnson, the current U.K. prime minister, telling the Times that Johnson doesn’t necessarily always realize he’s lying. “It was very clear that he had a very different moral compass, that he was playing by different rules,” she said. That’s true of the current British government, certainly, especially as they try to shake off Partygate, but also rings bells in the U.S. and other countries as well. The men in power are groomed from a young age and feel entitled to their elite status. When James claims that he shouldn’t be on trial because he’s always been in service to his country, Kate incredulously asks if he thinks he can get away with rape because of his position. It’s clear he thinks exactly that.
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https://worldwide-politics.fandom.com/wiki/Matt_Hancock
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Matt Hancock
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2024-07-29T22:27:06+00:00
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Matthew John David Hancock (born 2 October 1978) is a British politician who served as Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General from 2015 to 2016, Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport from January to July 2018, and Secretary of State for Health and Social Care...
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Worldwide Politics Wiki
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https://worldwide-politics.fandom.com/wiki/Matt_Hancock
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Matthew John David Hancock (born 2 October 1978) is a British politician who served as Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General from 2015 to 2016, Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport from January to July 2018, and Secretary of State for Health and Social Care from 2018 to 2021. He was Member of Parliament (MP) for West Suffolk from 2010 to 2024. He is a member of the Conservative Party.
Hancock was born in Cheshire, with his family running a software business. He studied a BA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) at Exeter College, Oxford, and an MPhil in Economics at Christ's College, Cambridge. He was an economist at the Bank of England before serving as a senior economic adviser and later chief of staff to MP, George Osborne. Hancock was first elected as MP for West Suffolk at the 2010 general election.
Once in Parliament, Hancock served as a junior minister at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills from 2012 to 2015, and was the United Kingdom Anti-Corruption Champion from 2014 to 2015. He attended David Cameron's cabinet as Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General from 2015 to 2016. After Theresa May became prime minister following Cameron's resignation, Hancock was moved to the post of Minister of State for Digital and Culture. He was promoted to May's cabinet as Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. In July 2018, after the promotion of Jeremy Hunt to Foreign Secretary, Hancock replaced him as Secretary of State for Health and Social Care. After May's resignation, Hancock stood in the Conservative Party leadership election to replace her, but withdrew shortly after the first ballot and subsequently endorsed Boris Johnson. After Johnson became prime minister, Hancock retained his position as health secretary in his cabinet.
Hancock's tenure as health secretary was marked by the COVID-19 pandemic, which he played a prominent role in the UK government's response to. Hancock oversaw efforts to procure PPE, but the absence of a competitive tendering process for the award of some contracts proved controversial. He expanded COVID-19 testing and tracing, and also oversaw the early stage of the UK's COVID-19 vaccination programme. In June 2021, it was shown that he had breached COVID-19 social distancing restrictions by kissing and embracing Gina Coladangelo in his office. Coladangelo was at that time a director at the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), and Hancock was having an extramarital affair with her. Following this controversy, Hancock resigned as health secretary and returned to the backbenches. He was succeeded by Sajid Javid.
In November 2022, Hancock had the whip suspended after announcing he would be appearing as a contestant in the twenty-second series of the survival reality television show I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!, in which he finished in third place. He stood down as an MP at the 2024 general election.
Early life and education[]
Matthew Hancock was born on 2 October 1978 in Chester, Cheshire, to Michael Hancock and Shirley Hills. Hancock has an older sister and a brother.
Hancock attended Farndon County Primary School, in Farndon, Cheshire, and the fee-paying King's School, Chester. He took A-levels in Maths, Physics, Computing, and Economics. He later studied computing at the further education college, West Cheshire College. Hancock then studied at Exeter College, Oxford, and graduated with a first in Philosophy, Politics and Economics, and later earned a MPhil degree in Economics at Christ's College, Cambridge. He was diagnosed with dyslexia at university. Hancock became a member of the Conservative Party in 1999.
Early career[]
After university, Hancock briefly worked for his family's computer software company, Border Business Systems, and for a backbench Conservative MP, before moving to London to work as an economist at the Bank of England, specialising in the housing market. In 2005, he was an economic adviser to the Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, later becoming Osborne's chief of staff.
Parliamentary career[]
Hancock was selected as the Conservative candidate for West Suffolk in January 2010. He narrowly won the contest, defeating Natalie Elphicke (a solicitor who later became MP for Dover), by 88 votes to 81 in the final ballot. At the 2010 general election, Hancock was elected as MP for West Suffolk with 50.6% of the vote and a majority of 13,050.
In June 2010, Hancock was elected to the Public Accounts Committee. He served on this committee until November 2012. Hancock also served on the Standards and Privileges Committee from October 2010 to December 2012.
In 2011, Hancock became a member of the Free Enterprise Group, a group of Thatcherite Conservatives co-founded by Liz Truss. In January 2013, he was accused of dishonesty by Daybreak presenter, Matt Barbet, after claiming he had been excluded from a discussion about apprentices after turning up "just 30 seconds late". Hancock acknowledged on social media that he was running late, but said he turned up ahead of time for the interview and was unfairly blocked from going on set by producers. Barbet said Hancock knew he was "much more than a minute late" and he should have arrived half an hour beforehand to prepare for the interview.
In October 2013, Hancock joined the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills as the Minister of State for Skills and Enterprise.
In June 2014, Hancock, in his role as a minister, encouraged employers to become involved in offering more apprenticeships, allowing young people to learn and earn simultaneously.
On 15 July 2014, Hancock was appointed to the position of Minister of State for Business and Enterprise. On 27 July, he announced protection from fracking for National Parks, seen as a method of reducing anger in Conservative constituencies ahead of the election. Interviewed on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme, he rejected the suggestion that fracking was highly unpopular but he was unable to name any village that backed it.
Hancock served as Minister of State for Energy from 2014 to 2015. In this role he was criticised for hiring a private jet with senior diplomatic officials to fly back from a climate conference in Aberdeen, where he signed a deal with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto to use British expertise in Mexico. A Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) spokesman said the chartered flight was organised to fit around diary commitments, and the conference was not about climate change, but it was a visit to a university and discussion about investment. Hancock was later criticised for accepting money from a key backer of climate change denial organisation, Global Warming Policy Foundation.
In October 2014, he apologised after retweeting a poem suggesting that the Labour Party was "full of queers", describing his actions as a "total accident".
At the 2015 general election, Hancock was re-elected as MP for West Suffolk with an increased vote share of 52.2% and an increased majority of 14,984.
Hancock became Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General on 11 May 2015. Hancock launched a new social mobility drive to promote diversity within the civil service, outlining his vision in a speech in February 2016. He led David Cameron's "earn or learn" taskforce which aimed to have every young person working or studying from April 2017. He announced that jobless 18 to 21-year-olds would be required to do work experience as well as looking for jobs, or face losing their benefits.
In the 2016 UK referendum on EU membership, Hancock supported the UK remaining within the EU.
Hancock was again re-elected at the snap 2017 general election with an increased vote share of 61.2% and an increased majority of 17,063. He was again re-elected at the 2019 general election with an increased vote share of 65.8% and an increased majority of 23,194.
Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport[]
Hancock moved to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport as the Minister of State for Digital and Culture on 15 July 2016 after Theresa May became Prime Minister. As minister for digital policy, Hancock in June 2017 recommitted to a "full fibre" digital policy. This promised that 97% of the UK would enjoy "superfast broadband" at speeds of at least 24 megabits per second by 2020.
In August 2017, Hancock oversaw the strengthening of UK data protection law. As Digital Minister he announced people would have more control over their personal data and be better protected in the digital age.
On 8 January 2018, Hancock was appointed Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport in Theresa May's 2018 cabinet reshuffle, succeeding Karen Bradley. On his first day in the role he criticised the BBC for the amounts of pay its foreign journalists received, and said that some men at the corporation were paid "far more than equivalent public servants".
In early 2018, Hancock was the first MP to launch his own mobile app, eponymously named the "Matt Hancock MP App", which functioned as a social network for him to communicate with his constituents and give people updates in relation to his cabinet role. The head of privacy rights group Big Brother Watch called the app a "fascinating comedy of errors", after the app was found to collect its users' photographs, friend details, check-ins, and contact information. Hancock said his app collected data once consent was granted by the user. The app was eventually shut down at the beginning of 2023.
In May 2018, as Media Secretary, Hancock confirmed the highest stake on fixed odds betting terminals would be cut to £2, after Prime Minister May sided with him over the issue.
Secretary of State for Health and Social Care[]
May Ministry[]
Following Jeremy Hunt's appointment as Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, Hancock was appointed Secretary of State for Health and Social Care for England on 9 July 2018.
In November 2018, Hancock was criticised after appearing to endorse a mobile phone health app marketed by the subscription health service company Babylon in the Evening Standard. Babylon allegedly sponsored the newspaper article. The Labour MP Justin Madders wrote to Theresa May accusing Hancock of repeatedly endorsing the products of a company that receives NHS funds for patients it treats, which contravenes ministerial guidelines. The ministerial code includes that ministers should not "normally accept invitations to act as patrons of, or otherwise offer support to, pressure groups or organisations dependent in whole or in part on Government funding".
In April 2019, Hancock, who had previously said the NHS would face "no privatisation on my watch", was criticised by Labour for allowing 21 NHS contracts worth £127 million to be tendered.
2019 Conservative Party leadership candidacy[]
After Theresa May announced her intention to resign as Prime Minister on 24 May 2019, Hancock announced his intention to stand for the Conservative Party leadership. During this campaign, Hancock opposed the prorogation of Parliament to deliver Brexit and called on his fellow leadership candidates to join him on 6 June 2019. He proposed a televised debate with other candidates. He withdrew from the race on 14 June shortly after winning only twenty votes on the first ballot. Following his withdrawal, he endorsed Boris Johnson for the role.
Early Johnson premiership[]
Hancock continued in his role as Health Secretary in Prime Minister Boris Johnson's cabinet. He supported the prorogation of parliament in 2019 by Johnson which he had previously opposed while running for the Conservative leadership. On 24 September the Supreme Court ruled that the prorogation was unlawful.
In a September 2019 Channel 4 News interview, Hancock was asked to respond to allegations that at a private lunch in 1999, Johnson had groped the leg of journalist Charlotte Edwardes under a table. Edwardes also claimed that Johnson did the same to another woman at the same private lunch. In his reply to the Channel 4 News question, Hancock said of Charlotte Edwardes, "I know Charlotte well and I entirely trust what she has to say. I know her and I know her to be trustworthy", a view shared by fellow Conservative MP Amber Rudd. Both Johnson and anonymous Downing Street officials denied the allegation.
In October 2019, Hancock was lobbied by former Prime Minister David Cameron and financier Lex Greensill to introduce a payment scheme. Hancock was implicated in the Greensill scandal as the payment scheme was later rolled out within the NHS.
In November 2019, Hancock publicly apologised to Bethany, a teenager diagnosed with autism, for being kept in solitary confinement in various psychiatric facilities. Hancock apologised "for the things that have gone wrong in her care" and said her case in particular was "incredibly difficult and complex", calling Bethany's case "heart-rending" and saying that he had insisted on "a case review of every single person in those conditions."
COVID-19 pandemic[]
On 31 January 2020, COVID-19 was confirmed to have spread to the UK. Hancock said the Government was considering "some quite significant actions that would have social and economic disruption". After the government gave strict social distancing advice which was defied by large numbers of people, Hancock took a stronger line than the prime minister on condemning those still socialising in groups and derided them as being "very selfish". The Government later implemented legislation banning such groups from forming.
On 27 March 2020, along with Boris Johnson, Hancock himself tested positive for COVID-19. He stayed in self-isolation with mild symptoms for seven days, before delivering an update on COVID-19 testing targets and on Government plans to write off £13.4 billion of NHS debt.
In April 2020, Hancock was criticised when it emerged that the target he had set for 100,000 daily COVID-19 tests had been met only by changing the method of counting, to include up to 40,000 home test kits which had been sent, but not yet completed. This change was challenged by the UK Statistics Authority and labelled a "Potemkin testing regime".
Doctors' groups maintained that they helped deliver 45,000 masks to hospitals that did not have a sufficient supply at the beginning of the pandemic and that families of healthcare workers who died from COVID-19 had expressed concerns about the protection they got. Early in the pandemic NHS staff were photographed with poorly fitting personal protective equipment (PPE) and some made improvised gowns for themselves from bin bags. Doctors and MPs criticised Hancock for denying there was a problem.
On 5 April 2020, Hancock warned that all outdoor exercise in England could be banned in response to COVID-19 if people did not follow social distancing rules. He said: "So my message is really clear. If you don't want us to have to take the step to ban exercise of all forms outside of your own home then you've got to follow the rules and the vast majority of people are following the rules."
Hancock received criticism from journalists for perceived sexism after suggesting on 5 May 2020 that Labour MP and shadow health minister Rosena Allin-Khan change the "tone" of her comments. Allin-Khan, a doctor, had stated in Parliament that a lack of testing was costing lives and Hancock suggested she should "take a leaf out of the Shadow Secretary of State's [Jonathan Ashworth's] book in terms of tone".
On 15 August 2020, The Daily Telegraph reported that Hancock was to merge Public Health England and NHS Test and Trace into a new body called the National Institute for Health Protection, modelled on the Robert Koch Institute. The new body, renamed as the UK Health Security Agency, was set up before autumn amid "a feared surge in coronavirus cases".
On 11 October 2020, Hancock denied breaching a 10 pm drinking curfew in the Smoking Room bar in the House of Commons, put in place because of the pandemic. Eight days later, the Daily Mirror published a photograph of him riding in his chauffeur-driven car without wearing a mask.
On 2 December 2020, Hancock incorrectly claimed that the MHRA's fast approval of the first COVID-19 vaccine was possible because of Brexit. The MHRA stated that it had followed an expeditious procedure allowed under EU legislation which was still in force in the UK during the transition period.
In January 2021, shopping vouchers for families in need were reintroduced. On Good Morning Britain, Hancock praised the Government for reintroducing the scheme, despite being repeatedly reminded by Piers Morgan that he had opposed it in Parliament.
On 19 February 2021, after a legal challenge by the Good Law Project, a High Court judge ruled that Hancock had acted unlawfully by handing out PPE contracts without publishing details in a timely manner. A ruling released by the High Court stated: "There is now no dispute that, in a substantial number of cases, the secretary of state breached his legal obligation to publish Contract Award Notices (CANs) within 30 days of the award of contracts." The details were published within 47 days.
In April 2021, it was reported that Hancock had been given 20% of shares in Topwood Limited, a firm based in Wrexham which is owned by his sister and other close family members. The company specialises in secure storage, scanning and shredding of documents. It won a place on a "procurement framework" listing to provide services to NHS England in 2019, as well as contracts with NHS Wales. There has been no suggestion that Hancock intervened in the normal processes, and in April 2021, the company had not earned anything through the framework. Lord Geidt later produced a report on ministerial interests saying that the awarding of the contract to Topwood could be seen to "represent a conflict of interest" that should have been declared. Hancock responded by saying: "I did not know about the framework decision, and so I do not think I could reasonably have been expected to declare it."
In May 2021, the former Downing Street chief adviser Dominic Cummings claimed, "tens of thousands of people died who didn't need to die" during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic due to what he claimed to be "criminal, disgraceful behaviour" within Downing Street under the supervision of Hancock. Cummings also said that Hancock should have been fired as Health Secretary for "15 to 20" different things. Following his testimony, YouGov noted that more people in the general public thought Hancock should resign than stay in his post, despite questions over the accuracy of Cummings's statements. Prime Minister Johnson defended Hancock and his decision-making.
Over 20,000 care home residents who were elderly or disabled had died from COVID-19 in England and Wales. The High Court of Justice ruled in a case against Boris Johnson's government on 27 April 2022 that discharging people into care homes without testing them was unlawful. Lord Justice Bean and Neil Garnham ruled that the policies were not lawful since they disregarded the risk from non-symptomatic transmission of COVID-19 to elderly and vulnerable residents. The judges stated that in spite of "growing awareness" about the risk of asymptomatic transmission during March 2020, there was no evidence Hancock had taken the risk to care home residents into account. The judges stated: "The document could, for example, have said that where an asymptomatic patient (...) is admitted to a care home, he or she should, so far as practicable, be kept apart from other residents for up to 14 days. (...) there is no evidence that this question was considered by the Secretary of State."
Resignation[]
On 25 June 2021, it was revealed that Hancock had breached COVID-19 social distancing restrictions with Gina Coladangelo, an adviser in the DHSC with whom he was having an extramarital affair, after CCTV images of him kissing and embracing her in his Whitehall office on 6 May were published in The Sun newspaper. The Government's guidelines allowed intimate contact with people from a different household only from 17 May. The previous year, Hancock had failed to declare he had appointed Coladangelo as an unpaid adviser at the department and later to a paid non-executive director role on its board, for which Coladangelo would earn between £15,000 and £20,000 annually from public funds. Coladangelo became a close friend of Hancock after meeting him while they were both undergraduates at Oxford University.
Later that day on 25 June, Hancock said that he had "breached the social distancing guidelines in these circumstances" and apologised for "letting people down". Boris Johnson later said that he accepted the apology and considered the matter "closed". However, Hancock resigned on the evening of 26 June, stating "those of us who make these rules have got to stick by them", and he had not because of his "breaking the guidance". He was replaced as Health Secretary the same day by Sajid Javid.
Former Cabinet ministers Alan Johnson and Rory Stewart both said there had never been cameras in their offices during their time in Government, with Johnson saying: "I could never understand why there was a camera in the Secretary of State's office. There was never a camera in my office when I was Health Secretary or in any of the other five Cabinet positions." It was reported that the CCTV footage was leaked by a DHSC employee who opposed the Government's lockdown restrictions, and on 27 June it was confirmed that an internal investigation was undertaken by the department to find the culprit, for fear of future CCTV footage being leaked to states hostile to the UK, for the purposes of blackmail.
News of the scandal was met with a mixture of public anger and ridicule. The Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group warned that Hancock's actions could undermine adherence to COVID-19 restrictions, similar to the Dominic Cummings scandal. Amanda Milling, Co-chairman of the Conservative Party, suggested that Hancock's affair was a factor in the Conservative Party's failure to win the Batley and Spen by-election on 1 July 2021.
In July 2021, the Information Commissioner's Office established an inquiry into the leak in the CCTV images. On 29 July, the council of the second largest town in his constituency, Newmarket, passed a no-confidence vote against Hancock as its MP. Mayor Michael Jefferys cast the necessary vote to pass the motion.
According to the Independent, Hancock faced severe criticism due to a shortage of PPE in the NHS early in the pandemic, the award of contracts for supplying masks and the decision to transfer elderly patients to care homes without COVID-19 testing. Hancock defended his handling of the pandemic and stated: "We suddenly needed masses more PPE and so did everybody else in the world."
Return to the backbenches[]
On 12 October 2021, Hancock announced his appointment as the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa special representative for financial innovation and climate change, an unpaid position advising the Commission on the African economy's recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. Four days later, the United Nations announced on 16 October that the offer had been rescinded.
During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Hancock welcomed seven Ukrainian refugees into his family home in Suffolk in May 2022 through the "Homes for Ukraine" scheme.
In December 2022, he announced his intention to stand down at the 2024 general election.
In June 2023, Hancock was told to apologise to Parliament after being found to have breached the MPs Code of Conduct, by committing a “minor breach” of Commons rules by sending an unsolicited letter to the parliamentary standards commissioner in an attempt to influence the commissioner's investigation into fellow Conservative MP Steve Brine.
Pandemic Diaries[]
In April 2022, it was announced that Hancock would publish his diaries during the COVID-19 pandemic called Pandemic Diaries with Biteback Publishing, cowritten by Isabel Oakeshott. The royalties were planned to be donated to NHS charities. The book was to be released in December 2022.
The book was not based on a diary, but was written after the fact. It was based on Hancock's recollections, as well his records of communications. It dismissed allegations that moving patients into care homes caused deaths, arguing that the staff in care homes were the vector of disease. The book was also critical of Dominic Cummings.
Reviews commented that the book presented too positive an image, making Hancock seem unduly prescient with the benefit of hindsight, arguing there may be elements of revisionism.
Gaby Hinsliff reviewing in The Guardian said that there were kernels of truth about how politicians make decisions in the account but comments on how the book was written with the benefit of hindsight, allowing Hancock to make himself seem prescient. Rod Dacombe writing in the i, said that the diary was absurd and devoid of literary flair. Adam Wagner, writing in Prospect magazine, said that the book had a focus on score settling and self-aggrandisation but that there were some genuine revelations. He noted that more will be known when the UK Covid-19 Inquiry reports. Wagner argues Hancock's removal of exceptions for protest from proposed lockdown regulations on the grounds that protests could undermine public trust in measures and his criticism of protestors in the book are suggestive that protests were banned based on the political views of protestors, which Wagner thinks would likely constitute government overreach.
Oakeshott leaked some of the private WhatsApp messages she had access to in a Daily Telegraph article published in February 2023. The Telegraph published a series of articles about these leaks in a series called The Lockdown Files. One message from April 2020 suggests Hancock told aides that professor Chris Whitty had done "an "evidence review" and recommended "testing of all going into care homes, and segregation whilst awaiting result". Hancock allegedly stated this was a "good positive step". Later, Hancock allegedly stated he would rather avoid a commitment to test all people going into care homes from the community and "just commit to test & isolate ALL going into care from hospital". A spokesman for Hancock said, "These stolen messages have been doctored to create a false story that Matt rejected clinical advice on care home testing".
Appearance on I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here![]
Hancock was a contestant on the 22nd series of the reality television series I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!, filmed while Parliament was in session. An agreement was reached with the show's producers that Hancock could communicate with his constituency team throughout his time in the jungle if necessary. Explaining his decision to participate in the show, Hancock said, "I want to raise the profile of my dyslexia campaign to help every dyslexic child unleash their potential — even if it means taking an unusual route to get there, via the Australian jungle"! Hancock also explained that he was driven by the intention to display his "human side" and to use reality TV as a means to convey "important messages to the masses". It was reported that Hancock would be paid £400,000, which was "one of the largest show fees" paid to a contestant. His spokesman said that a donation would be made to St Nicholas Hospice in Suffolk and causes supporting dyslexia.
Hancock joined the show on 9 November 2022 with comedian Seann Walsh. After he entered the jungle camp, Hancock was questioned by his fellow contestants, including Charlene White, Scarlette Douglas and Babatunde Aléshé, about his time as Health Secretary. Although he expressed remorse about breaking social distancing guidelines, he pointed out that he had not broken any laws and said that he did not regret the political decisions he made during the pandemic.
On the episode aired on 16 November 2022, Hancock said that he told Boris Johnson not to run for prime minister again during the October 2022 Conservative Party leadership election, and said that former prime minister Liz Truss's political career is "totally finished" with "no ambiguity at all."
On 27 November 2022, Hancock finished in 3rd place.
Reaction[]
Within the show[]
Hancock's participation in the show was met with a mixed reaction by some of the other contestants. In the episode aired on 18 November 2022, fellow contestant Boy George said in a conversation with Seann Walsh that he found Hancock "slimy and slippery", and later told Hancock that he found it difficult to "separate" the politician from the person. Another contestant, journalist Charlene White, said she feared she would lose her job if she was too sympathetic towards Hancock.
By others[]
In response to participating in the show, the Conservative Party suspended the whip for Hancock—in effect removing him from their parliamentary group but retaining him as a party member.
On 5 November, it was reported that an online petition to stop Hancock from appearing on the show had attracted nearly 40,000 signatures. The Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice and 38 Degrees groups flew a banner over the camp which read: "Covid bereaved say get out of here!".
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who had worked with Hancock during his tenure as chancellor, said he was "disappointed" at Hancock's decision to participate in a reality television show and expressed his discomfort at the level of degradation Hancock was subjecting himself to.
Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards Kathryn Stone stated her office had received "dozens of complaints" about Hancock being on the television show. Stone said that Hancock's decision to join the show raised "important questions about members' proper activities while they're supposed to be fulfilling their parliamentary duties and representing their constituents". Ofcom received just under 2,000 complaints about the show in its first week, including complaints over his appearance on the show and complaints criticising how Hancock was treated by other contestants.
Hancock broke government rules about post-ministerial jobs by not consulting the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments before he joined the show, according to Lord Pickles, the committee chair. However, Lord Pickles advised ministers that taking action against Hancock would be disproportionate.
On 23 May 2024, Rishi Sunak restored the whip to Hancock.
Personal life[]
Hancock married Martha Hoyer Millar, an osteopath, in 2006. She is a granddaughter of the 1st Baron Inchyra. They have a daughter and two sons. Hancock forbids his children to use social media. The family lived in Little Thurlow in his West Suffolk parliamentary constituency.
In June 2021, following an affair with his political aide Gina Coladangelo, sources reported that he had left his wife for Coladangelo. Hancock confirmed he was still with Coladangelo during a conversation with Babatunde Aléshé on I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!.
Hancock lives in his constituency, and also has a flat in London.
Hancock trained as a jockey in 2012 and won a horse race in his constituency town of Newmarket. Hancock supports Newcastle United, and auctioned his "pride and joy" signed team shirt to raise money for the NHS in May 2020.
Hancock told The Guardian in 2018 that he has dyslexia, something that he said first became apparent two decades earlier while he was studying at Oxford.
On 25 January 2023, police arrested a 61-year-old man for allegedly assaulting Hancock on the London Underground.
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https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/7-years-after-brexit-debacle-ex-pm-david-cameron-returns-to-uk-politics-4570689
|
en
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7 Years After Brexit Debacle, Ex-PM David Cameron Returns To UK Politics
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[
"David Cameron",
"David Cameron Brexit",
"Rishi Sunak",
"UK"
] | null |
[
"Divyam Sharma"
] |
2023-11-13T17:04:10+05:30
|
Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom David Cameron made a surprise comeback to the Cabinet after being appointed as the new foreign secretary.
|
NDTV.com
|
https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/7-years-after-brexit-debacle-ex-pm-david-cameron-returns-to-uk-politics-4570689
|
Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom David Cameron made a surprise comeback to the Cabinet after being appointed as the new foreign secretary after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak sacked interior minister Suella Braverman and appointed Foreign Secretary James Cleverly to Ms Braverman's post.
David Cameron's return to a political role comes almost seven years after he quit the top post following the result of the Brexit referendum. The former Prime Minister held three referendums over Britain's exit from the European Union (EU). Interestingly, Rishi Sunak supported Britain's exit from the United Kingdom in 2016. "I voted for Brexit, I believe in Brexit, Mr Sunak said.
After the 2010 general election, David Cameron became the youngest Prime Minister for 200 years, but the Conservatives did not win enough seats to govern alone and had to form a coalition with the Liberal Democrats.
Comeback
David Cameron's comeback comes after Rishi Sunak fired Suella Braverman for criticizing Pro-Palestine protests and also defied the Prime Minister after writing an article questioning the "double standards" of the police in its treatment of protests
"Though I may have disagreed with some individual decisions, it is clear to me that Rishi Sunak is a strong and capable Prime Minister, who is showing exemplary leadership at a difficult time," David Cameron said.
"We are facing a daunting set of international challenges, including the war in Ukraine and the crisis in the Middle East. At this time of profound global change, it has rarely been more important for this country to stand by our allies, strengthen our partnerships and make sure our voice is heard," he added.
Brexit And David Cameron's Exit
The citizens of the United Kingdom voted narrowly in favour of withdrawing from the European Union. Fifty-two per cent voted in favour of the notion of leaving the EU while 48 per cent were against it. The results backfired for Mr Cameron who hoped that the results would not favour Brexit.
The global markets tanked after the Brexit results and forced David Cameron to exit 10 Downing Street, the official residence of the Prime Minister of the UK. "I do not think it would be right for me to try to be the captain that steers our country to its next destination," Mr Cameron said in his emotional address.
The political fallout caused the markets to suffer and the pound dropped to its lowest level since 1985.
"I think it's right that this new prime minister decides when to trigger Article 50," Cameron said.
Article 50 says this: "A Member State which decides to withdraw shall notify the European Council."
Britain formally left the EU in 2020 and what remained was a legacy of political instability and back-to-back exits of future Prime Ministers. Theresa May, Boris Johnson and Liz Truss faced anti-incumbency and couldn't complete their tenures.
Rising The Ranks
The son of a stockbroker, Cameron was educated at elite boarding school Eton and Oxford University, where he was admitted to the Bullingdon Club, a hard-drinking, socially exclusive student group.
He worked for the Conservatives as an advisor before a stint in public relations, which ended when he was elected to parliament in 2001.
Cameron's first election victory in 2010 ended 13 years of Labour government. He had been widely praised for giving his party a broader centrist appeal.
"I believe in public service. That is what first motivated me to get involved in politics in the 1980s, to work in government in the 1990s, become a Member of Parliament in the 2000s and put myself forward as Party Leader and Prime Minister," Mr Cameron said.
Lobbying Allegations
In 2021, the British government opened an official independently-run investigation into former Prime Minister David Cameron's lobbying activities for financier Lex Greensill.
While Cameron was British prime minister from 2010 to 2016, the Australian banker was brought in as an adviser to the government. After leaving office, Cameron in turn became an adviser to Greensill's now-insolvent finance firm.
The Financial Times and Sunday Times newspapers reported that Cameron contacted ministers directly to lobby on behalf of Greensill Capital, including sending texts to finance minister Rishi Sunak and arranging a private drink between Greensill and Health Secretary Matt Hancock.
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https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo/matthew-hancock.html
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res stock photography and images
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Find the perfect matthew hancock stock photo, image, vector, illustration or 360 image. Available for both RF and RM licensing.
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Alamy
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https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo/matthew-hancock.html
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Alamy and its logo are trademarks of Alamy Ltd. and are registered in certain countries. Copyright © 19/08/2024 Alamy Ltd. All rights reserved.
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https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-56706619
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Matt Hancock 'had private drink' with David Cameron and Lex Greensill
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[
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] |
2021-04-10T23:11:55+00:00
|
An ally of Matt Hancock tells the BBC he "acted in entirely the correct way" after the 2019 meeting.
|
en
|
/bbcx/apple-touch-icon.png
|
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-56706619
|
Health Secretary Matt Hancock met former PM David Cameron and financier Lex Greensill for a "private drink" in 2019 to discuss a new payment scheme for the NHS, it has been revealed.
It is the latest in a series of Sunday Times disclosures about Mr Cameron's lobbying work since leaving office.
Mr Greensill advised Mr Cameron's government, and the ex-PM went on to be employed by Greensill Capital.
An ally of Mr Hancock said he had "acted in entirely the correct way".
They told the BBC that Mr Hancock had "updated officials on the business that was discussed, as is appropriate".
Greensill Capital's scheme, which allowed staff to be paid early for hours they had already worked, went on to be used by some NHS trusts.
The development is the latest to be published by the Sunday Times detailing Mr Cameron's work for Greensill Capital after he left politics.
Mr Hancock is the fourth minister to have been lobbied by Mr Cameron on behalf of the company, which recently collapsed costing 440 jobs.
Mr Greensill worked as an unpaid adviser to Mr Cameron when he was prime minister.
The financier developed a policy designed to help small businesses get their bills paid faster, as part of a scheme that also benefited his own financial company, Greensill Capital.
Mr Cameron began working for Greensill Capital after leaving office, and tried unsuccessfully to lobby the government to increase the firm's access to government-backed loans during the first phase of the coronavirus pandemic.
Mr Cameron pressed Treasury officials - and sent text messages to Chancellor Rishi Sunak's personal phone - to access emergency funding for Greensill Capital.
The former Tory leader - who was PM between 2010 and 2016 - is reported to have told friends he was set to earn as much as £60m from share options in Greensill Capital, although this has since been disputed.
In the end, Mr Cameron's pleas to the Treasury for Covid emergency loans for Greensill Capital fell on deaf ears.
'Private drink'
The "private drink" between Mr Hancock, Mr Cameron and Mr Greensill took place in October 2019.
In August 2019, Mr Greensill wrote to Mr Hancock to set out a proposal to allow the NHS access to an app Greensill Capital had devised, called Earnd, to pay doctors and nurses either daily or weekly in advance and free-of-charge to workers.
Having received the letter, the health secretary commissioned advice from civil servants to explore the idea.
The advice was that the "principle" of the idea was "good," but sources insisted he wanted other suppliers to be able to offer the same work and it would be up to local NHS managers to decide whether to sign up to it.
Some NHS trusts went on to use Greensill Capital's Earnd app during the pandemic.
Will David Cameron answer mounting questions?
This is the latest illustration of the web of connections between a former prime minister, a businessman and government ministers.
Remember, Lex Greensill worked in Downing Street when David Cameron was PM.
And then their relationship reversed when Mr Cameron left office: he went to work for Mr Greensill.
Individuals, businesses, charities and trade unions seek to influence the government all the time.
But how many people get to have a private drink with the health secretary?
Matt Hancock insists he behaved entirely correctly.
Neither Mr Cameron nor Mr Greensill have spoken publicly since headlines about the two of them started to appear several weeks ago now.
In the last few days, those close to them have begun to talk.
Will Mr Cameron eventually feel compelled to face a camera and address the many questions he now faces?
A source close to Mr Greensill said the scheme was offered free to both the NHS and its employees, while a source close to Mr Cameron said: "David Cameron was an enthusiastic champion of Greensill's pay product, Earnd, and met with various people to discuss its rollout across the NHS."
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https://www.keele.ac.uk/about/news/2022/december/keele-comment/matt-hancock-pandemic-diaries.php
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en
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Comment | Matt Hancock’s Pandemic Diaries and the history of the redemptive memoir
|
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[
"Keele University"
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2022-12-22T00:00:00
|
Dr Luke Davies writes for The Conversation.
|
en
|
Keele University
| null |
Image credit: I T S / Shutterstock.com
Matt Hancock has achieved fame in recent months for devouring a cow anus live on television (during his I’m A Celebrity stint) and for releasing questionable TikTok videos cringing about his past “embarrassing” moments.
Some will recall that before all this, he was once UK health secretary during the biggest global health crisis in living memory. Back then, he achieved notoriety for (among other things) allowing COVID patients to be sent into care homes and for securing lucrative testing contracts for his friends.
Now, Hancock has published his Pandemic Diaries, giving his side of the story. So what insights do they have to offer? And how might a literary historian like myself situate them within the wider context of the political memoir?
Early on in Hancock’s diaries, we learn that the UK Health Secretary’s first (and I quote) “oh s***” moment was on January 28, 2020, when he was told that the pandemic could lead to up to 820,000 UK deaths.
From then on in, the basic thrust of the narrative is that everyone but Matt Hancock was responsible for the litany of failures that ensued.
Delayed restrictions? That was the fault of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies. Dismal contract tracing? Public Health England were to blame. Failure to close UK borders? No. 10 was responsible. Government in chaos? That would be Dominic Cummings.
The Erin Brockovich of COVID
Reading how “aghast” Hancock was in response to a Prime Minister’s Questions session in early February, in which no one asked a single question about the virus, the impression given is that he was the Erin Brockovich of COVID.
Oddly enough, however, none of this quite tallies with Hancock’s account, in these same pages, of his actual activities during this period. Eating Babybels with Ronnie Wood at a Brit Awards ceremony in late February, for instance. Or going to Planet Laser in Bury St Edmunds in early March.
Or, more generally, entirely failing to respond to the knowledge that 820,000 lives were at risk by taking decisive action – in the process dismissing the advice of Tory grandees and former prime ministers, who (as Hancock acknowledges in his diaries) were sending desperate text messages demanding restrictions as early as February.
A possible explanation for these strange inconsistencies is the fact that Hancock’s diary isn’t actually a diary at all. As he himself admits, he “didn’t have time to keep a detailed diary” during this period - and so the Pandemic Diaries were “pieced together” after the fact.
Given the existence of an Imperial College study suggesting that the UK’s delayed response caused 21,000 unnecessary deaths, the pressure on Hancock to retroactively redeem himself seems clear.
So what to make of this strange attempt on the part of a disgraced politician, forced to quit in the wake of a scandal, to exonerate themselves?
The history of the redemptive memoir
Historian George Egerton notes that (while forerunners exist) the concept of the professional politician publishing a text that aims “to explain and interpret” the decisions they made in office didn’t find full expression until the 1890s, with first Chancellor of the German Empire Otto von Bismarck’s landmark three volume memoir.
Since then, accelerated by the “professionalisation” of politics during the early 20th century, the pressure to hold politicians to account has grown significantly. As Egerton writes, since the post-war period it has been the norm for politicians to “publish an account of their leadership”.
Hancock is hardly the first modern British politician to make use of this trend in an attempt to set the record straight. Tony Blair’s A Journey (2010) and David Cameron’s For the Record (2019) are just two recent examples.
What is perhaps unique about Hancock’s contribution to the genre is its fundamental unseriousness.
This is not just in the lack of willingness to take any responsibility for the mishandling of the pandemic, or in the fact that inventing a diary is an astonishing feat of post factual audacity. It is in the general ridiculousness of the account that is offered.
Less redemption, more slapstick
The image that will stay with most readers of Hancock’s diaries is unlikely to be that of a nation bravely facing a crisis.
The picture that has been indelibly imprinted upon my mind, for instance, is instead of Hancock struggling “to keep a straight face” at the sight of Thérèse Coffey “chomping on a sandwich” during “an extremely important” Zoom meeting about shielding the vulnerable.
Or of Hancock delivering his instructions as Health Secretary from “a director’s chair with ‘Hancock’ across the back”, gifted to him by Pinewood Studios.
Or of George Osborne whispering into Hancock’s ear how much he reminds him of “Tigger from Winnie the Pooh”.
Of course, the slapstick is on theme for the current Conservative Party: it’s evocative of Michael Gove’s skits on BBC breakfast, or Grant Shapp’s Elf on the Shelf routine, or Boris Johnson’s Love Actually parody.
The “total bants” is perhaps less expected in a diary account of a series of events leading to over 200,000 deaths. But then, the cow’s anus was unexpected too.
Luke Lewin Davies, Lecturer in Literature, Keele University
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https://www.newstatesman.com/comment/2022/11/matt-hancock-election-politician-media
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en
|
What did we do to deserve Matt Hancock?
|
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"Martin Fletcher"
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2022-11-07T16:09:42+00:00
|
This embodiment of the vacuous, self-serving modern politician is profiting from his notoriety.
|
en
|
New Statesman
|
https://www.newstatesman.com/comment/2022/11/matt-hancock-election-politician-media
|
What is it about Conservative politicians? How do they manage not only to escape the consequences of their various misdeeds, but actually to profit from them?
Boris Johnson, who was forced from office in disgrace, is now starting to rake in obscene speaking fees (£315,000 for a 30-minute speech and “fireside chat” at the Council of Insurance Agents and Brokers in Colorado). Suella Braverman, who had to resign as home secretary on 19 October for using her personal email to send sensitive information, was reinstated by Rishi Sunak six days later.
Gavin Williamson, sacked as defence secretary by Theresa May for leaking National Security Council deliberations and as education secretary by Johnson for incompetence, is back in Sunak’s cabinet – at least for now. It remains to be seen whether his vile tirade against Wendy Morton, the former chief whip, for not inviting him to the Queen’s funeral suffices to get him sacked a third time.
And then there’s Matt Hancock, now earning £400,000 for appearing on ITV’s I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! Over at Channel 4 the makers of SAS: Who Dares Wins are said to be less than thrilled, the Sun reports, because Hancock had already signed up as one of their contestants in (and begun filming for) a series that will not be screened until next year. Alas, that’s what happens when you make a deal with a complete charlatan.
Lest we forget, just 17 months have elapsed since Hancock was forced to resign as health secretary for breaching the draconian social distancing rules that he had imposed on the nation during the Covid pandemic. He did so by having an affair with an aide, Gina Coladangelo. He is not a celebrity. He is a disgraced former minister who betrayed the trust not just of his wife and three children, but of the entire country.
There was a time when Hancock’s conduct would have permanently disqualified him from public life. Remember John Profumo? In 1963 he had to resign as war secretary for having an affair with a model and spent the rest of his life working voluntarily for an East End charity to make amends. We live in a very different age. Today politicians seem to rise and flourish not by being honourable, good at their jobs or figures of real substance, but through sycophancy, self-promotion and utter shamelessness.
Hancock is a classic example. A creation of David Cameron and George Osborne, he won his West Suffolk constituency in 2010 and was soon using a parliamentary question to plug a book he had written about the financial crash (Masters of Nothing). Cameron gave him his first ministerial job in 2012, when he was 33. Asked to respond to charges that the Conservative Party was full of callow career politicians with little experience of the real world, Hancock had the gall in an interview with the Spectator to compare himself to Winston Churchill and William Pitt, who both took office young.
He was promoted rapidly – too rapidly to make a real impact in any of the five different posts he held over the next four years. At an away-day for Tory MPs a colleague generated much mirth by quipping: “Anyone attempting to lick George Osborne’s backside should be careful because if you go too far you’ll find the soles of Matt Hancock’s shoes in the way.”
[See also: The sick satisfaction of torturing Matt Hancock on I’m a Celebrity]
In January 2018 May promoted him to the cabinet as secretary of state for digital, culture, media and sport, where he attracted derision by becoming the first MP to launch his own smartphone app. Seven undistinguished months later she made him health secretary. In a measure of his capacity for self-delusion he sought the Tory party leadership when May resigned the following year, presenting himself as “the candidate of the future”, but came sixth in the first round with just 20 MPs supporting him. He then withdrew.
Johnson, the winner, retained him as health secretary and he was still there when the Covid pandemic struck in March 2020. Hancock boasts of his part in “rolling out the world’s fastest vaccine programme”. He fails to mention the government’s woeful lack of preparedness for such a pandemic; its catastrophic transfer of infected patients from hospitals to care homes despite his claim to have thrown a “protective ring” around the latter; the uselessness of the £37bn track-and-trace scheme that he oversaw; and the spending of billions more on protective personal equipment, much of which was procured from Conservative Party cronies and turned out to be useless (a former pub landlord in Hancock’s constituency inexplicably received a £40m contract for testing vials).
Roughly 200,000 British citizens died of Covid-19 – giving the country one of the highest death rates in the world. In a text to his former aide Dominic Cummings, Johnson called Hancock “totally f***ing hopeless”.
Then came Hancock’s affair, resignation and the break-up of his marriage. Most politicians would have kept a low-profile for a decent period after such a fall from grace, but not Hancock. Only a few months later he was back boasting of a UN job offer (withdrawn), giving interviews, negotiating a book contract and being photographed swimming in the icy Serpentine lido in Hyde Park.
In this year’s two Conservative Party leadership races Hancock backed Sunak, doubtless hoping for preferment. “Few have worked more closely with him than me. He has fine judgement, seriousness of purpose and good character,” he gushed in a typically oleaginous yet self-promoting Tweet. But he failed to secure a place in Sunak’s cabinet, and the new Prime Minister blatantly snubbed him when greeting a cheering throng outside Conservative Party headquarters after his election.
Unabashed, Hancock is now pursuing a different course. He is following the illustrious examples of Nadine Dorries and George Galloway by cashing in on his notoriety through reality TV (95 per cent of the public have heard of him, though only 16 per cent like him).
He is seeking to portray his appearance on I’m a Celebrity as some sort of good, almost heroic deed. He will be swapping home comforts for the “extreme conditions of the Australian outback”, he says. He will use his appearances to promote his dyslexia campaign. He will give some of the proceeds to a Suffolk hospice, though he has conspicuously failed to say how much. “It’s our job as politicians to go to where the people are – not to sit in ivory towers in Westminster,” he argues.
Nobody is fooled by such self-serving tosh. Not his constituency association, which has accused him of a “serious error of judgement”. Not the Conservative Party, which has withdrawn the whip. Not Sunak, who is “disappointed” Hancock has forsaken his constituents in the midst of such a severe cost-of-living crisis. And not the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group, which said: “Our families were ripped apart by Matt Hancock’s actions, and turning on the TV to see him being paraded around as a joke is sickening.”
In the event, millions of viewers tuned in to the launch of the new series on Sunday night (6 November) to discover that Hancock was not yet on the set. He will appear in later episodes. Hopefully, when he does, this embodiment of the vacuous, self-serving modern politician will be voted off the programme in short order. And hopefully his Suffolk constituents will do exactly the same come the next election.
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https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-57608890
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Matt Hancock: High profile former health secretary
|
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[
"BBC News"
] |
2021-06-25T13:17:43+00:00
|
Health secretary during the coronavirus pandemic, he was one of the UK's most prominent politicians.
|
en
|
/bbcx/apple-touch-icon.png
|
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-57608890
|
Before resigning his role, Matt Hancock had achieved an unusually high profile for a health secretary, with the coronavirus pandemic making him a household name.
But it was his personal life, after pictures emerged of the married father-of-three embracing close colleague Gina Coladangelo, which led him to quit his job.
Mr Hancock has admitted breaking social distancing rules and accepted he "let people down".
On Saturday he resigned, saying "we owe it to people who have sacrificed so much in this pandemic to be honest when we have let them down".
Propelled into the limelight as Covid-19 gripped the country in spring 2020, Mr Hancock regularly spoke for the government in the media and at the daily Downing Street press conferences.
He famously set a target to conduct 100,000 Covid tests a day by the end of April, a target which he said he met - with his method for calculating the target later coming in for criticism.
But his performance at the onset of the pandemic has recently come under renewed scrutiny, following a series of explosive allegations by Boris Johnson's ex-adviser Dominic Cummings.
Mr Hancock has repeatedly denied Mr Cummings' claims of lying to the prime minister about care home testing and procurement of personal protective equipment during the first Covid wave.
A bitter war of words between Mr Hancock and the PM's ex-aide has since ensued - with Mr Cummings publishing WhatsApp messages, apparently from Mr Johnson in March last year, in which the PM called the health secretary "totally [expletive] hopeless".
Mr Hancock also has faced criticism for his decision to hire his friend, the ex-TalkTalk boss and Tory peer Dido Harding, to run England's much-criticised test and trace system.
And his later decision to give her a role as interim head of the UK's new health protection agency sparked controversy, with Labour saying the appointment lacked transparency.
But Mr Hancock has been steadfast in his defence of her, rejecting criticism of early delays to the NHS Test and Trace app and even describing it as the "cherry on Dido's cake".
Like other ministers, he has repeatedly stressed the importance of people keeping their distance and following government guidance.
Yet he had already apologised once before for breaching the advice - saying sorry for a "human mistake" in June last year after he was caught on camera slapping a colleague on the back in the House of Commons.
In addition, Mr Hancock has also faced questions over how his department awarded Covid contracts at the height of the first wave of the pandemic.
He has denied involvement in the awarding of a controversial £30m contract to a firm run by the former landlord near his old constituency home.
In late May, the PM's standards adviser said he was guilty of a "minor technical breach" of the ministerial code after initially failing to declare his stake in an NHS supplier run by his sister and brother-in-law.
The prime minister decided this breach did not "impugn" the health secretary's "good character".
But that has not stopped Labour and other opposition parties from heaping pressure on Mr Hancock over his record in office - calling for him to be sacked before his resignation.
'White lie'
Matt Hancock was born in Cheshire in 1978, and privately educated at the King's School in Chester, before later studying computing at a further education college.
Like many in Westminster, he went on to study politics, philosophy and economics at Oxford university - before then briefly working for a Conservative backbencher and at the Bank of England.
It was during his time at Oxford that Ms Coladangelo says she first met Mr Hancock, after they worked together at a student radio station.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4 for a documentary broadcast in April last year, she said: "I read the news and Matt read the sport.
"I've always joked with him that he did the sport because he wasn't good enough to do the news."
She told a story from Mr Hancock's time as a student journalist, saying he once overslept and missed his train to Twickenham Stadium, where he was supposed to be reporting from a rugby match.
Instead, she added, he "told a white lie" and pretended he'd gone to the game, when in fact he was filing his match report from a pub in Reading.
Mr Hancock entered the political world as an adviser to then-shadow chancellor George Osborne, before rising up the ranks to become his chief of staff.
Amateur jockey
Elected Conservative MP for West Suffolk at the 2010 election, he held various ministerial posts under David Cameron and Theresa May.
His big break came in early 2018, when, aged 39, he became the youngest member of Mrs May's cabinet after she appointed him culture, media and sport secretary.
It was a role that Mr Hancock, an avid cricketer who once trained to become a jockey for a charity horse race, embraced enthusiastically.
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The tragedy of Matt Hancock
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[] |
[
""
] | null |
[
"Will Lloyd"
] |
2022-03-25T00:03:59+00:00
|
What two years of Covid taught us
|
en
|
UnHerd
|
https://unherd.com/2022/03/the-tragedy-of-matt-hancock/
|
The risk to the UK is deemed so low that on 24 February the Government supplies 1,800 pairs of goggles, 43,000 disposable gloves, 194,000 sanitising wipes, 37,500 medical gowns and 2,500 face masks to China. Looking back at meetings that month, one senior Department for Health official remembers thinking “‘Well, it’s a good thing this isn’t the big one.’”
***
A clip of Boris Johnson, patiently explaining possible Covid strategy to fellow scientific luminary Phillip Schofield goes viral. “One of the theories,” Johnson had said on March 5, was that “perhaps you could take it on the chin, take it all in one go and allow the disease, as it were, to move through the population, without taking many draconian measures”.
Loo paper soon begins to disappear nationwide. Hancock is rolled out — he was always being rolled out, like a new carpet to be trodden on — into a breakfast TV studio to deny that the Government wanted to massacre the Grannys. “Our goal is to protect life and our policy is to fight the virus.”
Then Neil Ferguson releases his controversial paper. It claims hundreds of thousands will die if Britain is left to take the virus on the chin. Sage advises the Government to embark on a full lockdown that day.
It arrives on 26 March 2020, as Covid cases double every 72- hours. Between 89% and 94% of the public support lockdown. And the Grannys? Care home deaths accounted for 40% of Covid-19 deaths in England and Wales during the pandemic.
***
Like other ministers, after the passage of the Coronavirus Act, Hancock develops war fever. “Our generation has never been tested like this”, he writes to a nation frantically, pointlessly washing its hands. “Our grandparents were, during the Second World War, when our cities were bombed during the Blitz… they pulled together in one gigantic national effort.” The allegory is both ugly and lazy, but Britain is a country where poppies are made to wear poppies.
***
Prince Charles opens the first Nightingale Hospital at the ExCel centre in London. He says the Nightingale “will be a shining light”. The hospital is constructed in nine days, and holds 500 extra intensive care unit beds. (For every hundred thousand members of the population the UK has 7.3 intensive care beds — less than Spain, Greece, and Estonia. This lack of provision will mean more deaths.)
More Nightingales open across the country. They cost the taxpayer 500 million pounds. Only three of the seven hospitals end up treating patients. They are described by one MP as a “massive white elephant conjured up by Matt Hancock to create a good headline”.
***
It’s not really worth it, going outside. A family of five is sent home by the police in Conwy after being caught having a day at the seaside. They scuttle back to Merseyside. Police in Derbyshire “divide opinion” when they use drones to film people walking in the Peak District. A “major incident” is declared when thousands travel to Bournemouth beach, to swim, eat ice cream, and burn in the sun. (Belatedly, it is revealed that the “major incident” did not lead to a spike in Covid cases.)
Speaking to Andrew Marr, a concerned Hancock threatens to ban outdoor exercise. “Let’s not have a minority spoiling it for everybody.”
***
Nothing works properly. The Test and Trace App doesn’t work. PPE doesn’t work — because it’s all out of date. Protecting care homes doesn’t work. Dido Harding doesn’t work. The Civil Service literally doesn’t work. Big-hitter commentators start saying that the entire British state doesn’t work. It is described as “simultaneously overcentralised and weak at its centre”.
But ‘The Matt Hancock’ app still functions. In May 2020 the Telegraph reports that it is becoming a “virtual home for online pranksters and trolls”. Posts to the ‘Have Your Say’ section include drawings of cocks, general abuse, and a date invitation for the (then) married Health Secretary.
When ‘The Matt Hancock’ app is updated a year later, access to the ‘Have Your Say’ section is hidden. One of the last posts read: “Is there a portal on here where I can be awarded a Government contract for an area I have little experience of scale please?”
***
Hancock always looks caught between a giggle and a sob. A new round of Covid restrictions makes casual sex illegal. Or at least that’s how Sky News’ Kay Burley interprets the guidance when she interviews him about it. “You are saying that no social distancing is needed in established relationships,” she notes. “But what about people who are not in an established relationship?”
The Health Secretary, embracing his role as national sex cop, confirms that Government rules do ban shagging someone who is not your normal partner. Apropos of nothing, he adds that, fortunately “I’m in an established relationship”.
A few weeks later, the Times reveals that Gina Coladangelo was appointed to a £15,000-a-year advisory PR role in the Health Ministry. The appointment was never declared. Coladangelo and Hancock are described as “close friends”. A source tells the paper: “Before Matt does anything big, he’ll speak to Gina. She knows everything.”
***
He appears to cry on television when the first Pfizer jabs are stuck into the arms of two pensioners: Margaret Keenan and William Shakespeare. “It’s been a tough year for so many people,” he sobs, rubbing his waterless, unreddened eyes.
The Government spends £12 billion on vaccines. Total pandemic spending is estimated to reach £372 billion. Research finds that under-30s will be disproportionately forced to bear the brunt of these costs. They are described as the “packhorse generation”. The median age of death from Covid is 83 years old. There is no national discussion, parliamentary inquiry, or interest from the Government in working out how the old can make it up to the young.
William Shakespeare dies naturally within a few months of taking the vaccine.
***
In January 2021, a week after the virus death toll tops 100,000, a focus group asks some ordinary people questions about the Health Secretary. A man called Jason compares Hancock to Ian Beale from Eastenders — “He wants people to feel sorry for him.” Asked what sort of car he would be, mother of two Donna suggests that he would be “something that breaks down.”
***
During a committee hearing Dominic Cummings says that Hancock should “have been fired for at least 15, 20 things, including lying to everybody on multiple occasions in meeting after meeting in the Cabinet room and publicly”. Cummings then puts a WhatsApp screenshot on his blog that shows the Prime Minister describing Matt as both “hopeless” and “fucking hopeless”. When he is interviewed about the message, Hancock says: “Boris has apologised for the way that came over.”
***
The story and the footage and the photo are exquisitely simple. After nearly 18 months of tiers, colour-codes, R-numbers, powerpoint slides, and graphs, here is something everyone could understand: a hand on an arse.
Yes, Hancock’s downfall was exquisitely simple. His affair with Gina Coladangelo was unambiguous. It made sense like fairy tales make sense. The Princess in the tower must let her hair down. The wolf is wearing sheep’s clothing. The apple offered by the witch is poisoned. The politician who spent the pandemic agitating for the harshest restrictions, who would describe Professor Neil Ferguson’s lockdown sex fiasco as a “matter for the police”, who ensured that the public could be fined for sitting on park benches, who threatened them with 10-year prison sentences for breaking quarantines, this ogre of the new common sense, would — of course! — be breaking all his rules.
The press is devastating, and relentless. With a deep understanding of public humiliation, the Queen describes Matthew as a “poor man”. He resigns, his only consolation being one of the most Googled news stories of 2021.
***
Hancock keeps coming back, like Covid. His head pops out of the ground. Phillip Schofield asks him: “Was it your dyslexia that meant you misread the social distancing guidelines?” The nation laughs, bitterly. It is reported that, off air, Hancock “almost seemed euphoric… He didn’t seem to mind being the butt of the joke.” He has returned to his student days, but made them the business of the entire country. He buys stonewashed jeans, and new turtlenecks. He does podcast interviews, and goes to the BRIT awards. He says he is writing a book for Harper Collins. Harper Collins says he is not writing a book for Harper Collins, and Hancock never mentions it again. A role with the UN is torpedoed, and a comeback video — unanimously described as “cringe” — is swiftly deleted. It is impossible to tell, as with England’s experience of three lockdowns, whether he is enjoying all this, or if he is the saddest man in the world.
***
Everybody wanted a lesson from the last 24 months. Neat, comprehensible wisdom. An intelligible narrative. They wanted to say that it finally proved that Germany was a better country than England, or they wanted to say that our vaccine programme proved the EU was useless. They thought England’s experience of Covid could tell us about the national character, the flaws in our state, or otherwise be used to justify every kind of pet project, ideological hang-up, or personal vendetta. There was no narrative line. All that the pandemic proved was that what happened a hundred times before in history could happen to us too.
***
The number of children referred for specialist mental health help rises above one million for the first time in 2021. Cases involving those 18 and under increase by 26% during the pandemic. The Royal College of Psychiatrists warns it is “becoming an impossible situation to manage”.
People, including Hancock, like to talk about learning the lessons of the pandemic. So we can prepare better for the next one. They don’t realise that between the million mentally hamstrung teenagers, the NHS waiting list hitting 9.2 million within two years, an endless backlog of cases in criminal courts, and inflation, that the pandemic hasn’t ended yet. It’s barely started.
|
|||||
8744
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0
| 73
|
https://www.suttontrust.com/news-opinion/all-news-opinion/half-of-new-cabinet-was-privately-educated/
|
en
|
Half of new cabinet was privately educated
|
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2015-05-10T23:00:00+00:00
|
Half of David Cameron’s new cabinet was privately educated, Sutton Trust research published today reveals, but twice as many have been to comprehensive schools as in the coalition cabinet of 2010.
|
en
|
Sutton Trust
|
https://www.suttontrust.com/news-opinion/all-news-opinion/half-of-new-cabinet-was-privately-educated/
|
Half of David Cameron’s new cabinet was privately educated, Sutton Trust research published today reveals, but twice as many have been to comprehensive schools as in the coalition cabinet of 2010.
Cabinet ministers are seven times more likely to have gone to a fee-paying school than the general population, of which 7% went to private schools.
However, the proportion of independently educated ministers attending Cabinet is less than that of the previous cabinet (62%), and significantly less than the last two previous cabinets under Conservative Prime Ministers, John Major (71% in 1992) and Margaret Thatcher (91% in 1979).
43% cabinet ministers were educated in comprehensive state schools, a rise from 21% of the cabinet in 2010. 7% attended state grammar schools.
Of the 28 ministers attending David Cameron’s new cabinet, 50% went to Oxbridge. This compares with 32% of backbench Conservative MPs in the 2015 Parliament, and 26% of all MPs who attended Oxbridge.
A further 32% were educated at other Russell Group universities (excluding Oxbridge), compared to 25% of backbench Conservatives and 28% of all MPs.
Prime Minister David Cameron continues the academic dynasty at Number 10 that stretches back to before the start of World War 2: with the exception of his immediate predecessor, Gordon Brown, every Prime Minister since 1937 who attended university was educated at one institution – Oxford.
Today’s figures follow Parliamentary Privilege – the MPs, a research brief published by the Sutton Trust that looked at the educational background of the new House of Commons. This data showed that 32% of the new House of Commons were privately educated. Around half (48%) of Conservative MPs attending fee-paying schools, compared to 14% of Liberal Democrats, 5% of SNP MPs for whom we have data and 17% of Labour MPs. Among other MPs, 24% went to a fee-paying school. However, the proportion of privately educated Conservative MPs has fallen from 54% in the last parliament and 73% in 1979.
Dr Lee Elliot Major, Chief Executive of the Sutton Trust said today:
”Parliament and Government should represent the society they represent. The best people should be able to become ministers, regardless of social background. It is good to see more comprehensive educated cabinet ministers, reflecting the schools attended by 90 per cent of children. But with half of the Cabinet still independently educated and half having been to Oxbridge, today’s figures remind us how important it is that we do more to increase levels of social mobility and make sure that bright young people from low and middle income backgrounds have access to the best schools and the best universities.”
NOTES TO EDITORS
The Sutton Trust is a foundation set up in 1997, dedicated to improving social mobility through education. It has published over 150 research studies and funded and evaluated programmes that have helped hundreds of thousands of young people of all ages, from early years through to access to the professions.
Parliamentary Privilege – the MPs, published by the Sutton Trust on Sunday 12th May, looked at the educational background the new House of Commons.
According to her official website, Theresa May attended an independent school from the ages of 11-13, and then attended a state grammar school. Iain Duncan Smith attended the naval school, HMS Conway at age 14, but had previously attended St. Peter’s RC Secondary School.
The Mobility Manifesto, published by the Sutton Trust in September 2014 ahead of the party conference season and this year’s general election, sets out 10 practical policy steps to improve social mobility.
The information in this brief was correct at 4.30pm on Monday 11th May.
Table 1: School and university backgrounds for individual Ministers attending Cabinet Ministerial Responsibility Name School Type School University Prime Minister David Cameron Independent Eton College Oxford Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne Independent St Paul’s School, London Oxford Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond Comprehensive Shenfield School Oxford Home Secretary Theresa May Independent St. Juliana’s Convent School for Girls (see note) Oxford Justice Michael Gove Independent Robert Gordon’s College Oxford Defence Michael Fallon Independent Epsom College St Andrews Health Jeremy Hunt Independent Charterhouse Oxford Education Nicky Morgan Independent Surbiton High School Oxford Business, Innovation and Skills Sajid Javid Comprehensive Downend Comprehensive Exeter Small Business Anna Soubry Comprehensive Hartland Comprehensive Birmingham International Development Justine Greening Comprehensive Oakwood Comp School Southampton Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Liz Truss Comprehensive Roundhay School, Leeds Oxford Energy and Climate Change Amber Rudd Independent Cheltenham Ladies’ College Edinburgh Transport Patrick McLoughlin Comprehensive Cardinal Griffin Roman Catholic School None Communities and Local Government Greg Clark Comprehensive St Peter’s Roman Catholic School Cambridge Work and Pensions Ian Duncan Smith Independent HMS Conway (see note) None Culture, Media and Sport John Whittingdale Independent Winchester UCL Cabinet Office Oliver Letwin Independent Eton College Cambridge Scotland David Mundell Comprehensive Lockerbie Academy Edinburgh Northern Ireland Theresa Villiers Independent Francis Holland School Bristol Wales Stephen Crabb Comprehensive Tasker Milward School Bristol Leader of the House of Lords Baroness Stowell Comprehensive Chilwell Comprehensive School None Chief Whip Mark Harper Comprehensive Headlands School Oxford Minister for Employment Priti Patel Comprehensive Watford Grammar School Keele Minister without Portfolio Robert Halfon Independent Highgate School Exeter Leader of the House of Commons Chris Grayling Selective Royal Grammar School, High Wycombe Cambridge Chief Secretary to the Treasury Greg Hands Selective Dr Challenor’s Grammar School Cambridge Minister of State at the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General Matthew Hancock Independent The King’s School Oxford Table 2: School backgrounds of Ministers and MPs in the 2015 Parliament Total with known data Independent Comprehensive Selective All MPs 92% 32% 49% 19% Cabinet 100% 50% 43% 7% Conservative Backbenchers 94% 48% 33% 19%
|
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3
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https://conservativehome.mystagingwebsite.com/2018/05/10/profile-matt-hancock-the-osborne-acolyte-who-managed-to-survive-and-prosper/
|
en
|
Profile: Matt Hancock, the Osborne acolyte who managed to survive and prosper
|
[] |
[] |
[] |
[
""
] | null |
[
"Andrew Gimson"
] |
2018-05-10T00:00:00
|
This ambitious 39-year-old is grappling valiantly with the Leveson problem, and no one does a better digital transformation.
|
en
|
/apple-touch-icon.png
|
Conservative Home
|
https://conservativehome.mystagingwebsite.com/2018/05/10/profile-matt-hancock-the-osborne-acolyte-who-managed-to-survive-and-prosper/
|
How did Matt Hancock survive? Indeed, this protégé of George Osborne has not merely survived the purge of the Cameroons which took place as soon as Theresa May entered Downing Street.
Hancock has prospered. Under the new regime, he has risen into the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, where he has just helped with the tricky task of defusing the Leveson problem.
At Westminster, he inspires a mixture of admiration, amusement, astonishment and frank dislike, and rival theories abound to explain how he got where he is today.
In these rough notes, no pretence is made of having penetrated to the heart of the Hancock mystery. As always, one attempts, when composing these profiles, to suggest profitable avenues of enquiry to younger and fitter students of modern politics as they set to work on their doctorates.
Hancock is a modern man, and that is one reason why he has bubbled to the surface. He has a capacity, and willingness, to express unbounded, if painfully bland enthusiasm for any modish cause – a valuable quality in a Culture Secretary.
He is particularly enthusiastic about digital transformation, and is reckoned by Whitehall warriors to have done well to keep it out of the hands of the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, where it could equally well belong.
In February he brought out the Matt Hancock app, which produced a burst of derision at his expense, with even the Prime Minister and the Chancellor of the Exchequer making jokes about it.
One of Hancock’s many useful characteristics is an ability to get people to laugh with him, rather than at him.
Beneath the laughter could be detected a note of respect. Even his critics saw the app might turn out to be something of a masterstroke, which would help him to engage with his constituents in West Suffolk, while proving that he possesses the unselfconscious egotism shared by many of the most successful users of social media.
For Hancock is exceptionally ambitious. Almost everyone who has worked with him notices this. He was recruited in May 2005 by George Osborne, who at the age of 33 had become, in the last months of Michael Howard’s leadership of the Conservative Party, Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, and was putting together a team of high-grade advisers.
Hancock was born in 1978 in Cheshire, where his parents ran a software company which nearly went bankrupt. As he later recalled:
“I was deeply affected by the recession of the early Nineties, when my family business was days away from going under and it was not only my parents’ jobs that were on the line but the 30 or so people who they employed, and every day we waited for the key cheque to come in, and our house was on the line, and eventually it did — and that was seared across my soul.”
He was sent to King’s School Chester, an ancient independent foundation, read PPE at Exeter College, Oxford, took an M Phil in Economics at Christ’s College, Cambridge, and obtained a job at the Bank of England.
Such a record might suggest an interest in a career as an economist, or a backroom boy. But Hancock soon demonstrated he was more interested in power, and in becoming a practical politician, than in economic theory.
He was a founder member of the “small, merry band” round Osborne, which soon included Rupert Harrison and Rohan Silva. At the end of 2005, David Cameron was elected as the new Conservative leader and instituted an ambitious programme of modernisation.
Hancock became Osborne’s chief of staff, sat with Ed Llewellyn (who played the same role for Cameron) in the room between their bosses’ rooms, attended the morning meetings in Cameron’s room and the preparation sessions for Prime Minister’s Questions.
“He was there throughout,” a Cameroon says. “He really was part of the gang.” A shadow minister of those years, pursuing a less gilded path, recalls:
“I knew him as one of the SpAds who wanted more power than shadow ministers. If Matt said something, it was his master’s voice. It carried more authority than, say, Hugo Swire.”
A mandarin who saw much of him at this period found him “slightly less charming in the privacy of Whitehall” than in public encounters:
“I have to say I never took to the man. Clearly able in a Bank of England sort of way. But devoid of principle, transparently ambitious and pleased with himself beyond measure.”
Another observer recalls Hancock at one of the late-night receptions at the Conservative Party Conference, spotting Andrew Neil entering the room, and immediately abandoning the two women to whom he was talking in order to go and meet the great journalist.
For the 2010 election, Hancock was anxious to find a safe parliamentary seat, and in January of that year he gained selection for West Suffolk, defeating Natalie Elphicke by 88 votes to 81 in the final round, and also beating Sam Gyimah, Sheila Lawlor, Lucille Nicholson and Anthony Frieze.
In George Osborne: The Austerity Chancellor, published in 2012, Janan Ganesh expounded the difference between Hancock and Harrison, who took over as Osborne’s chief of staff and was already the main source of economic advice to him:
“Hancock and Harrison have similarly powerful minds but quite distinct personalities. In many ways, Hancock resembles Osborne… He has a pitiless focus on the political bottom line and a pugnacious approach to his Labour opponents. His Threadneedle erudition vies with a more martial spirit, and does not always win. Harrison, for all that he has been politicised by years of Osborne’s tutelage, remains an economist who does politics rather than a political operator who also knows about economics.”
Before long, in September 2012, Hancock climbed onto the lowest rung of the ministerial ladder, becoming Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Skills in the same reshuffle which saw Sajid Javid and Esther McVeigh enter the Government.
Hancock, under Osborne’s patronage, was clearly a rising star, and was interviewed for The Spectator by James Forsyth:
“When I ask how he responds to the criticism that today’s Tory party is full of career politicians who have little experience outside politics and are too young, he replies: ‘Well, I remind people that Winston Churchill is widely regarded as one of the finest statesmen our country has ever seen … and likewise William Pitt became prime minister in his twenties, and both of these men achieved great heights over their careers.’ I’m tempted to suggest that this means that Hancock is running behind schedule, but think better of it.
“There is another figure from the Tory pantheon with whom Hancock feels a special connection. ‘I have a huge affinity for Disraeli, not least because I come from a provincial background and I went to the local village school and have arrived latterly in Westminster where I’m trying to ….’ At this point I feel obliged to interrupt; the idea that this Oxford PPE graduate is some kind of outsider seems a bit much. My response prompts a flash of anger from Hancock: ‘I worked bloody hard to get there,’ he snaps.”
These are exalted comparisons for an MP of two years’ experience to venture upon, and confirm the rather naive ambition displayed by Hancock at this time.
There was at this period much ill-feeling among Conservative MPs who felt that because they were not friends of George, they were getting nowhere. At an away-day for Tory MPs in the autumn of 2014, an unkind joke at Hancock’s expense went down well:
“The Prime Minister led riotous laughter when Yorkshire Tory MP Philip Davies mocked Osborne’s chief ally, Business Minister Matthew Hancock, saying: ‘Anyone tempted to lick George Osborne’s backside should be careful because if you go too far you will find the soles of Matt Hancock’s shoes in the way.’
“Cameron was still chuckling the next day, telling MPs after breakfast: ‘I hope you have all got the unpleasant image of Matt Hancock out of your minds.’”
But Hancock was seizing the chance to prove himself as a man of government, which he proceeded to do, receiving repeated promotions, and after the Conservative victory in the 2015 general election becoming Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General, with the right to attend Cabinet.
A colleague who saw much of him at this time says:
“He’s quite knowledgeable about macro-economic things but also very interested in social policy and the modern world of technology. So he’s in tune with the the times.
“He’s not a great orator. He’s not a poet. He’s somebody who thinks and dissects and makes things happen. He was certainly a very good and effective administrator.”
In June 2016, this upward progress was brought to a sudden halt by the result of the EU Referendum. Cameron resigned, May won the leadership election, Osborne was sacked, and so were the other leading Cameroons, rooted out with exemplary severity by the new Prime Minister and her two main advisers, Nick Timothy and Fiona Hill.
As one leading Cameroon remarked this week: “We were all out and he miraculously survived.” For although Sajid Javid, Greg Hands and Claire Perry, all of whom had enjoyed Osborne’s patronage, remained in the Government, none of them had been as close to Osborne as Hancock had.
Another close observer says: “Hancock was clinging to the edge of the cliff with Fiona Hill stamping on his fingers.”
How did he manage to hold on? His decision to back May for the leadership at a reasonably early stage must have helped, but some people are convinced he was saved by Jeremy Heywood, the Cabinet Secretary, who had become a close ally while Hancock was running the Cabinet Office.
Others deny this, and point out that other friends of Heywood were thrown overboard. They posit that Hancock was just junior enough to survive, for May did not attempt to purge the lower ministerial ranks.
One reason why Hancock stayed in office is that he decided to swallow his pride and accept demotion to the post of Minister of State for Digital and Culture, with no right to attend Cabinet.
It is possible that he has such faith in his ability to run things that he thought as long as he remained in a position to demonstrate this, he would very soon be promoted again.
And one may infer that he did not feel crushed by his experience, for he at once made a great fuss about losing his ministerial car, and somehow managed to regain the use of one.
He is not an influential figure, for he does not have much of a following in the parliamentary party. But at the age of 39, he could have a long political life ahead of him, and he is good at not ruffling feathers and displaying a sort of unostentatious amiability which helps to calm things down.
Hancock is capable of dealing with tangled questions which could go very badly wrong. He wished, rightly, to draw a line under the Leveson Inquiry, but also went through some complicated manoeuvres to ensure that compulsory low-cost arbitration of complaints against the press, and prominent apologies when complaints are upheld, are part of the settlement.
He writes occasional lucid pieces for ConservativeHome, for example about the challenge in the digital age of measuring productivity correctly, plays cricket with enthusiasm, has ridden as an amateur in charity races at Newmarket and seems unabashed by giving dreadful karaoke performances of songs such as Don’t Stop Me Now.
Hancock has not been stopped, but what, apart from digital transformation, does he stand for? It is possible even he does not know. It is also possible that for a Tory man of government, this is not a fatal handicap.
|
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https://www.politico.eu/article/matt-hancock-uk-tories-hogged-the-headlines/
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en
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Why always Matt? 7 times Hancock hogged UK headlines
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[
"Andrew McDonald"
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2023-03-02T19:05:49+00:00
|
The former British Cabinet minister is often the center of attention — whether he wants to be or not.
|
en
|
https://www.politico.eu/wp-content/themes/politico/assets/images/favicon/favicon.ico
|
POLITICO
|
https://www.politico.eu/article/matt-hancock-uk-tories-hogged-the-headlines/
|
LONDON — Through the chaos of Brexit, COVID-19 and Tory regicide, there’s been one reassuring constant: Matt Hancock in the news.
Sometimes of his own making, but often not, the former health secretary tends to find himself the center of attention.
Currently, he’s riding out days of coverage about his handling of the pandemic, after a journalist to whom he handed thousands of his WhatsApp messages for his memoirs decided to … pass them on to a newspaper.
Here are seven times Hancock has ended up in the spotlight:
Sack to the future
A fresh-faced Hancock had his first unwanted experience with the spotlight when he failed to look behind him during a photoshoot.
Looming over the then-minister for skills in the 2014 pic — taken as part of an interview with Total Politics magazine — was a clear-as-day piece of graffiti about his boss at the time: “Sack Cameron!”
David Cameron clearly didn’t mind the gaffe so much — given he actually promoted Hancock to minister for business a week later.
The app
Westminster was left bemused when Hancock — then the digital minister, in fairness — launched the Matt Hancock App in 2018 as a way of engaging with his constituents.
The app, in theory, promised to rival Twitter and Facebook as the social network of the future.
In practice, it was plagued with data usage worries and was permanently shuttered in 2022. But we’ll always have the memories.
The COVID year
When he was appointed as health secretary in 2018 under Theresa May, Hancock can’t have imagined the center-stage role running the government’s response to a global pandemic that would follow two years later.
He became a household name, regularly helming prime-time COVID press conferences while the virus raged. He was known as a key advocate for stricter rules in the government, often sparking rows with the more skeptical Boris Johnson.
Hancock also repeatedly clashed with Dominic Cummings, the former PM’s combative one-time chief aide.
Cummings used an appearance at a parliament committee hearing to suggest that “tens of thousands of people died who didn’t need to die” during the early days of the pandemic under Hancock’s control, and that the former health secretary should have been fired for “15 to 20” different things.
He was eventually fired, but not for any of the reasons Cummings suggested.
Steamy clinch
Hancock was forced to quit his high-profile government job after it emerged he had broken coronavirus rules he helped to write.
The Sun newspaper published in 2021 photographs of the married Hancock engaged in a kiss with his aide Gina Coladangelo, while the U.K. was still following strict social distancing regulations.
To date, he has not held another job in government. Coladangelo and Hancock are now a couple.
Reality check(book)
Hancock hoped to get back into government when Rishi Sunak entered Downing Street in October last year.
After it became clear that wasn’t going to happen — when Sunak completely ignored Hancock outside No. 10 — he decided against life as a normal backbench MP.
Instead, Hancock jetted off to the Australian jungle to take part in the reality show “I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out Of Here.”
Over two weeks of grueling camp life with other celebrities, Hancock faced down several snakes, took part in karaoke and ate “willy con carne” — a camel’s penis. “Soft and crunchy,” was his verdict on the appendage.
Hancock would finish third on the reality show, while his profile on social media apps such as TikTok grew thanks to his TV time.
His animal-genital-gorging escapades came with a heavy price, however. Hancock lost the Tory whip before he’d even landed in Australia.
Everyone from Sunak to Tory members in his own constituency lined up to attack Hancock’s decision to spend time away from his duties in London and West Sussex during a cost-of-living crisis.
Amid the local criticism, he eventually announced he wouldn’t stand again as an MP at the next election.
The diaries
In December last year, Hancock released “Pandemic Diaries,” an inside account of his experiences during the pandemic.
Before his entrance into the jungle, Hancock had announced plans to publish the diaries, despite earlier directly denying he was planning a memoir when asked by POLITICO.
Written with the anti-lockdown journalist Isabel Oakeshott (more on her in a bit), the book charted the former health secretary’s experience of pushing for tighter lockdown restrictions.
Hancock gave Oakeshott access to thousands of his WhatsApp text messages from the time to help her write the book. Should be fine, he (potentially) mused.
Reviews were mixed. The Guardian’s Gaby Hinsliff argued that the diaries were clearly written after the fact, allowing Hancock to seem “brilliantly prescient.” Tim Stanley in the right-leaning Telegraph compared Hancock’s tone in the book to the cringe-comedy character Alan Partridge.
Needless to say, Hancock did not have the last laugh.
The Hancock leaks
On Tuesday evening, Hancock heard rumors that a big story about him was brewing.
Advertisement
The concerned MP texted his co-author Oakeshott, asking her if she had “any clues” about what was going on. Oakeshott didn’t reply.
Her reason for ignoring Hancock became clear when the Daily Telegraph published their Lockdown Files investigation — all of which is based on around 100,000 of Hancock’s own WhatsApp messages, which Oakeshott had passed on to the newspaper without Hancock’s knowledge or permission.
The newspaper is expected to publish stories about Hancock and the government’s handling of the pandemic relating to the material in the texts for days to come.
Hancock is now embroiled in a war of words with Oakeshott, whom he accused Thursday of a “massive betrayal.” The journalist said Thursday that Hancock sent her a “menacing” text at 1.22 a.m., something his team denies.
“You have made a big mistake,” Hancock texted Oakeshott.
Mistake or not, the leak thrust Hancock back into the spotlight — where he always seems to end up.
Advertisement
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dbpedia
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1
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|
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2019-05-23/beyond-may-the-tory-rivals-jostling-to-be-prime-minister
|
en
|
Beyond May—The Tory Rivals Jostling to Be U.K. Prime Minister
|
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[
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2019-05-23T00:00:00
|
Here’s who could be next.
|
en
|
Bloomberg.com
|
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2019-05-23/beyond-may-the-tory-rivals-jostling-to-be-prime-minister
|
Prime Minister Theresa May’s decision to step down on June 7 has fired the starting gun for a Conservative Party leadership race that could redefine Britain’s exit from the European Union. Here’s a look at some of the possible candidates in what could be a bitter and dramatic contest.
Boris Johnson, or “Boris” as he’s known to just about everyone in politics, as a child wanted to be “World King.” No surprise, then, that he has confirmed he will run to be British prime minister. The 54-year-old quit Cabinet in protest at May’s Brexit compromise plan last year, and has been railing against her “surrender” ever since in well remunerated columns for the Daily Telegraph.
|
|||||
8744
|
dbpedia
|
3
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|
https://www.aol.com/matt-hancock-timeline-former-health-121124675.html
|
en
|
Matt Hancock: A timeline of the former health secretary’s Westminster controversies
|
https://media.zenfs.com/en/aol_the_independent_us_877/8ceec653b23c3aafd4d91c3231c215cd
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https://media.zenfs.com/en/aol_the_independent_us_877/8ceec653b23c3aafd4d91c3231c215cd
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2023-06-27T12:11:24+00:00
|
The former health secretary is set to appear before Lady Hallett’s Covid inquiry on Tuesday
|
en
|
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/matt-hancock-controversies-covid-inquiry-b2364941.html
|
Former UK health secretary Matt Hancock is giving evidence to the Covid inquiry, becoming the latest high-profile politician to be grilled on the government’s response to the pandemic.
Mr Hancock was partly responsible – alongside former prime minister Boris Johnson – for steering the UK’s decision-making and messaging on coronavirus, and his recollections of the event are likely to form a crucial piece of Lady Hallett’s inquiry.
He was previously been criticised over elements of the government’s response, including a perceived lack of transparency surrounding the awarding of lucrative personal protective equipment (PPE) contracts to businesses.
He’s already announced he won’t be re-standing for his West Suffolk constituency at the next general election, but Mr Hancock’s career hasn’t been without controversy.
He was notably forced to resign from his cabinet post in June 2021 after it was found that he breached social distancing guidance by kissing his colleague Gina Coladangelo, the CCTV footage of which went viral on social media. Earlier this year, a leak of more than 100,000 of his WhatsApp messages by journalist Isabel Oakeshott to The Daily Telegraph further outlined a glimpse into the workings of the government during lockdown.
Here’s a timeline of Mr Hancock’s occasionally scandal-hit and frequently unflatteringly-photographed time in Westminster.
6 May 2010 - Chester native, Oxford graduate, former Bank of England economist and George Osborne chief of staff Matt Hancock becomes Tory MP for West Suffolk.
6 September 2012 - Appointed minister of state for skills and enterprise, the first of a string of junior ministerial posts held under David Cameron.
15 July 2014 - Appointed minister of state for energy and minister of state for business and enterprise.
27 July 2014 - Challenged regarding policy protecting fracking in National Parks on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme but is unable to name a single village that supported the introduction of the controversial gas extraction practice.
2 October 2014 - Forced to apologise after sharing a poem on Twitter declaring the Labour Party was “full of queers”, describing the incident as an “accident”.
2 April 2015 - Criticised by environmental activists for hiring a private jet to fly back to London from a climate conference in Aberdeen.
11 May 2015 - Appointed minister for the Cabinet Office and paymaster general.
23 June 2016 - Britain votes to leave the European Union (EU). Mr Hancock backs Remain.
15 July 2016 - Appointed minister of state for digital, culture, media and sport.
8 January 2018 - Promoted to secretary of state for digital, culture, media and sport, succeeding Karen Bradley.
2 February 2018 - Launches his own mobile app to keep constituents abreast of his movements, which was later found to collect users’ personal data, albeit with their consent.
9 July 2018 - Appointed health secretary in Ms May’s final Cabinet reshuffle, succeeding Jeremy Hunt.
25 May 2019 - Announces plan to stand for party leadership one day after Ms May’s resignation.
14 June 2019 - Withdraws from race after first ballot and endorses Mr Johnson, the eventual winner. Retained as health secretary in the latter’s first Cabinet.
31 January 2020 - First coronavirus cases diagnosed in Britain.
23 March 2020 - Mr Johnson announces first national lockdown to stop the spread of the virus.
27 March 2020 - Both Mr Hancock and Mr Johnson test positive for the disease and are forced into quarantine.
11 May 2020 - Mr Hancock criticised by the UK Statistics Authority when it emerged that the target he had set for 100,000 daily Covid tests had been met only by changing the method of counting.
19 October 2020 - The Daily Mirror publishes a picture of Mr Hancock riding in a chauffeur-driven car without a face mask.
21 October 2020 - Ridiculed by Piers Morgan on ITV’s Good Morning Britain after applauding the government’s U-turn on free school meals in response to a pressure campaign led by footballer Marcus Rashford and others, despite his having voted against funding them.
2 December 2020 - Rebuked for suggesting the UK’s fast vaccine approval was only possible because of Brexit, whereas EU legislation was in place at the time.
19 February 2021 - High Court judge rules that Mr Hancock acted unlawfully earlier in the pandemic by handing out PPE contracts without publishing details on the recipients within 30 days, as he was obliged to do under Contract Award Notices protocol, only having done so within 47 days.
26 May 2021 - Dominic Cummings, Mr Johnson’s controversial adviser, appears before MPs and says “tens of thousands of people died who didn’t need to die” during the pandemic due to government blunders and that Mr Hancock should have been fired on “15 to 20” different occasions.
25 June 2021 - The Sun publishes CCTV stills from 6 May showing Mr Hancock embracing health department aide Ms Coladangelo, with whom he was having an extramarital affair, breaking his own Covid rules in the process.
26 June 2021 - Despite Mr Johnson saying he had accepted Mr Hancock’s apology and considered the matter “closed”, Mr Hancock resigns in disgrace, saying that those who make the rules must observe them, amid a storm of condemnation. He separates from his wife of 15 years, osteopath Martha Hoyer Millar, with whom he has three children.
12 October 2021 - Mr Hancock announces his appointment as the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa new special representative for financial innovation and climate change.
16 October 2021 Following objections to his hiring, the UN rescinds the job offer.
21 April 2022 - Forthcoming publication of Mr Hancock’s diaries announced by Biteback, a juicy prospect for those interested in the Johnson years in No 10.
24 October 2022 - Embarrassingly snubbed by new PM Rishi Sunak on the steps of Conservative Party headquarters as he celebrates his ascension with well-wishers. Mr Hancock’s return to the frontbench suddenly looks unlikely.
1 November 2022 - Reported to be a contestant on 22nd series of ITV’s I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here and swiftly suspended as an MP by his party.
1 March 2023 - Fights claims he rejected advice while health secretary to give Covid tests to all residents going into English care homes. The allegations were based on a trove of more than 100,000 WhatsApp messages obtained by The Daily Telegraph giving an insight into the way the government operated at the height of the pandemic.
25 March 2023 - Mr Hancock and Kwasi Kwarteng tell a fake overseas company looking for MP advisers their daily rate for consultancy would be £10,000.
12 April 2023 - Placed under investigation by parliament’s standards commissioner – for allegedly “lobbying” the sleaze watchdog to influence its findings.
4 May 2023 - Received £10,000 for an appearance on Good Morning Britain (GMB) in which he said he did not “primarily” go on I’m A Celebrity … Get Me Out Of Here! for the money. He received the payment via Shine Talent Management Limited for two hours of work, according to the entry.
11 May 2023 - Former Tory MP Andrew Bridgen begins libel action against Mr Hancock following a row over a tweet. After Mr Bridgen tweeted that the Covid-19 vaccination programme was “the biggest crime against humanity since the Holocaust”, the former health secretary described his comments as “disgusting and dangerous antisemitic, anti-vax, anti-scientific conspiracy theories”.
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https://uk.news.yahoo.com/matt-hancock-says-david-camerons-return-to-government-is-brilliant-decision-145035754.html
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en
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Matt Hancock says David Cameron's return to government is 'brilliant decision'
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[
"James Hockaday"
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2023-11-13T14:50:36+00:00
|
Matt Hancock has praised David Cameron's appointment as foreign secretary as 'superb for Britain'.
|
en
|
https://s.yimg.com/rz/l/favicon.ico
|
Yahoo News
|
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/matt-hancock-says-david-camerons-return-to-government-is-brilliant-decision-145035754.html
|
Former health secretary Matt Hancock has hailed David Cameron's return to politics as "superb for Britain"
Rishi Sunak's appointment of Cameron as foreign secretary is likely to be controversial given his Brexit legacy, and the fact he is unelected
The prime minister's Cabinet reshuffle comes after the sacking of home secretary Suella Braverman, who was accused of stoking tensions ahead of Armistice Day protests
Matt Hancock has hailed Rishi Sunak's appointment of David Cameron as foreign secretary as a "brilliant decision".
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, the former health secretary said: "Superb for Britain - bringing his experience to guide us through difficult times."
"Excellent for the @Conservatives, showing @RishiSunak will fight the election on the centre ground. Bravo."
Hancock is not the only one who is glad to see such an experienced politician return to the fold, with former prime minister Theresa May tweeting: "Congratulations to @David_Cameron on his return to government.
"His immense experience on the international stage will be invaluable at this time of great uncertainty in our world. Looking forward to working together again!"
Cameron's appointment is likely to be controversial as many ardent Remainers are still angry at the former prime minister - a self-proclaimed Remainer - calling the Brexit referendum that his side would go on to lose.
Others are uneasy with the fact that having resigned as an MP after the 2016 referendum result, he has been made a lord in order for him to fill a ministerial position.
Recommended reading
David Cameron latest news: Ex-PM named foreign secretary as Suella Braverman sacked in reshuffle (Yahoo News)
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How happy are you that David Cameron is back? Poll of the week (Yahoo News)
Hancock's praise of Cameron may not be seen as a ringing endorsement, with the former health secretary becoming unpopular with the public after he was found to have broken the Covid social distancing rules he imposed on the country during the pandemic.
More recently, his reputation has taken a beating in the Covid inquiry, which heard how top civil servant Lord Sedwill urged Boris Johnson to sack him to “to save lives and protect the NHS”.
Cameron has received praise from some people who've managed to keep hold of their Cabinet roles, however, with transport secretary Mark Harper describing his appointment as "an excellent move".
“I was in David Cameron’s government as his chief whip. He’s a team player, hugely experienced," the minister said.
“Given the challenges facing us with the war in Ukraine (and) what’s going on in the Middle East, having a really experienced person coming in as foreign secretary, I think, is an excellent move. He’s a real team player and I look forward to seeing him around the Cabinet table.”
When was David Cameron made a lord?
Some are uncomfortable that Cameron, who resigned as MP for Witney in 2016, can be appointed to such a major Cabinet position despite being unaccountable to the electorate.
In order for Sunak to do this, he had to give Cameron a lifelong peerage in the House of Lords, whose members can also serve in the Cabinet.
Confirming Cameron's appointment in a statement on Monday, Number 10 said: "The King has been pleased to approve the appointment of the Rt Hon David Cameron as secretary of state for foreign, Commonwealth and development affairs.
"His Majesty has also been pleased to confer the dignity of a Barony of the United Kingdom for life upon David Cameron. The Rt Hon Jeremy Hunt MP remains as Chancellor of the Exchequer."
Read more: How can David Cameron be a minister when he isn't an MP and what is his salary?
Criticising the move, Green Party MP Caroline Lucas said: "How are elected MPs to directly question a Foreign Sec who can’t stand at Commons dispatch box?
"Are major foreign policy statements to be made in unelected House of Lords now? This is unacceptable degrading of key office of state and Commons must have primacy."
The Electoral Reform Society, which wants to replace the Lords with a smaller elected chamber, added: "No Prime Minister should be able to appoint anyone they like to the major offices of state, simply by making them a Lord."
What does the foreign secretary do?
The foreign secretary has overall responsibility for the work of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).
Some of Cameron's main responsibilities in his new role will include managing relations with foreign countries and governments, promoting British interests abroad and handling matters related to Commonwealth countries and UK overseas territories.
The foreign secretary is also responsible for the work of GCHQ and the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) - also known as MI6 - while the home secretary is responsible for the Security Service (MI5).
Who was the previous foreign secretary?
Before Cameron, the previous foreign secretary was James Cleverly, who is now stepping into Suella Braverman's role as home secretary.
On Monday Sunak sacked Braverman, who was accused of stoking tensions with inflammatory rhetoric, which was blamed for clashes between police, pro-Palestine protesters and far-right counter-demonstrators in London over the weekend.
Cleverly faces a number of challenges in his new job, including an imminent ruling on the lawfulness of the government’s plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda, and will have to deal with the fallout if Number 10 loses.
In a statement on X, in which he did not congratulate Cameron for taking his old job, Cleverly said: "It is an honour to be appointed as home secretary. The goal is clear. My job is to keep people in this country safe."
Cameron will face a number of global crises demanding his attention as he steps into his new role, including the ongoing war in Ukraine and the Israel-Hamas conflict.
As recently as Thursday, Cleverly was in Saudi Arabia discussing efforts to prevent fighting in Gaza escalating into a wider regional conflict, with Middle Eastern foreign ministers, and Cameron will face an immediate task of carrying on that diplomatic effort.
Meanwhile Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has warned of a “winter onslaught” from Russia that will require further support from the West.
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https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/06/30/covid-inquiry-evidence-boris-johnson-matt-hancock/
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en
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Covid Inquiry: When will Boris Johnson give evidence and what will we learn?
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[
"Covid Inquiry",
"UK News",
"Standard",
"News",
"Coronavirus",
"Matt Hancock",
"Boris Johnson"
] | null |
[
"Jamie Bullen",
"Neil Johnston",
"Blathnaid Corless",
"Blathnaid Corless"
] |
2023-06-30T00:00:00
|
Matt Hancock will also provide an insight into the UK's response to the pandemic
|
en
|
/etc.clientlibs/settings/wcm/designs/telegraph/core/clientlibs/core/resources/icons/favicon.ico
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The Telegraph
|
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/06/30/covid-inquiry-evidence-boris-johnson-matt-hancock/
|
The Covid Inquiry, the official examination into the Government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, opened in London on Tuesday, June 13.
Chaired by Baroness Heather Hallett, a former Court of Appeal judge, the inquiry includes public hearings as politicians, health experts and civil servants provide insight into the UK’s response and preparedness to the global health crisis.
Boris Johnson, the former prime minister, will be among those called to give evidence over the course of proceedings, which was set up to help learn lessons for future pandemics.
Here are some key questions explained:
What will the independent inquiry examine?
Launched by Mr Johnson in May 2021, the primary objectives are to assess the UK’s response to and impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, which began circulating in the UK in early 2020, and to learn lessons for the future.
When announcing the inquiry, Mr Johnson said all aspects of the UK’s handling of the pandemic would be “under the microscope”.
It will also cover decisions made in devolved administrations.
How long will it take?
No formal deadline has been set but with public hearings due to be held until 2026 it is likely to take three years to conclude.
Baroness Hallett will split the work of the inquiry into six parts, or modules as they are known as.
The first to be investigated are: resilience and preparedness, core UK decision-making and political governance and the impact of Covid on healthcare systems.
The next three, which will include hearings in 2024 and 2025 are: the UK care sector, vaccines, therapeutics and antiviral treatment and government procurement.
What issues are likely to be scrutinised?
Baroness Hallett is expected to examine the most controversial and impactful aspects of the Government’s response which may include:
The decision on when to place the UK into its first lockdown in 2020 - experts say the date restrictions that were put in place could have saved thousands of lives if it was imposed earlier than March 23.
The move to halt community testing on March 12.
The approach taken towards care homes - around 40 per cent of Covid deaths were recorded in the first three months of the pandemic - concerns over the lack of testing, PPE shortages and the discharging of patients from hospital when Covid first hit will likely be discussed.
Level of restrictions imposed during lockdown - the inquiry is likely to examine whether the rules imposed during lockdown were proportionate as the pandemic progressed.
Over 80 days in 2020, England went from the so-called “rule of six”, where social gatherings of more than six people will be against the law.
Who has already given evidence?
The inquiry has already heard from Matt Hancock, the former health secretary, who said the UK’s approach to pandemic planning was “completely wrong”.
David Cameron, the former prime minister between 2010 and 2016, and his chancellor George Osborne, both gave evidence in the second week of the inquiry.
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, who was the health secretary between 2012 and 2018, also gave evidence this same week.
Dame Sally Davies, who was chief medical officer for England from 2011 to 2019, has also given evidence, telling the inquiry that lockdown “damaged a generation of children”.
Who will be called to give evidence?
The inquiry has sent requests for written evidence to hundreds of people including 38 to government departments and quangos.
Witness timetables are only published by the inquiry a week in advance, so it is not clear exactly who will be called to give evidence for each module.
This week, the inquiry heard from Dame Jenny Harries, the former deputy chief medical officer, as well as Matt Hancock, who was health secretary between 2018-2021.
It will hear evidence today from Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s former first minister, amongst other former Scottish government figures.
Boris Johnson is expected to appear in front of the inquiry to give evidence later this year, but the exact dates of his appearance have yet to be confirmed.
As well as politicians the inquiry will question scientists and pandemic planners, including those who sat on the Government’s Scientific Advisory Group.
How will the inquiry examine evidence?
The inquiry has already received tens of thousands of documents and will speak to hundreds of witnesses, sometimes sitting in the devolved nations.
It is split into six investigations, called modules, which will each examine different areas relating to the pandemic.
Module 1 will look at resilience and preparedness, whether the Government had properly planned for and was ready for the pandemic.
The second module will look at core UK decision making and political governance including the initial response and political and civil servant’s actions.
Module 3 will look at healthcare systems including primary care, NHS backlogs and the capacity of hospitals to respond to the pandemic.
The fourth module will look at vaccines and therapeutics while the fifth module will examine procurement.
The final module will look at the care sector across the country.
How much will the inquiry cost?
The inquiry has spent £23 million before it has listened to any evidence and has issued more than £100 million worth of contracts.
Tussell a company that monitors government contracts has said that the inquiry has handed out contracts worth £126 million, most of which is being used for digital services to manage evidence and lawyers.
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8744
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3
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https://martinplaut.com/2021/04/10/david-cameron-lobbied-no-10-and-hancock-for-greensill/
|
en
|
David Cameron lobbied No 10 and Hancock for Greensill
|
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[
"Martin Plaut"
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2021-04-10T00:00:00
|
Gabriel Pogrund and Caroline Wheeler Source: Sunday Times Downing Street today became embroiled in the “biggest lobbying scandal in a generation” after new evidence emerged of attempts by David Cameron to influence the Government. The former prime minister intervened on two fronts to promote the company run by disgraced financier Lex Greensill. The Sunday Times can disclose:…
|
en
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https://s1.wp.com/i/favicon.ico
|
Martin Plaut
|
https://martinplaut.com/2021/04/10/david-cameron-lobbied-no-10-and-hancock-for-greensill/
|
Gabriel Pogrund and Caroline Wheeler
Source: Sunday Times
Downing Street today became embroiled in the “biggest lobbying scandal in a generation” after new evidence emerged of attempts by David Cameron to influence the Government.
The former prime minister intervened on two fronts to promote the company run by disgraced financier Lex Greensill. The Sunday Times can disclose:
• Cameron emailed Boris Johnson’s senior special adviser at No 10 last year within hours of the Treasury rejecting an application from Greensill to access a Covid emergency loan scheme
•He said it was “nuts” to exclude Greensill’s company from a multibillion-pound Covid loan scheme and demanded the government reconsider
•Cameron wrote: “What we need is for Rishi [Sunak] to have a good look at this and ask officials to find a way of making it work”null
•His lobbying led the Treasury to reconsider its decision rejecting Greensill’s application
•In a separate development, it can be revealed that Cameron brought Greensill to a “private drink” with the health secretary in October 2019
•Cameron and Greensill lobbied Matt Hancock to introduce a payment scheme that was later rolled out within the NHS.
•With the help of one of Cameron’s former ministers, Greensill, 44, also met with Dido Harding, the then head of NHS Improvement, and Sir Simon Stevens, the chief executive of the NHS, to pitch his ideas.
•Greensill later launched a partnership with NHS Shared Business Services, jointly run by Hancock’s department allowing up to 400,000 NHS to be paid daily
•The Australian banker planned to make money from the scheme, which was awarded without tender or an open process.
The former prime minister is at the centre of a lobbying scandal after it emerged he contacted ministers on behalf of Greensill Capital, a financial services company he advised and held tens of millions of pounds of share options in. It has since gone bust, threatening 55,000 jobs.
In October 2019, Cameron, 54, arranged and attended a “private drink” with Hancock, and Greensill, an Australian banker whose eponymous firm wanted to introduce a scheme to pay doctors and nurses either daily or weekly, ahead of their usual payday.
They were joined by Bill Crothers, the former head of government procurement who became a director at Greensill Capital. He joined a year after leaving the civil service, where he first met Greensill.
The meeting with Hancock came two months after Greensill had personally sent a letter to the minister proposing a collaboration and claiming senior NHS officials were “overwhelmingly positive” about it. Off the back of that email, Hancock commissioned advice from civil servants about the idea.
One of those copied into the correspondence was Lord Prior, the chairman of NHS England and a minister under Cameron.
Prior, 66, who was awarded a peerage under Cameron, arranged meetings between Greensill and Stevens and Harding, two of the NHS’s most powerful officials. It is understood that Stevens met Greensill briefly at Prior’s behest.
The disclosure means Hancock, the health secretary, is the fourth minister to become embroiled in the biggest lobbying scandal in a generation: the others are Rishi Sunak, who told Cameron he “pushed” officials to consider changing a government scheme, and two other Treasury ministers.
There are no minutes of Hancock’s meeting with Cameron and Greensill. It is not logged in transparency releases and civil servants did not attend.
Allies of Hancock insist he fed relevant information back to officials at the Department of Health. They say that, while generally supportive of Greensill’s ideas, he encouraged him to work directly with NHS trusts on the basis that it was at no extra cost to staff or the taxpayer — and that other suppliers were free to offer the service.
However, months after the encounter, in April last year, NHS Shared Business Services (NHS SBS), a joint vehicle owned by Hancock’s department and a French IT firm, announced a pilot with Earnd — a payment start-up then owned by Greensill. It later said it was being rolled out to “all” NHS organisations.
In practice, it meant 400,000 employees who use NHS SBS for their payroll services became entitled to use Earnd and download it onto their payroll app. Private firms cannot automatically house their services on such platforms and are typically required to bid to get potentially lucrative access to the health service’s vast workforce. In this instance, there was no procurement process or open competition.
Greensill Capital’s subsidiary, Earnd, offered the scheme for free to workers, who could opt to receive their wages daily or weekly. The organisation actually providing the immediate payment in such instances was Earnd, who would later recoup staff salaries from the NHS.
Greensill framed the scheme as benevolent, saying the aim was to help alleviate stress facing NHS workers during the pandemic. But two senior former employees say the plan was to convert the NHS’s future payments into bonds and sell them internationally. They also used the credibility of working with the NHS via the service, and a separate pharmacy scheme signed off by Cameron during his time in office, to demonstrate their credibility with investors.
The partnership still required individual trusts to opt-in to take part: in the end, some of the country’s biggest trusts, such as the Royal Free in London signed up 10,000 employees, and Earnd claimed that 22 trusts were taking part or in the process of doing so. But the disruption of the pandemic slowed progress and, last month, Earnd filed for administration.
The company’s collapse poses questions as to the circumstances in which NHS SBS entered the partnership. The entity is not a public body and there was no transparency surrounding the agreement.
Hancock, Harding and Prior will all face questions about what they knew and whether they granted Greensill special treatment or access to officials.
Following her meeting with Greensill, Harding is understood to have introduced Greensill to Sir James Mackey, who was chief executive of NHS Improvement. He now runs a trust where he considered introducing the scheme.
Last night, NHS England said it did not take the proposals forward: “The NHS has a duty to support staff while using taxpayers’ money wisely and so officials do meet organisations who may be able to provide good value services which are effective, and when ideas are taken forward, contracts are put through the appropriate and transparent tendering processes.”
|
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dbpedia
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1
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https://www.personneltoday.com/hr/hancock-met-greensill-over-nhs-salary-advance-scheme/
|
en
|
Hancock met Greensill over NHS salary advance scheme
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] | null |
[
"Adam McCulloch"
] |
2021-04-12T10:40:04+00:00
|
Health secretary was lobbied by David Cameron and financier Lex Greensill to introduce earned wage access scheme in NHS, it has emerged.
|
en
|
Personnel Today
|
https://www.personneltoday.com/hr/hancock-met-greensill-over-nhs-salary-advance-scheme/
|
Health secretary Matt Hancock was lobbied by former Prime Minister David Cameron and financier Lex Greensill to introduce a payroll scheme that was later offered within the NHS, it emerged over the weekend.
There are fears that procurement and open competition rules were flouted as NHS staff became entitled to use a remuneration scheme to gain payments before their payday. Additionally, sources have told The Sunday Times that Greensill’s plan was to convert the NHS future payments into bonds and sell them internationally.
Cameron held share options worth millions of pounds in Greensill Capital, a financial services company he advised, which has subsequently gone bust, threatening 55,000 jobs across the world, including 5,000 in the UK.
According to The Sunday Times, in October 2019, Cameron, arranged a “private drink” with Hancock and Greensill. The Australian banker’s firm wanted to introduce a scheme to remunerate doctors and nurses before their usual paydays.
Meetings were arranged between Greensill, NHS chief executive Simon Stevens and Dido Harding, then head of NHS Improvement.
Allies of Hancock, said the newspaper, encouraged Greensill to work directly with NHS trusts on the basis that other suppliers were free to offer the service.
But crucially, months after the meeting last April, NHS Shared Business Services (NHS SBS), a joint vehicle owned by the Department of Health and a French IT firm, announced a pilot with Earnd – a payments start-up then owned by Greensill. It later said the scheme was being introduced to “all” NHS organisations.
This meant that 400,000 employees who used NHS SBS for their payroll services became entitled to use Earnd and download it onto their payroll app.
Private firms cannot automatically house their services on such platforms and are typically required to bid to get potentially lucrative access to the health service’s vast workforce. In this instance there was no procurement process or open competition.
Earnd offered the scheme free to workers, who could opt to receive their wages on a daily or weekly basis. The organisation providing the immediate payment in such instances was Earnd, which would later recoup staff salaries from the NHS.
The Times said Greensill framed the scheme as benevolent, explaining the aim was to help alleviate NHS workers’ stress during the pandemic. But two senior former employees say the plan was to convert the NHS’s future payments into bonds and sell them internationally. They also used the credibility of working with the NHS via the service, and a separate pharmacy scheme agreed by Cameron during his time in office, to demonstrate their credibility with investors.
Some of the country’s biggest trusts, such as the Royal Free in London, signed up, but last month Earnd filed for administration.
According to The Times, “The company’s collapse poses questions about the circumstances in which NHS SBS entered into the partnership. The entity is not a public body and there was no transparency surrounding the agreement.”
An NHS spokesperson said: “The NHS has a duty to support staff while using taxpayers’ money wisely, so officials do meet organisations that may be able to provide good-value services which are effective, and when ideas are taken forward, contracts are put through the appropriate and transparent tendering processes. The proposals were not taken forward in this case.”
The Department of Health said: “The wellbeing of NHS staff is the top priority of the department and the health secretary. Our approach was and is that local NHS employers are best placed to decide how different pay flexibilities fit with their overall pay-and-reward offer for their staff.”
Meanwhile, UK fintech firm Wagestream, which offers workers early access to wages, has scooped up Earnd Australia, a Sydney-based competitor that Greensill acquired just last year.
Critics say that employer salary advance schemes, such as those offered by Wagestream, and used to be offered by Earnd, can push consumers into cycles of debt and should be regulated in the same manner as much-criticised payday lenders. However, Wagestream contends that this concern has been “de-bunked”. A spokesperson told Personnel Today: “Our impact assessments, run bi-annually with our founding charity partners and published online, show that 72% of those using earned wage access feel more in control of their finances as a result; almost two-thirds say it improves their quality of life. EWA is also proven by data to get people back on the front foot and avoid cycles of debt and credit reliance, reducing payday loan use by 88%, credit card use by 39% and overdraft use by 31%.”
Last summer, the Financial Conduct Authority pointed out there was a lack of regulation around salary advance schemes. It warned of there was little transparency around costs, and there was a possibility of workers making repeat withdrawals and becoming dependent on the services to make ends meet. Subsequent FCA comment, in the Woolard Review, stated that while salary schemes gave employees more control over their finances: “It is important ESAS providers and employers monitor use and proactively engage with employees whose usage indicates they are in financial difficulty.”
Wagestream’s spokesperson called the regulator’s guidance an “excellent first step” and added that the data now showed that “EWA can be hugely positive – if guided by charities, designed with better savings and education as the end goal, and used responsibly.”
Latest HR job opportunities on Personnel Today
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3
| 88
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https://inews.co.uk/opinion/the-matt-hancock-scandal-has-revealed-the-rotten-stench-of-corruption-at-the-heart-of-our-government-1074143
|
en
|
The Matt Hancock scandal has revealed the rotten stench of corruption at the heart of our government
|
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] |
[] |
[] |
[
""
] | null |
[
"Ian Birrell"
] |
2021-06-27T16:26:51+00:00
|
The former health secretary's career was nurtured over almost two decades climbing the greasy pole of Westminster - but was unlocked with stunning speed by a snog in the office
|
en
|
inews.co.uk
|
https://inews.co.uk/opinion/the-matt-hancock-scandal-has-revealed-the-rotten-stench-of-corruption-at-the-heart-of-our-government-1074143
|
So farewell then, Matt Hancock, self-righteous protector of the nation’s public health in the pandemic. His career, so carefully nurtured over almost two decades climbing the greasy pole of Westminster, was unlocked with stunning speed by a snog in the office, a sneaky foe and a quick call to The Sun showing again both the fragility and toxicity of politics. His sickly resignation speech was a fitting epitaph for his time in office. Yet it is telling there is so little sympathy even on his own side for this remorselessly ambitious and energetic character, something he might reflect on as he surveys the sudden unravelling of his marriage, his family and his aspirations.
His private life is irrelevant for the rest of us, beyond perhaps sympathy for his wife and children caught in the spotlight. Yet his resignation is highly significant, since it reveals much that is wrong with our political system and the shallow people who all too often rise to the top. Consider, after all, why Hancock found himself in this crucial post when the world was struck by its most devastating public health crisis for a century? The reason is simple: he was a man of such shallow principles and spinelessness that he was prepared to ditch everything he previously espoused to keep his precious seat at the Cabinet table when his party changed course.
So he posed as a liberal moderniser when David Cameron was in charge, securing the patronage of George Osborne, then stayed in post after Theresa May took over. He opposed Brexit and stood for leader as a centrist – the self-proclaimed candidate “for the future” – then flipped to back Boris Johnson’s nationalist creed when he saw the political winds changing direction. One moment Hancock was railing against proroguing Parliament, saying it meant “the end of the Conservative Party as a serious party of government” and went “against everything those men who waded onto those beaches fought and died for – and I will not have it.” The next minute, he was spewing out weasel words to back the policy.
This hustler symbolises the corrosive tribalism that demands slavish loyalty rather than compassion, ideas or leadership skills from ministers. Even in a pandemic, these people play pathetic games and fight prissy culture wars rather than reach out across the political divide and soothe divisions for sake of the nation. Bear in mind there are far worse figures still sitting around the cabinet table, such as the scandal-tinged trio of Priti Patel, Gavin Williamson and Robert Jenrick. So is it any wonder we keep getting disturbing glimpses of their arrogant hypocrisy, their sense of entitlement, their incompetence and their utter contempt for the ordinary folk who fund their salaries? And is it any wonder there is such lack of faith in our political system when leaders make rules then break them with such insouciance?
These attitudes breed the cronyism that sees a serial failure such as Dido Harding lined up to become NHS chief, an aristocratic donor to Hancock’s dismal leadership campaign rewarded with a job as health minister, and the minister’s lover slid into a powerful post by his side. They use private emails and thus evade accountability. This tips over into something even more serious when Gina Coladangelo – despite extensive lobbying links – is made a departmental director. Meanwhile her brother’s firm has won NHS contracts, just like Hancock’s sister, and we discover that the disgraced minister was not being truthful when saying he had “nothing to do” with his pint-pulling publican pal winning a pandemic contract to provide vials for Covid tests. What irony that Britain struts around the world stage lecturing developing nations on good governance when the whiff of corruption hangs so heavy over Whitehall.
Consider also that Hancock was Secretary of State for Health and Social Care before his downfall. Yet such is the low priority given to care – exposed with such deadly consequences in the pandemic – that his lengthy resignation letter banged on about the NHS yet ignored this sector that was shattered due to political failure even before Covid struck our shores. In one grotesque final insult, this politician who once posed with a badge saying “Care” gave “heartfelt and sincere” thanks to the sacrifice of his officials, pharmacists, the pharmaceutical industry, even the armed forces – but not to those underpaid carers who risked lives on the front line under his tenure. No wonder this crippled system never gets fixed while a brazen prime minister gets away with lying over his claim to possess a plan for reform.
Yet is any of this surprising in an administration headed by Boris Johnson, a man who has behaved worse in both his private and professional life than Hancock yet ended up running our country? A frequent liar, bereft of fidelity, devoid of principles and lacking even a semblance of ideology who hides his lonely hollowness behind the mask of a clown. A populist leader so insecure that he cannot abide challenge, ducks confrontation and demands obsequious allegiance. His former aide Dominic Cummings recalled how if cabinet discussions grew difficult the prime minister would “do the whole ‘Let’s take it offline’ shtick before shouting ‘Forward to victory’, doing a thumbs-up and pegging it out of the room before anybody can disagree”.
The first Tory MP to break ranks and call for Hancock’s departure was a Norfolk MP called Duncan Baker who said that “people in high public office and great positions of responsibility should act with the appropriate morals and ethics that come with that role.” He is absolutely right.
Yet as the old Turkish saying goes, a fish rots from the head down. And this latest resignation goes far beyond Hancock’s tonsil tennis with an aide to expose the stench of decay in Downing Street and intensifying putrefaction of our entire political system.
|
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https://www.some.ox.ac.uk/news/four-somervillian-mps-appointed-to-new-roles-in-cabinet-reshuffle/
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en
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Four Somervillian MPs appointed to new roles in Cabinet reshuffle
|
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[] |
[] |
[
""
] | null |
[
"Somerville"
] |
2016-07-20T15:36:51+01:00
|
As a result of new Prime Minister Theresa May’s reshuffle of the Cabinet and Ministers, four Somervillian Members of Parliament have been moved into new roles.
|
en
|
Somerville College Oxford - Somerville College main website
|
https://www.some.ox.ac.uk/news/four-somervillian-mps-appointed-to-new-roles-in-cabinet-reshuffle/
|
As a result of new Prime Minister Theresa May’s reshuffle of the Cabinet and Ministers, four Somervillian Members of Parliament have been moved into new roles.
Sam Gyimah
Former Childcare and Education Minister, Sam Gyimah who came to Somerville to read Philosophy, Politics and Economics in 1995, has been appointed as Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Ministry of Justice. On Saturday 16 July, he announced to his Twitter followers that he was ‘delighted to be appointed as a minister in the Justice Department to help drive progressive reform of the Justice system.’
Mr Gyimah was elected Conservative Member of Parliament for Surrey East at the General Election of 2010. Then, in 2012, he was appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Prime Minister, David Cameron, and in 2013 he was appointed a Government Whip.
Therese Coffey
MP for Suffolk Coastal, Therese Coffey (Chemistry, 1989) has replaced Rory Steward as Waste and Resources Minister at Defra. Dr Coffey was previously the Deputy Leader of the House of Commons serving under Chris Grayling MP and served on the Culture, Media and Sport Committee until she was appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary to Michael Fallon, Minister for Business and Energy. Mr Fallon had responsibility for the WEEE directive which is now overseen by Defra.
Baroness Neville-Rolfe DBE CMG
Baroness Neville-Rolfe (PPE, 1970) has been promoted to Minister of State at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy after having previously been Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (jointly with the Department of Culture, Media and Sport) and Minister for Intellectual Property from May 2015.
Nicola Blackwood
The fourth Somervillian to be handed a new post is Nicola Blackwood (Music, 2005), MP for West Oxford and Abingdon, who has been made Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Public Health. She has left her present role as chair of the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee, but tweeted that she ‘will keep fighting for science and innovation’.
Before the General Election, Miss Blackwood was Parliamentary Private Secretary to Matthew Hancock MP, Minister for Energy and Enterprise (2013-2015) and a key member of the influential Home Affairs Select Committee (2010-2015). She was also previously Vice Chairman of the Conservative Party from 2010-2013.
|
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https://www.sos.state.tx.us/elections/voter/votregduties.shtml
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en
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County Voter Registration Officials
|
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Skip to Main Content
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https://uk.news.yahoo.com/why-did-matt-hancock-just-095208132.html
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en
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Why Did Matt Hancock Just Get The Tory Whip Back?
|
https://media.zenfs.com/en/huffpost_uk_744/7d241722fb76cb5f5b40b8fe9202180f
|
https://media.zenfs.com/en/huffpost_uk_744/7d241722fb76cb5f5b40b8fe9202180f
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[
""
] | null |
[
"Kate Nicholson"
] |
2024-05-24T09:52:08+00:00
|
The Conservatives seem happy to forgive and forget the MP's stint on I'm A Celebrity.
|
en
|
https://s.yimg.com/rz/l/favicon.ico
|
Yahoo News
|
https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/why-did-matt-hancock-just-get-the-tory-whip-back_uk_66505172e4b042129b8a5acd
|
Matt Hancock just got the Tory whip back, more than a year after it was removed over his stint on I’m A Celebrity.
The MP had been sitting as an independent since November 2022 and is still expected to stand down at the upcoming general election.
But, the Conservative Party have welcomed him back anyway as a “gesture of goodwill”.
Hancock wrote on social media: “I’m proud to leave Parliament as a Conservative MP after two decades serving my country in opposition and in government.
“I wish Rishi and all my colleagues all the best in the campaign to come.”
The MP for West Suffolk and former health secretary was kicked out of the party after going on the ITV reality show for weeks instead of attending to his constituents.
Hancock’s local members actually asked the Conservative chief whip not to welcome the MP back into the party back in late 2022, when he first announced he would not be standing for election again.
They said they had “no confidence” in him.
Bob Stewart also had the whip restored on Thursday.
He relinquished the whip after he was convicted of racist abuse, although he made no reference to the conviction in his resignation statement. He won the appeal to overturn the conviction in February.
The Tory MP will be standing down in six weeks’ time along with Hancock and 72 other Conservatives.
Meanwhile, Labour is facing some heat for not reinstating two famous faces – Jeremy Corbyn and Diane Abbott – before the public hit the ballot box in July.
Both lost the whip over allegations linked to anti-semitism.
The party’s one-time leader Corbyn confirmed this morning he would be standing as an independent in his constituency of Islington North while Labour have two candidates ready to challenge him.
Keir Starmer has said the ongoing probe into Abbott is set to be completed within the coming days, when the party will decide whether to welcome her back or not ahead of the election.
Related...
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https://www.mailplus.co.uk/topics/matt-hancock
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Matt Hancock News Today: Latest Updates, Briefings and Announcements
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2022-02-28T00:00:00
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Matt Hancock news. All the latest updates, coronavirus briefings and announcements from the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care.
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en
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https://www.mailplus.co.uk/topics/matt-hancock
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Of course Matt Hancock stripped to his pants to take a dip in the Serpentine in Hyde Park the other day, and he actually turned and smiled at the camera! Dear God, if he were a woman, he would have undressed behind a great big towel – wriggle, wriggle, wriggle – then crouched and scurried into the water in case anyone saw cellulite/unwaxed shin/chipped pedicure. He would have emerged, if a woman, slightly crouching in case anyone saw his tummy, then done a reverse striptease – tug, tug, tug – under the towel again. At the end of all this, if a woman, he wouldn’t be thinking, ‘Thank God I didn’t drown’ but ‘Thank the Lord no one saw my buttocks’.
MATT HANCOCK, the Health Secretary, simply had to go. Sometimes Ministers are forced out for contrived or barely relevant reasons. This was not one of those times. It is no good saying politicians’ personal lives are not the public’s business - because politicians are making the personal behaviour of the public their business. And none forced his way into the private lives of the people more than Mr Hancock.
I’M NOT sure how you are supposed to choose, when you are told your dad has a 50-50 chance of living but only one of his two children can go and see him, and then only for an hour. Who claims visiting rights? The older child? The younger? Toss a coin for it? Rock, paper, scissors? Best of three? A quick sibling wrestle in the hospital car park?
ONE of the many times Matt Hancock’s name has lately gone ‘viral’ on the internet came when Kay Burley asked him in September whether a new round of Covid restrictions had made casual sex illegal.
FROM his love bunker deep in the Department of Health, Matt Hancock has been laying down the Covid social-distancing laws since the pandemic began. For millions of us, there has been no escape from his strictures. Listen to him go on!
12pm: Matt Hancock today insisted that Boris Johnson’s criticism of him as ‘hopeless’ is not embarrassing.
The Health Secretary said the remarks ‘feel like ancient history’, adding: ‘At times of stress, people say all sorts of things in private.’
MATT Hancock was on the rack last night, after struggling to deny a claim that he had lied about care home testing at the height of the pandemic.
5pm: Boris Johnson and Matt Hancock have poured fresh doubts on the June 21 easing of restrictions as they warned it was still too early to confirm whether the next stage in the roadmap would go ahead.
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dbpedia
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https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-56706619
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Matt Hancock 'had private drink' with David Cameron and Lex Greensill
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[
"BBC News"
] |
2021-04-10T23:11:55+00:00
|
An ally of Matt Hancock tells the BBC he "acted in entirely the correct way" after the 2019 meeting.
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en
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/bbcx/apple-touch-icon.png
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https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-56706619
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Health Secretary Matt Hancock met former PM David Cameron and financier Lex Greensill for a "private drink" in 2019 to discuss a new payment scheme for the NHS, it has been revealed.
It is the latest in a series of Sunday Times disclosures about Mr Cameron's lobbying work since leaving office.
Mr Greensill advised Mr Cameron's government, and the ex-PM went on to be employed by Greensill Capital.
An ally of Mr Hancock said he had "acted in entirely the correct way".
They told the BBC that Mr Hancock had "updated officials on the business that was discussed, as is appropriate".
Greensill Capital's scheme, which allowed staff to be paid early for hours they had already worked, went on to be used by some NHS trusts.
The development is the latest to be published by the Sunday Times detailing Mr Cameron's work for Greensill Capital after he left politics.
Mr Hancock is the fourth minister to have been lobbied by Mr Cameron on behalf of the company, which recently collapsed costing 440 jobs.
Mr Greensill worked as an unpaid adviser to Mr Cameron when he was prime minister.
The financier developed a policy designed to help small businesses get their bills paid faster, as part of a scheme that also benefited his own financial company, Greensill Capital.
Mr Cameron began working for Greensill Capital after leaving office, and tried unsuccessfully to lobby the government to increase the firm's access to government-backed loans during the first phase of the coronavirus pandemic.
Mr Cameron pressed Treasury officials - and sent text messages to Chancellor Rishi Sunak's personal phone - to access emergency funding for Greensill Capital.
The former Tory leader - who was PM between 2010 and 2016 - is reported to have told friends he was set to earn as much as £60m from share options in Greensill Capital, although this has since been disputed.
In the end, Mr Cameron's pleas to the Treasury for Covid emergency loans for Greensill Capital fell on deaf ears.
'Private drink'
The "private drink" between Mr Hancock, Mr Cameron and Mr Greensill took place in October 2019.
In August 2019, Mr Greensill wrote to Mr Hancock to set out a proposal to allow the NHS access to an app Greensill Capital had devised, called Earnd, to pay doctors and nurses either daily or weekly in advance and free-of-charge to workers.
Having received the letter, the health secretary commissioned advice from civil servants to explore the idea.
The advice was that the "principle" of the idea was "good," but sources insisted he wanted other suppliers to be able to offer the same work and it would be up to local NHS managers to decide whether to sign up to it.
Some NHS trusts went on to use Greensill Capital's Earnd app during the pandemic.
Will David Cameron answer mounting questions?
This is the latest illustration of the web of connections between a former prime minister, a businessman and government ministers.
Remember, Lex Greensill worked in Downing Street when David Cameron was PM.
And then their relationship reversed when Mr Cameron left office: he went to work for Mr Greensill.
Individuals, businesses, charities and trade unions seek to influence the government all the time.
But how many people get to have a private drink with the health secretary?
Matt Hancock insists he behaved entirely correctly.
Neither Mr Cameron nor Mr Greensill have spoken publicly since headlines about the two of them started to appear several weeks ago now.
In the last few days, those close to them have begun to talk.
Will Mr Cameron eventually feel compelled to face a camera and address the many questions he now faces?
A source close to Mr Greensill said the scheme was offered free to both the NHS and its employees, while a source close to Mr Cameron said: "David Cameron was an enthusiastic champion of Greensill's pay product, Earnd, and met with various people to discuss its rollout across the NHS."
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dbpedia
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https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-57608890
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en
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Matt Hancock: High profile former health secretary
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[
"BBC News"
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2021-06-25T13:17:43+00:00
|
Health secretary during the coronavirus pandemic, he was one of the UK's most prominent politicians.
|
en
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/bbcx/apple-touch-icon.png
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https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-57608890
|
Before resigning his role, Matt Hancock had achieved an unusually high profile for a health secretary, with the coronavirus pandemic making him a household name.
But it was his personal life, after pictures emerged of the married father-of-three embracing close colleague Gina Coladangelo, which led him to quit his job.
Mr Hancock has admitted breaking social distancing rules and accepted he "let people down".
On Saturday he resigned, saying "we owe it to people who have sacrificed so much in this pandemic to be honest when we have let them down".
Propelled into the limelight as Covid-19 gripped the country in spring 2020, Mr Hancock regularly spoke for the government in the media and at the daily Downing Street press conferences.
He famously set a target to conduct 100,000 Covid tests a day by the end of April, a target which he said he met - with his method for calculating the target later coming in for criticism.
But his performance at the onset of the pandemic has recently come under renewed scrutiny, following a series of explosive allegations by Boris Johnson's ex-adviser Dominic Cummings.
Mr Hancock has repeatedly denied Mr Cummings' claims of lying to the prime minister about care home testing and procurement of personal protective equipment during the first Covid wave.
A bitter war of words between Mr Hancock and the PM's ex-aide has since ensued - with Mr Cummings publishing WhatsApp messages, apparently from Mr Johnson in March last year, in which the PM called the health secretary "totally [expletive] hopeless".
Mr Hancock also has faced criticism for his decision to hire his friend, the ex-TalkTalk boss and Tory peer Dido Harding, to run England's much-criticised test and trace system.
And his later decision to give her a role as interim head of the UK's new health protection agency sparked controversy, with Labour saying the appointment lacked transparency.
But Mr Hancock has been steadfast in his defence of her, rejecting criticism of early delays to the NHS Test and Trace app and even describing it as the "cherry on Dido's cake".
Like other ministers, he has repeatedly stressed the importance of people keeping their distance and following government guidance.
Yet he had already apologised once before for breaching the advice - saying sorry for a "human mistake" in June last year after he was caught on camera slapping a colleague on the back in the House of Commons.
In addition, Mr Hancock has also faced questions over how his department awarded Covid contracts at the height of the first wave of the pandemic.
He has denied involvement in the awarding of a controversial £30m contract to a firm run by the former landlord near his old constituency home.
In late May, the PM's standards adviser said he was guilty of a "minor technical breach" of the ministerial code after initially failing to declare his stake in an NHS supplier run by his sister and brother-in-law.
The prime minister decided this breach did not "impugn" the health secretary's "good character".
But that has not stopped Labour and other opposition parties from heaping pressure on Mr Hancock over his record in office - calling for him to be sacked before his resignation.
'White lie'
Matt Hancock was born in Cheshire in 1978, and privately educated at the King's School in Chester, before later studying computing at a further education college.
Like many in Westminster, he went on to study politics, philosophy and economics at Oxford university - before then briefly working for a Conservative backbencher and at the Bank of England.
It was during his time at Oxford that Ms Coladangelo says she first met Mr Hancock, after they worked together at a student radio station.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4 for a documentary broadcast in April last year, she said: "I read the news and Matt read the sport.
"I've always joked with him that he did the sport because he wasn't good enough to do the news."
She told a story from Mr Hancock's time as a student journalist, saying he once overslept and missed his train to Twickenham Stadium, where he was supposed to be reporting from a rugby match.
Instead, she added, he "told a white lie" and pretended he'd gone to the game, when in fact he was filing his match report from a pub in Reading.
Mr Hancock entered the political world as an adviser to then-shadow chancellor George Osborne, before rising up the ranks to become his chief of staff.
Amateur jockey
Elected Conservative MP for West Suffolk at the 2010 election, he held various ministerial posts under David Cameron and Theresa May.
His big break came in early 2018, when, aged 39, he became the youngest member of Mrs May's cabinet after she appointed him culture, media and sport secretary.
It was a role that Mr Hancock, an avid cricketer who once trained to become a jockey for a charity horse race, embraced enthusiastically.
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3
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https://www.matt-hancock.com/biography
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Matt Hancock
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https://static.parastorage.com/client/pfavico.ico
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Matt Hancock
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https://www.matt-hancock.com/biography
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At the age of 35 Prime Minister David Cameron invited Matt to attend the UK Cabinet – becoming the third youngest person to do so since the Second World War – as Minister for Business and Energy, and then as Postmaster General, where he was responsible for the efficiency and digitalisation of government.
This included the digitisation of many citizen-facing services, and the ensuing efficiencies and reforms of civil service terms led to the smallest civil service since the war. Matt launched the new National Cyber Security Centre, a model that has been replicated by many countries around the world.
During the 2016 referendum on the United Kingdom’s membership of the European Union, Matt supported the Remain campaign. Subsequently appointed as Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, he navigated the passage of key legislation such as the UK’s Data Protection Act, positioning the UK as a global tech investment hub and become the third biggest recipient of tech investment in the world, after the US and China.
In 2018, Prime Minister Theresa May asked Matt to become Secretary of State for Health and Social Care. Understanding his background in data and technology, Matt was asked to modernise the NHS and unleash the power of UK health data. As Health Secretary, Matt was responsible for a budget of over £200bn, and for 1.4 million NHS employees – the fifth largest organisation in the world – as well as the provision of social care and health protection. Matt developed, launched, and implemented the NHS Long Term Plan, a reform programme to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the NHS.
Matt spearheaded groundbreaking initiatives during his tenure, including the creation of the NHS app, which revolutionised access to health data for citizens and enhanced data interoperability. Additionally, he established NHSX as the innovation hub within the NHS, furthering technological advancements and driving efficiency.
His reform programme included the first-ever NHS workforce plan, hiring a Chief People Officer for the first time, and successfully settling the junior doctor strike, which had been ongoing for many years.
When Theresa May announced she would be standing down in 2019, Matt stood to succeed her as Prime Minister, coming fifth in the race, behind eventual winner, Boris Johnson, who reappointed him as Health Secretary. Matt’s commitment to hire 50,000 more nurses, and build 40 new hospitals, were at the centre of the Conservative’s successful 2019 election campaign.
As Secretary of State for Health and Social Care during the coronavirus pandemic, Matt was responsible for steering the country, the NHS, and the UK health system through the most significant global health crisis in a century.
From leading Downing Street press conferences and chairing COBR meetings to liaising with international leaders and overseeing the world’s most successful vaccination programme, Matt was at the forefront of government, working closely with the Prime Minister, as well as the UK’s Chief Medical Officer, to decide how the world’s sixth largest economy would respond to the virus.
Matt founded the UK Health Security Agency and was at the forefront of the UK government's communication with the public, fronting the daily press conference, and answering questions in Parliament. He was at the forefront of global pandemic response coordination and chaired the weekly G7 Health Ministers pandemic response meeting.
Matt chaired the UK Vaccine Delivery Board, which in December 2020 delivered the world’s first clinically approved vaccine for COVID-19, delivering more than 3 billion doses to 183 countries around the world.
Through the UK’s commitment to ensuring global fair access, the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine is estimated to have saved 6.3 million lives in the first year of the global vaccine rollout – the most out of all the vaccines in circulation at the time.
Matt’s leadership extends beyond the Covid-19 response. He championed initiatives to strengthen the NHS, increased funding for mental health services, and improved access to healthcare for all UK citizens. Under Matt’s leadership, the NHS began its digital transformation, harnessing technology to improve patient care, streamline operations and enhance efficiency.
Since stepping down from government in June 2021, Matt has championed the early identification of dyslexia, as well as other neurodivergent conditions, building on his own personal experience. Last year, Matt founded the Accessible Learning Foundation (ALF) and in 2024 introduced the Neurodivergent Conditions (Screening and Teacher Training) Bill into the UK Parliament. He continues to work closely with the ALF trustees.
Outside of politics, Matt has a strong interest in technology and its potential to benefit society. He is particularly passionate about advancements in artificial intelligence and health technology and explores ways to use tech innovations for social good.
In his spare time, Matt enjoys spending time with his three children, playing cricket, horse racing, running, and participating in physical challenges. Matt is an adventurer. In 2005 Matt broke the world record for the most northerly game of cricket ever played, pulling on the pads at the North Pole. Matt has completed the London marathon twice and is the first MP since the First World War to win a horse race under rules, when he crossed the line first in a charity race in Newmarket, in 2012.
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https://www.keele.ac.uk/about/news/2022/december/keele-comment/matt-hancock-pandemic-diaries.php
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Comment | Matt Hancock’s Pandemic Diaries and the history of the redemptive memoir
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2022-12-22T00:00:00
|
Dr Luke Davies writes for The Conversation.
|
en
|
Keele University
| null |
Image credit: I T S / Shutterstock.com
Matt Hancock has achieved fame in recent months for devouring a cow anus live on television (during his I’m A Celebrity stint) and for releasing questionable TikTok videos cringing about his past “embarrassing” moments.
Some will recall that before all this, he was once UK health secretary during the biggest global health crisis in living memory. Back then, he achieved notoriety for (among other things) allowing COVID patients to be sent into care homes and for securing lucrative testing contracts for his friends.
Now, Hancock has published his Pandemic Diaries, giving his side of the story. So what insights do they have to offer? And how might a literary historian like myself situate them within the wider context of the political memoir?
Early on in Hancock’s diaries, we learn that the UK Health Secretary’s first (and I quote) “oh s***” moment was on January 28, 2020, when he was told that the pandemic could lead to up to 820,000 UK deaths.
From then on in, the basic thrust of the narrative is that everyone but Matt Hancock was responsible for the litany of failures that ensued.
Delayed restrictions? That was the fault of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies. Dismal contract tracing? Public Health England were to blame. Failure to close UK borders? No. 10 was responsible. Government in chaos? That would be Dominic Cummings.
The Erin Brockovich of COVID
Reading how “aghast” Hancock was in response to a Prime Minister’s Questions session in early February, in which no one asked a single question about the virus, the impression given is that he was the Erin Brockovich of COVID.
Oddly enough, however, none of this quite tallies with Hancock’s account, in these same pages, of his actual activities during this period. Eating Babybels with Ronnie Wood at a Brit Awards ceremony in late February, for instance. Or going to Planet Laser in Bury St Edmunds in early March.
Or, more generally, entirely failing to respond to the knowledge that 820,000 lives were at risk by taking decisive action – in the process dismissing the advice of Tory grandees and former prime ministers, who (as Hancock acknowledges in his diaries) were sending desperate text messages demanding restrictions as early as February.
A possible explanation for these strange inconsistencies is the fact that Hancock’s diary isn’t actually a diary at all. As he himself admits, he “didn’t have time to keep a detailed diary” during this period - and so the Pandemic Diaries were “pieced together” after the fact.
Given the existence of an Imperial College study suggesting that the UK’s delayed response caused 21,000 unnecessary deaths, the pressure on Hancock to retroactively redeem himself seems clear.
So what to make of this strange attempt on the part of a disgraced politician, forced to quit in the wake of a scandal, to exonerate themselves?
The history of the redemptive memoir
Historian George Egerton notes that (while forerunners exist) the concept of the professional politician publishing a text that aims “to explain and interpret” the decisions they made in office didn’t find full expression until the 1890s, with first Chancellor of the German Empire Otto von Bismarck’s landmark three volume memoir.
Since then, accelerated by the “professionalisation” of politics during the early 20th century, the pressure to hold politicians to account has grown significantly. As Egerton writes, since the post-war period it has been the norm for politicians to “publish an account of their leadership”.
Hancock is hardly the first modern British politician to make use of this trend in an attempt to set the record straight. Tony Blair’s A Journey (2010) and David Cameron’s For the Record (2019) are just two recent examples.
What is perhaps unique about Hancock’s contribution to the genre is its fundamental unseriousness.
This is not just in the lack of willingness to take any responsibility for the mishandling of the pandemic, or in the fact that inventing a diary is an astonishing feat of post factual audacity. It is in the general ridiculousness of the account that is offered.
Less redemption, more slapstick
The image that will stay with most readers of Hancock’s diaries is unlikely to be that of a nation bravely facing a crisis.
The picture that has been indelibly imprinted upon my mind, for instance, is instead of Hancock struggling “to keep a straight face” at the sight of Thérèse Coffey “chomping on a sandwich” during “an extremely important” Zoom meeting about shielding the vulnerable.
Or of Hancock delivering his instructions as Health Secretary from “a director’s chair with ‘Hancock’ across the back”, gifted to him by Pinewood Studios.
Or of George Osborne whispering into Hancock’s ear how much he reminds him of “Tigger from Winnie the Pooh”.
Of course, the slapstick is on theme for the current Conservative Party: it’s evocative of Michael Gove’s skits on BBC breakfast, or Grant Shapp’s Elf on the Shelf routine, or Boris Johnson’s Love Actually parody.
The “total bants” is perhaps less expected in a diary account of a series of events leading to over 200,000 deaths. But then, the cow’s anus was unexpected too.
Luke Lewin Davies, Lecturer in Literature, Keele University
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Matt Hancock
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Matt Hancock is a British Politician who is currently the MP for West Suffolk in the United Kingdom. Matt joined the jungle on Day 4 along with Seann Walsh as their first trial was the Beastly Burrows in which they got a total of 6 stars. Matt has done a total of 7 trials, with him getting a...
|
en
|
https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/imaceleb/images/4/4a/Site-favicon.ico/revision/latest?cb=20210719165527
|
I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! Wiki
|
https://imaceleb.fandom.com/wiki/Matt_Hancock
|
Matt Hancock is a British Politician who is currently the MP for West Suffolk in the United Kingdom. Matt joined the jungle on Day 4 along with Seann Walsh as their first trial was the Beastly Burrows in which they got a total of 6 stars. Matt has done a total of 7 trials, with him getting a total of 59/76 possible stars, giving him a percentage of 78% of the stars in his trials. Most of Matt's trials were done consecutively, as he did 6 trials in a row before the people would vote in someone else for the Angel of Agony trial on the 15th November as he would state in his trial that he was "starting to like them", likely causing the change in votes. Since the consecutive voting in, Matt has done 1 trial since which was compulsory as all Celebrities had to take part.
Background[]
Matthew John David Hancock (born 2 October 1978) is a British politician and economist who has been Member of Parliament (MP) for West Suffolk since 2010. Originally elected as a member of the Conservative Party, Hancock is currently an independent after his Conservative Party whip was suspended while he appeared in a television show in November 2022. He served in various cabinet positions under Prime Ministers David Cameron, Theresa May, and Boris Johnson.
Trivia[]
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https://www.keele.ac.uk/about/news/2022/december/keele-comment/matt-hancock-pandemic-diaries.php
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en
|
Comment | Matt Hancock’s Pandemic Diaries and the history of the redemptive memoir
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2022-12-22T00:00:00
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Dr Luke Davies writes for The Conversation.
|
en
|
Keele University
| null |
Image credit: I T S / Shutterstock.com
Matt Hancock has achieved fame in recent months for devouring a cow anus live on television (during his I’m A Celebrity stint) and for releasing questionable TikTok videos cringing about his past “embarrassing” moments.
Some will recall that before all this, he was once UK health secretary during the biggest global health crisis in living memory. Back then, he achieved notoriety for (among other things) allowing COVID patients to be sent into care homes and for securing lucrative testing contracts for his friends.
Now, Hancock has published his Pandemic Diaries, giving his side of the story. So what insights do they have to offer? And how might a literary historian like myself situate them within the wider context of the political memoir?
Early on in Hancock’s diaries, we learn that the UK Health Secretary’s first (and I quote) “oh s***” moment was on January 28, 2020, when he was told that the pandemic could lead to up to 820,000 UK deaths.
From then on in, the basic thrust of the narrative is that everyone but Matt Hancock was responsible for the litany of failures that ensued.
Delayed restrictions? That was the fault of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies. Dismal contract tracing? Public Health England were to blame. Failure to close UK borders? No. 10 was responsible. Government in chaos? That would be Dominic Cummings.
The Erin Brockovich of COVID
Reading how “aghast” Hancock was in response to a Prime Minister’s Questions session in early February, in which no one asked a single question about the virus, the impression given is that he was the Erin Brockovich of COVID.
Oddly enough, however, none of this quite tallies with Hancock’s account, in these same pages, of his actual activities during this period. Eating Babybels with Ronnie Wood at a Brit Awards ceremony in late February, for instance. Or going to Planet Laser in Bury St Edmunds in early March.
Or, more generally, entirely failing to respond to the knowledge that 820,000 lives were at risk by taking decisive action – in the process dismissing the advice of Tory grandees and former prime ministers, who (as Hancock acknowledges in his diaries) were sending desperate text messages demanding restrictions as early as February.
A possible explanation for these strange inconsistencies is the fact that Hancock’s diary isn’t actually a diary at all. As he himself admits, he “didn’t have time to keep a detailed diary” during this period - and so the Pandemic Diaries were “pieced together” after the fact.
Given the existence of an Imperial College study suggesting that the UK’s delayed response caused 21,000 unnecessary deaths, the pressure on Hancock to retroactively redeem himself seems clear.
So what to make of this strange attempt on the part of a disgraced politician, forced to quit in the wake of a scandal, to exonerate themselves?
The history of the redemptive memoir
Historian George Egerton notes that (while forerunners exist) the concept of the professional politician publishing a text that aims “to explain and interpret” the decisions they made in office didn’t find full expression until the 1890s, with first Chancellor of the German Empire Otto von Bismarck’s landmark three volume memoir.
Since then, accelerated by the “professionalisation” of politics during the early 20th century, the pressure to hold politicians to account has grown significantly. As Egerton writes, since the post-war period it has been the norm for politicians to “publish an account of their leadership”.
Hancock is hardly the first modern British politician to make use of this trend in an attempt to set the record straight. Tony Blair’s A Journey (2010) and David Cameron’s For the Record (2019) are just two recent examples.
What is perhaps unique about Hancock’s contribution to the genre is its fundamental unseriousness.
This is not just in the lack of willingness to take any responsibility for the mishandling of the pandemic, or in the fact that inventing a diary is an astonishing feat of post factual audacity. It is in the general ridiculousness of the account that is offered.
Less redemption, more slapstick
The image that will stay with most readers of Hancock’s diaries is unlikely to be that of a nation bravely facing a crisis.
The picture that has been indelibly imprinted upon my mind, for instance, is instead of Hancock struggling “to keep a straight face” at the sight of Thérèse Coffey “chomping on a sandwich” during “an extremely important” Zoom meeting about shielding the vulnerable.
Or of Hancock delivering his instructions as Health Secretary from “a director’s chair with ‘Hancock’ across the back”, gifted to him by Pinewood Studios.
Or of George Osborne whispering into Hancock’s ear how much he reminds him of “Tigger from Winnie the Pooh”.
Of course, the slapstick is on theme for the current Conservative Party: it’s evocative of Michael Gove’s skits on BBC breakfast, or Grant Shapp’s Elf on the Shelf routine, or Boris Johnson’s Love Actually parody.
The “total bants” is perhaps less expected in a diary account of a series of events leading to over 200,000 deaths. But then, the cow’s anus was unexpected too.
Luke Lewin Davies, Lecturer in Literature, Keele University
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en
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Champions of public affairs
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Why always Matt? 7 times Hancock hogged UK headlines
|
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2023-03-02T19:05:49+00:00
|
The former British Cabinet minister is often the center of attention — whether he wants to be or not.
|
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|
https://www.politico.eu/wp-content/themes/politico/assets/images/favicon/favicon.ico
|
POLITICO
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https://www.politico.eu/article/matt-hancock-uk-tories-hogged-the-headlines/
|
LONDON — Through the chaos of Brexit, COVID-19 and Tory regicide, there’s been one reassuring constant: Matt Hancock in the news.
Sometimes of his own making, but often not, the former health secretary tends to find himself the center of attention.
Currently, he’s riding out days of coverage about his handling of the pandemic, after a journalist to whom he handed thousands of his WhatsApp messages for his memoirs decided to … pass them on to a newspaper.
Here are seven times Hancock has ended up in the spotlight:
Sack to the future
A fresh-faced Hancock had his first unwanted experience with the spotlight when he failed to look behind him during a photoshoot.
Looming over the then-minister for skills in the 2014 pic — taken as part of an interview with Total Politics magazine — was a clear-as-day piece of graffiti about his boss at the time: “Sack Cameron!”
David Cameron clearly didn’t mind the gaffe so much — given he actually promoted Hancock to minister for business a week later.
The app
Westminster was left bemused when Hancock — then the digital minister, in fairness — launched the Matt Hancock App in 2018 as a way of engaging with his constituents.
The app, in theory, promised to rival Twitter and Facebook as the social network of the future.
In practice, it was plagued with data usage worries and was permanently shuttered in 2022. But we’ll always have the memories.
The COVID year
When he was appointed as health secretary in 2018 under Theresa May, Hancock can’t have imagined the center-stage role running the government’s response to a global pandemic that would follow two years later.
He became a household name, regularly helming prime-time COVID press conferences while the virus raged. He was known as a key advocate for stricter rules in the government, often sparking rows with the more skeptical Boris Johnson.
Hancock also repeatedly clashed with Dominic Cummings, the former PM’s combative one-time chief aide.
Cummings used an appearance at a parliament committee hearing to suggest that “tens of thousands of people died who didn’t need to die” during the early days of the pandemic under Hancock’s control, and that the former health secretary should have been fired for “15 to 20” different things.
He was eventually fired, but not for any of the reasons Cummings suggested.
Steamy clinch
Hancock was forced to quit his high-profile government job after it emerged he had broken coronavirus rules he helped to write.
The Sun newspaper published in 2021 photographs of the married Hancock engaged in a kiss with his aide Gina Coladangelo, while the U.K. was still following strict social distancing regulations.
To date, he has not held another job in government. Coladangelo and Hancock are now a couple.
Reality check(book)
Hancock hoped to get back into government when Rishi Sunak entered Downing Street in October last year.
After it became clear that wasn’t going to happen — when Sunak completely ignored Hancock outside No. 10 — he decided against life as a normal backbench MP.
Instead, Hancock jetted off to the Australian jungle to take part in the reality show “I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out Of Here.”
Over two weeks of grueling camp life with other celebrities, Hancock faced down several snakes, took part in karaoke and ate “willy con carne” — a camel’s penis. “Soft and crunchy,” was his verdict on the appendage.
Hancock would finish third on the reality show, while his profile on social media apps such as TikTok grew thanks to his TV time.
His animal-genital-gorging escapades came with a heavy price, however. Hancock lost the Tory whip before he’d even landed in Australia.
Everyone from Sunak to Tory members in his own constituency lined up to attack Hancock’s decision to spend time away from his duties in London and West Sussex during a cost-of-living crisis.
Amid the local criticism, he eventually announced he wouldn’t stand again as an MP at the next election.
The diaries
In December last year, Hancock released “Pandemic Diaries,” an inside account of his experiences during the pandemic.
Before his entrance into the jungle, Hancock had announced plans to publish the diaries, despite earlier directly denying he was planning a memoir when asked by POLITICO.
Written with the anti-lockdown journalist Isabel Oakeshott (more on her in a bit), the book charted the former health secretary’s experience of pushing for tighter lockdown restrictions.
Hancock gave Oakeshott access to thousands of his WhatsApp text messages from the time to help her write the book. Should be fine, he (potentially) mused.
Reviews were mixed. The Guardian’s Gaby Hinsliff argued that the diaries were clearly written after the fact, allowing Hancock to seem “brilliantly prescient.” Tim Stanley in the right-leaning Telegraph compared Hancock’s tone in the book to the cringe-comedy character Alan Partridge.
Needless to say, Hancock did not have the last laugh.
The Hancock leaks
On Tuesday evening, Hancock heard rumors that a big story about him was brewing.
Advertisement
The concerned MP texted his co-author Oakeshott, asking her if she had “any clues” about what was going on. Oakeshott didn’t reply.
Her reason for ignoring Hancock became clear when the Daily Telegraph published their Lockdown Files investigation — all of which is based on around 100,000 of Hancock’s own WhatsApp messages, which Oakeshott had passed on to the newspaper without Hancock’s knowledge or permission.
The newspaper is expected to publish stories about Hancock and the government’s handling of the pandemic relating to the material in the texts for days to come.
Hancock is now embroiled in a war of words with Oakeshott, whom he accused Thursday of a “massive betrayal.” The journalist said Thursday that Hancock sent her a “menacing” text at 1.22 a.m., something his team denies.
“You have made a big mistake,” Hancock texted Oakeshott.
Mistake or not, the leak thrust Hancock back into the spotlight — where he always seems to end up.
Advertisement
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New faces for industry in Westminster
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2014-07-16T13:00:00+00:00
|
David Cameron’s extensive reshuffle has dealt construction and housing a whole new hand of ministers
|
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|
/magazine/dest/graphics/favicons/favicon-32x32.png
|
Building
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https://www.building.co.uk/news/new-faces-for-industry-in-westminster/5069800.article
|
Construction and housing were dealt a new set of ministers yesterday, after David Cameron undertook the most extensive reshuffle of his government since coming to power four years ago.
The reshuffle, 10 months out from the general election, saw business minister Michael Fallon, who had held the construction and energy briefs, appointed defence secretary, in place of Philip Hammond, who was appointed foreign secretary.
Fallon was replaced by Matthew Hancock in the business department, who now takes the construction portfolio and, like Fallon, will also lead on energy in the Department of Energy and Climate Change. Hancock will also now attend cabinet.
Hancock, MP for West Suffolk, was previously skills minister in the business department. He was elected to parliament in 2010 and was previously an advisor to shadow chancellor George Osborne, as well as an economist at the Bank of England.
Meanwhile, planning minister Nick Boles was moved to a new role straddling the business and education departments, with his planning brief handed to Brandon Lewis, who was promoted from junior minister to minister of state in the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG).
Lewis was also given lead responsibility for housing in DCLG, taking over from junior minister Kris Hopkins, who was only given the housing brief in October.
The appointment of Lewis as housing minister means the brief has now been restored to senior ministerial level, after it was down graded to junior ministerial level during the prime minister’s previous reshuffle.
Sarah McMonagle, head of external affairs at the Federation of Master Builders, said Hancock’s invitation to attend cabinet was a positive move as it showed the prime minister had recognised “how important our industry is in terms of delivering the government’s economic, social and environmental objectives”.
However, she added: “We hope that Hancock does not repeat the mistakes made by his predecessor Michael Fallon who did not make the most of this unique position that straddles both construction and energy policy.
“More specifically, we felt he didn’t do enough in terms of driving forward the retrofit agenda, an area where government still has a mountain to climb.
“Also when we compare Fallon to his predecessor Mark Prisk, who tirelessly worked with our sector in both government and opposition, he was not the passionate champion he could have been.”
There were also changes in the education department, with Nicky Morgan appointed education secretary after Michael Gove was moved from the department to become the government’s chief whip.
Morgan, MP for Loughborough, was part of the Conservative’s 2010 intake. She is a former corporate lawyer and is considered a Cameron loyalist and a safe pair of hands within the party.
In other changes in education, Nick Gibb has returned to the department as schools minister, a role he previously held before being ejected in David Cameron’s 2012 reshuffle.
David Cameron said Gibb would work with Morgan “to ensure no let up in education reforms’.
Meanwhile, at the Department of Energy and Climate Change, energy minister Greg Barker stepped down, with his role leading on the Green Deal and energy efficiency taken on by new junior minister Amber Rudd.
Rudd, MP for Hastings and Rye, is part of the Conservative’s 2010 intake
Barker, MP for Bexhill and Battle, was one of the Conservative’s key modernising figures and was, famously, the minister who posed with David Cameron in the Arctic eight years ago, as part of the Tory leader’s efforts to reposition the party on the climate change debate.
He launched the Green Deal in 2012 and has been responsible for its roll-out, but has been criticised for the slow take up of the flagship energy efficiency scheme.
He said he would also be stepping down from parliament at the next election.
Paul King, chief executive of the UK Green Building Council, said Barker had been “a tireless champion of energy efficiency”.
He added: “He will leave a big gap in the Tory party - it’s difficult not to fear for the future of blue-green politics.”
“This is one of the most important briefs in government and Amber Rudd can’t simply run out the clock to the election.”
The appointment of Morgan and Gibb means the construction industry has a new set of ministers in the Department for Education, as well as a new construction minister in the business department, a new housing and planning minister in the communities department and a new lead on energy efficiency in DECC.
Mark Robinson, group chief Executive of public procurement body Scape, said the number of changes was worrying. “Re-arranging the deck chairs can bring new ideas and creativity, but my concern is that the sheer number of changes across construction, education, housing, energy and planning, will leave us rudderless and drifting until the next election, as the incoming ministers try to grasp the complex challenges our industry is facing.”
“The UK economy might be on the mend but figures show that the construction industry has not yet fully recovered from the recession.”
|
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|
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|
3
| 8
|
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/im-liberal-conservative-get-me-out-here-matt-hancock
|
en
|
I'm A Liberal Conservative... Get Me Out Of Here
|
https://media.licdn.com/dms/image/v2/D4D12AQHDnojRuzviqw/article-cover_image-shrink_600_2000/article-cover_image-shrink_600_2000/0/1684397988935?e=2147483647&v=beta&t=-z3_hFsLTcR5rJjHZATaRHsM6dUEYMHdVXzuM9Boig4
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[] |
[] |
[
""
] | null |
[
"Matt Hancock"
] |
2023-05-18T08:20:59+00:00
|
It’s great to be here and to see the room so packed. As you say, it's good timing to have this.
|
en
|
https://static.licdn.com/aero-v1/sc/h/al2o9zrvru7aqj8e1x2rzsrca
|
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/im-liberal-conservative-get-me-out-here-matt-hancock
|
It’s great to be here and to see the room so packed. As you say, it's good timing to have this. We booked this event months in advance, but we couldn't have known actually that a discussion like the one that we're having tonight is so important.
Looking at the news this weekend and looking at what was going on in other conferences sometimes felt like I'm a Conservative… Get Me Out of Here.
There is a debate going on in the Conservative party and it is absolutely vital that people who understand and love modern Britain, who are liberal in thought and positive in outlook win that debate within the party and I think that matters for where the party is heading and where the country's heading. Bright Blue is absolutely at the forefront of that debate, it has always been unabashed at making the argument for positive, forward-looking, liberal Conservative principles and so I thank you for that thank you for all the work that you've done and for everybody here in support.
I'm in a slightly odd situation because as a Conservative MP, for some unknown reason last autumn I picked up hundreds of thousands of followers on my social media platforms who are mostly under the age of 30 and I've got this following which I've never really had before, so I think I get a sense through that of what people are looking for and what young people are looking for in their politics.
It's not a sort of preachy, telling everybody what to do, it's about fixing problems and my view is that those of us who believe in a liberal Conservative agenda have got to stand up to the Conservative Corbynistas who just want to divide people and understand that Conservatives govern well and win elections when we build coalitions, when we collaborate with people and when we solve real-world problems rather than trying to exclude anybody with a sense of ideological impurity.
Above all, we have to govern well, and I call them Conservative Corbynistas because essentially, it's the same. Instead of concentrating on the politics of progress of the people, they preach the same sort of cancel culture and virtue signalling that they say that they abhor on the left.
If you think about it in electoral terms, the 2019 election wasn't about replacing the ‘blue wall’ with the ‘red wall’, it was about building the ‘red wall’ on top of the ‘blue wall’, it was about building a bigger coalition.
And I've got some pretty harrowing news. In the local elections 2 weeks ago, we polled 8% of the under-25s. You might say ‘twas ever thus’, under 25s do not often vote Conservative. However, for the 25- to 49-year-olds that figure was 10%. 10% of 25- to 49-year-olds voted Conservative. That’s down by half since the 2019 election and in 2015, they were 32% and 36%. It is a massive seismic change and we cannot afford to let go on.
We need to have credible policies that address the issues that younger people care about and I say younger, I mean we're talking about people who are under the age of 50 which of course means that things everybody cares about like the cost of living and the NHS but also increasingly the subjects that matter more to younger generations like housing, the environment and an area I’m particularly passionate about, the digital revolution which today means how we regulate and think about artificial intelligence.
These subjects really matter, but what doesn't matter is a divisive culture war. We've got to bring people together with us, and we've got to embody the socially liberal positive values that people under 50 overwhelmingly support because if we don't do that then the conservative party will die.
We should also have a decent policy debate about some of the things that we hear about and unite us across the Conservative party. I've heard a lot in the last week about tax-cutting and about deregulation. When these can be done in a long-term credible way, I'm strongly in favour of them.
In fact, when in the last generation did we have the most successful deregulatory agenda? Answer: under David Cameron in the coalition.
When in the last generation did we best cut taxes? The answer is under George Osborne as Chancellor.
When did we have the fastest growth in recent times? The answer was in 2016 when the UK was the fastest-growing economy in the G7.
Conservatives can deliver this in office, but we deliver it best from the centre ground of British politics and with a positive liberal agenda. This has got a long and positive history in the Conservative Party from the Factory Acts, the enfranchisement of women, the right to buy, gay marriage and now online safety.
These positive forward-looking agendas that really deliver for people are what the Conservative Party does.
I know that Rishi Sunak understands this and to save the party and win the election he's got to reject those who want to take things backwards in time. Instead, we know that our liberal Conservative set of ideas are the best for the country and the best for the party.
So be brave my liberal Conservative friends! Get out there and make the argument. Together, we can make sure that we stand up to the reactionaries wherever we find them and instead make sure that we can deliver for our country and for our party.
There is a path to victory at the next election but it involves caring about modern Britain, embracing modern Britain and putting forward a positive vision and I know we can do that. Thank you very much.
|
|||
8744
|
dbpedia
|
1
| 64
|
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/12/world/europe/david-cameron-greensill-inquiry.html
|
en
|
David Cameron Faces Inquiry Into His Dealings With Greensill
|
[
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[] |
[] |
[
""
] | null |
[
"Stephen Castle"
] |
2021-04-12T00:00:00
|
The British former prime minister has said that he did nothing illegal, but he has acknowledged mistakes in pleading Greensill Capital’s case with government ministers.
|
en
|
/vi-assets/static-assets/favicon-d2483f10ef688e6f89e23806b9700298.ico
|
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/12/world/europe/david-cameron-greensill-inquiry.html
|
LONDON — David Cameron, the former British prime minister, is to face a formal investigation into his business dealings after revelations that he lobbied former colleagues by text message and over drinks on behalf of an Anglo-Australian finance firm.
Downing Street announced the review on Monday after weeks of publicity about claims that Mr. Cameron, who stepped down as prime minister in 2016, had approached cabinet ministers on behalf of the firm, Greensill Capital, which has now collapsed.
Mr. Cameron was a friend and rival of the current prime minister, Boris Johnson — first at Eton College, Britain’s most famous high school, then at Oxford University and finally within the Conservative Party, which they both went on to lead.
The allegations come at a sensitive moment for Mr. Johnson, whose government has been accused of cronyism and favoritism toward Conservative Party supporters in awarding lucrative contracts during the coronavirus crisis.
“The pandemic has raised the stakes on ethics in public life,” said Hannah White, deputy director of the Institute for Government, a think tank, who once ran an official committee on standards.
“Not only is it more important for lobbying to be transparent during a time of emergency when government has deliberately suspended normal rules on procurement and public appointments in order to respond at speed,” she said, “but the idea of politicians benefiting from the crisis by lining their pockets is particularly offensive.”
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|
|||||
8744
|
dbpedia
|
1
| 72
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https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/tv/matt-hancock-breaks-silence-running-24422076
|
en
|
Matt Hancock breaks silence on running for Prime Minister as Boris Johnson 'resigns'
|
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2022-07-07T08:29:48+00:00
|
Matt Hancock admitted he thought the Prime Minister would resign yesterday at lunchtime
|
en
|
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Liverpool Echo
|
https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/tv/matt-hancock-breaks-silence-running-24422076
|
Matt Hancock admitted he thought the Prime Minister would resign yesterday at lunchtime
Former Health Secretary Matt Hancock calls for Boris Johnson to resign
Matt Hancock appeared on Good Morning Britain to condemn the Prime Minister's lack of resignation.
Former Health Secretary Matt Hancock joined Good Morning Britain this morning to discuss an unprecedented number of MPs resigning from their posts. Susanna Reid and Ben Shephard quizzed Mr Hancock on whether or not Boris Johnson will step down and if he will take his place.
Susanna asked if he is surprised the Prime Minister "isn't reading the room better" which Mr Hancock confirmed. He said: "Yes, I assumed he was going to resign yesterday at lunchtime.
READ MORE: Newsreader red faced after being caught with feet up on desk
"So many people in his own cabinet were telling him to go and there are conventions in place and one of them is if you lose half of your cabinet then you stand down and there's a reason for that because it's clearly going to happen because the mechanics are more important than the fact Boris has lost the confidence of the majority in parliament. It'll be better if he does resign today rather than later."
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Quizzed on how many people remain in Boris Johnson's ear telling him to stay, Mr Hancock admitted he didn't know. He said: "I have no idea and I've supported him through thick and thin because I believe he got the big calls right during the pandemic and Ukraine but it gets to a point where unfortunately he has to go."
Mentioning how dangerous this could be in a wider picture, referencing possible international interference from the likes of President Putin, Susanna asked if this is something the Conservative party are taking seriously. Mr Hancock said: "It's in the national interest the Prime Minister stands down.
"He could continue as a caretaker Prime Minister in the way Theresa May and David Cameron have before him and on those international affairs he's been very strong, he has the strong support of the whole of Parliament so he could continue to deliver what is needed to stand up to Putin as a caretaker Prime Minister while there is a leadership election."
Wrapping the interview up, when asked if he would put his name forward for the position of Prime Minister, Mr Hancock said: "I am not going to be standing but I do care very much about what the next Prime Minister stands for and it's really important it's about uniting the country and somebody that can appeal to the north and south of the broad church of the Conservative movement."
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ITV Loose Women Coleen Nolan mortified as co-star 'calls' her a 'slippery pig'
|
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8744
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dbpedia
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1
| 25
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https://apnews.com/article/lobbying-david-cameron-covid-19-pandemic-europe-coronavirus-pandemic-2f84245d4901474b07fa76c8c1053b3b
|
en
|
UK lobbying scandal snares ex-PM Cameron; govt starts probe
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[
"David Cameron",
"Europe",
"Gordon Brown",
"Lobbying",
"Financial services",
"Health",
"Business",
"World News"
] | null |
[] |
2021-04-12T09:10:10+00:00
|
LONDON (AP) — The controversy over former British Prime Minister David Cameron’s lobbying on behalf of a now-bankrupt financial services firm deepened Monday as the government launched an investigation that opponents immediately labeled a “cover-up.”
|
en
|
/apple-touch-icon.png
|
AP News
|
https://apnews.com/article/lobbying-david-cameron-covid-19-pandemic-europe-coronavirus-pandemic-2f84245d4901474b07fa76c8c1053b3b
|
LONDON (AP) — The controversy over former British Prime Minister David Cameron’s lobbying on behalf of a now-bankrupt financial services firm deepened Monday as the government launched an investigation that opponents immediately labeled a “cover-up.”
The Conservative government announced plans for an independent inquiry into Greensill Capital after Cameron made his first comments on the scandal and two senior politicians called for new rules on contacts between business representatives and government officials.
Over the past month, a series of news reports revealed that Cameron lobbied government officials, including Treasury chief Rishi Sunak and Health Secretary Matt Hancock, on behalf of Greensill, which collapsed last month, threatening thousands of jobs at a British steelmaker that it helped finance.
Gordon Brown, U.K. prime minister from 2007 to 2010, on Monday called for a five-year ban on lobbying by former ministers. But Bernard Jenkin, a lawmaker who led an inquiry into links between government and business, said the only way to combat this long-running problem is to require serving ministers and civil servants to report inappropriate conduct by lobbyists.
“It’s been a culture in Whitehall that’s been building up for a long time,” Jenkin told the BBC, using a British term for central government. “This very informal way of conducting relationships about very important matters and the distribution of public money — well, I don’t think the public thinks that’s acceptable.”
Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s spokesman said the Cabinet Office has commissioned an independent review into Greensill and its work on “supply-chain finance,” a technique the government sought to use to expedite payments to contractors, including pharmacies supplying the National Health Service. The review will be led by attorney Nigel Boardman and will look at the way contracts were secured and “how business representatives engaged with government,” Max Blain said.
Johnson is the leader of the Conservative Party, the same party Cameron represented when he led the nation.
Rachel Reeves, the opposition Labour Party’s spokeswoman on treasury issues, said the investigation was an attempt to sidestep the controversy until the public forgets about it, just as the government did with earlier allegations of bullying by a cabinet minister. She called on Cameron, Sunak and Hancock to appear before Parliament as soon as possible.
“This has all the hallmarks of another cover-up by the Conservatives,” Reeves said.
British media began digging into Cameron’s work for Greensill after the company’s collapse forced the owner of Liberty Steel, which employs about 5,000 people, to seek a government bailout. Greensill was one of the company’s key financial backers.
The developments came after Cameron made his first comments on Greensill late Sunday, when he released an 1,800-word statement on his involvement with the firm.
News reports showed that Cameron sent text messages to Sunak in an effort to secure government-backed loans for Greensill under a program to help companies hurt by the COVID-19 pandemic. He also lobbied Hancock on behalf of a Greensill product that would have allowed NHS workers to receive advance payments on their salaries.
Cameron, who was employed as a part-time adviser to Greensill, said his work on behalf of the company didn’t break any rules or codes of conduct on the activities of former ministers.
“However, I have reflected on this at length,” Cameron said. “There are important lessons to be learnt. As a former prime minister, I accept that communications with government need to be done through only the most formal of channels, so there can be no room for misinterpretation.”
Cameron was prime minister from May 2010 to July 2016, resigning after he led the failed campaign for Britain to remain in the European Union. Lex Greensill, a banker who later founded Greensill Capital, began working as a government adviser in 2011.
Cameron said he started working for Greensill in August 2018, and that he received shares in the company as part of his compensation. He rejected press reports that he expected the shares to be worth $60 million when Greensill went public.
“Their value was nowhere near the amount speculated in the press,” he said.
Brown said the government must act quickly in response to the Greensill affair because it has the potential to bring public service into “disrepute,” just like the parliamentary expenses scandal of 2008. At that time, several members of Parliament were found to have improperly inflated their expenses, leading to new rules governing their conduct.
“For me, there are principles about public service,” Brown told the BBC. “It cannot ever become a platform for private gain. Ministers must never be lobbying — former ministers, prime ministers — must never be lobbying for commercial purposes.”
___
Associated Press Writer Jill Lawless contributed.
|
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8744
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dbpedia
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0
| 86
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https://www.facebook.com/10downingstreet/videos/health-secretary-matt-hancock-update-on-testing/341005570207960/
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“It is a national achievement. Achieved by a huge team of people.” – Health Secretary Matt Hancock on achieving 122,347 coronavirus tests on the last day...
|
[] |
[] |
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[
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] | null |
[] | null |
“It is a national achievement. Achieved by a huge team of people.” – Health Secretary Matt Hancock on achieving 122,347 coronavirus tests on the last day...
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| ||||||
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dbpedia
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https://www.personneltoday.com/hr/hancock-met-greensill-over-nhs-salary-advance-scheme/
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Hancock met Greensill over NHS salary advance scheme
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] | null |
[
"Adam McCulloch"
] |
2021-04-12T10:40:04+00:00
|
Health secretary was lobbied by David Cameron and financier Lex Greensill to introduce earned wage access scheme in NHS, it has emerged.
|
en
|
Personnel Today
|
https://www.personneltoday.com/hr/hancock-met-greensill-over-nhs-salary-advance-scheme/
|
Health secretary Matt Hancock was lobbied by former Prime Minister David Cameron and financier Lex Greensill to introduce a payroll scheme that was later offered within the NHS, it emerged over the weekend.
There are fears that procurement and open competition rules were flouted as NHS staff became entitled to use a remuneration scheme to gain payments before their payday. Additionally, sources have told The Sunday Times that Greensill’s plan was to convert the NHS future payments into bonds and sell them internationally.
Cameron held share options worth millions of pounds in Greensill Capital, a financial services company he advised, which has subsequently gone bust, threatening 55,000 jobs across the world, including 5,000 in the UK.
According to The Sunday Times, in October 2019, Cameron, arranged a “private drink” with Hancock and Greensill. The Australian banker’s firm wanted to introduce a scheme to remunerate doctors and nurses before their usual paydays.
Meetings were arranged between Greensill, NHS chief executive Simon Stevens and Dido Harding, then head of NHS Improvement.
Allies of Hancock, said the newspaper, encouraged Greensill to work directly with NHS trusts on the basis that other suppliers were free to offer the service.
But crucially, months after the meeting last April, NHS Shared Business Services (NHS SBS), a joint vehicle owned by the Department of Health and a French IT firm, announced a pilot with Earnd – a payments start-up then owned by Greensill. It later said the scheme was being introduced to “all” NHS organisations.
This meant that 400,000 employees who used NHS SBS for their payroll services became entitled to use Earnd and download it onto their payroll app.
Private firms cannot automatically house their services on such platforms and are typically required to bid to get potentially lucrative access to the health service’s vast workforce. In this instance there was no procurement process or open competition.
Earnd offered the scheme free to workers, who could opt to receive their wages on a daily or weekly basis. The organisation providing the immediate payment in such instances was Earnd, which would later recoup staff salaries from the NHS.
The Times said Greensill framed the scheme as benevolent, explaining the aim was to help alleviate NHS workers’ stress during the pandemic. But two senior former employees say the plan was to convert the NHS’s future payments into bonds and sell them internationally. They also used the credibility of working with the NHS via the service, and a separate pharmacy scheme agreed by Cameron during his time in office, to demonstrate their credibility with investors.
Some of the country’s biggest trusts, such as the Royal Free in London, signed up, but last month Earnd filed for administration.
According to The Times, “The company’s collapse poses questions about the circumstances in which NHS SBS entered into the partnership. The entity is not a public body and there was no transparency surrounding the agreement.”
An NHS spokesperson said: “The NHS has a duty to support staff while using taxpayers’ money wisely, so officials do meet organisations that may be able to provide good-value services which are effective, and when ideas are taken forward, contracts are put through the appropriate and transparent tendering processes. The proposals were not taken forward in this case.”
The Department of Health said: “The wellbeing of NHS staff is the top priority of the department and the health secretary. Our approach was and is that local NHS employers are best placed to decide how different pay flexibilities fit with their overall pay-and-reward offer for their staff.”
Meanwhile, UK fintech firm Wagestream, which offers workers early access to wages, has scooped up Earnd Australia, a Sydney-based competitor that Greensill acquired just last year.
Critics say that employer salary advance schemes, such as those offered by Wagestream, and used to be offered by Earnd, can push consumers into cycles of debt and should be regulated in the same manner as much-criticised payday lenders. However, Wagestream contends that this concern has been “de-bunked”. A spokesperson told Personnel Today: “Our impact assessments, run bi-annually with our founding charity partners and published online, show that 72% of those using earned wage access feel more in control of their finances as a result; almost two-thirds say it improves their quality of life. EWA is also proven by data to get people back on the front foot and avoid cycles of debt and credit reliance, reducing payday loan use by 88%, credit card use by 39% and overdraft use by 31%.”
Last summer, the Financial Conduct Authority pointed out there was a lack of regulation around salary advance schemes. It warned of there was little transparency around costs, and there was a possibility of workers making repeat withdrawals and becoming dependent on the services to make ends meet. Subsequent FCA comment, in the Woolard Review, stated that while salary schemes gave employees more control over their finances: “It is important ESAS providers and employers monitor use and proactively engage with employees whose usage indicates they are in financial difficulty.”
Wagestream’s spokesperson called the regulator’s guidance an “excellent first step” and added that the data now showed that “EWA can be hugely positive – if guided by charities, designed with better savings and education as the end goal, and used responsibly.”
Latest HR job opportunities on Personnel Today
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8744
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dbpedia
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0
| 87
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https://challenge-magazine.org/2021/04/11/tory-party-david-cameron-face-corruption-scandal/
|
en
|
Tory Party & David Cameron face corruption scandal
|
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2021-04-11T00:00:00
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At the behest of Lex Greensill, a disreputable financier at the helm of a now collapsed firm, it has been revealed that David Cameron lobbied a senior Downing Street aide and the Health Secretary, Matt Hancock. Following the Treasury’s renunciation of Cameron’s efforts to assure the company access to a Covid emergency loan scheme, Cameron contacted a No 10 adviser, illustrating the exhaustive attempts the former prime minister was willing to use to guarantee political connections for Greensill Capital, which employed him as an adviser.
|
en
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YCL
|
https://challenge-magazine.org/2021/04/11/tory-party-david-cameron-face-corruption-scandal/
|
At the behest of Lex Greensill, a disreputable financier at the helm of a now collapsed firm, it has been revealed that David Cameron lobbied a senior Downing Street aide and the Health Secretary, Matt Hancock.
Following the Treasury’s renunciation of Cameron’s efforts to assure the company access to a COVID-19 emergency loan scheme, Cameron contacted a No 10 adviser, illustrating the exhaustive attempts the former prime minister was willing to use to guarantee political connections for Greensill Capital, which employed him as an adviser.
In true Tory fashion, Cameron has demonstrated that he only cares about advancing himself in the middle of a devastating pandemic, not hesitating to put his greed first. It’s not the first case of Tory corruption in this pandemic and it probably won’t be the last.
In emails sent by Cameron, he voiced the idea that it was mad to omit Greensill Capital from the program. Notably, Cameron would’ve profited from Greensill’s continuing prosperity as a shareholder of Greensill Capital. However, with the company’s collapse, his shares aren’t worth a penny.
Further revelations unearthed that Cameron, along with Greensill, had a “private drink” with Hancock in 2019. Hancock was pressed to establish a payment scheme by the two men. Against protocol, there are no minutes of this meeting. After the meeting, NHS Shared Business Services announced a pilot scheme with Earnd, owned by Greensill, to pay NHS staff weekly or daily.
The shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, Bridget Phillipson, advised Chancellor Rishi Sunak, another figure often lobbied by Cameron, to address Parliament soon to abate accusations of a scandal and to start an investigation into the events.
In text messages released last week, Cameron asked Rishi Sunak to grant Greensill access to the Bank of England’s Covid Corporate Financing Facility, to which Sunak was very receptive. They also spoke on the phone, but it’s unclear if notes were taken or whether officials listened in. Nonetheless, access to the CCFF was rejected.
Despite the rejection, Britain’s public spending watchdog is contemplating an appeal to inspect how collapsed Greensill Capital was linked to the Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme, giving it the capacity to acquire government-backed loans of up to £50 million.
The National Audit Office is now considering whether to examine claims that Greensill Capital’s access to the program generated a risk to public funds.
This is another example of how the inherent instability of capitalism leads to capitalists requiring massive state loans, amongst other types of financial aid, to revive profit levels. Capitalism has to breed corruption to keep itself afloat so no investigation or punishment made against Cameron will solve the underlying issue.
The company’s records affirm nearly 14,000 shares were held by offshore wealth manager, Jersey-based Sanne Fiduciary Services. These shares were held by two employee benefit trusts, yet before Greensill Capital collapsed none of the shares had been allotted to employees.
Due to his job with Greensill Capital, Cameron was expecting to gain from the £21.8 million employee benefit trust. It’s unknown how much he was actually going to get as an adviser to the company.
No spokesperson for Greensill Capital have addressed any claims.
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8744
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0
| 68
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https://theconversation.com/matt-hancocks-pandemic-diaries-and-the-history-of-the-redemptive-memoir-196833
|
en
|
Matt Hancock’s Pandemic Diaries and the history of the redemptive memoir
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2022-12-22T06:56:10+00:00
|
Hancock isn’t the first politician to attempt redemption through memoir.
|
en
|
The Conversation
|
https://theconversation.com/matt-hancocks-pandemic-diaries-and-the-history-of-the-redemptive-memoir-196833
|
Matt Hancock has achieved fame in recent months for devouring a cow anus live on television (during his I’m A Celebrity stint) and for releasing questionable TikTok videos cringing about his past “embarrassing” moments.
Some will recall that before all this, he was once UK health secretary during the biggest global health crisis in living memory. Back then, he achieved notoriety for (among other things) allowing COVID patients to be sent into care homes and for securing lucrative testing contracts for his friends.
Now, Hancock has published his Pandemic Diaries, giving his side of the story. So what insights do they have to offer? And how might a literary historian like myself situate them within the wider context of the political memoir?
Early on in Hancock’s diaries, we learn that the UK Health Secretary’s first (and I quote) “oh shit” moment was on January 28, 2020, when he was told that the pandemic could lead to up to 820,000 UK deaths.
From then on in, the basic thrust of the narrative is that everyone but Matt Hancock was responsible for the litany of failures that ensued.
Delayed restrictions? That was the fault of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies. Dismal contract tracing? Public Health England were to blame. Failure to close UK borders? No. 10 was responsible. Government in chaos? That would be Dominic Cummings.
The Erin Brockovich of COVID
Reading how “aghast” Hancock was in response to a Prime Minister’s Questions session in early February, in which no one asked a single question about the virus, the impression given is that he was the Erin Brockovich of COVID.
Oddly enough, however, none of this quite tallies with Hancock’s account, in these same pages, of his actual activities during this period. Eating Babybels with Ronnie Wood at a Brit Awards ceremony in late February, for instance. Or going to Planet Laser in Bury St Edmunds in early March.
Or, more generally, entirely failing to respond to the knowledge that 820,000 lives were at risk by taking decisive action – in the process dismissing the advice of Tory grandees and former prime ministers, who (as Hancock acknowledges in his diaries) were sending desperate text messages demanding restrictions as early as February.
A possible explanation for these strange inconsistencies is the fact that Hancock’s diary isn’t actually a diary at all. As he himself admits, he “didn’t have time to keep a detailed diary” during this period - and so the Pandemic Diaries were “pieced together” after the fact.
Given the existence of an Imperial College study suggesting that the UK’s delayed response caused 21,000 unnecessary deaths, the pressure on Hancock to retroactively redeem himself seems clear.
So what to make of this strange attempt on the part of a disgraced politician, forced to quit in the wake of a scandal, to exonerate themselves?
The history of the redemptive memoir
Historian George Egerton notes that (while forerunners exist) the concept of the professional politician publishing a text that aims “to explain and interpret” the decisions they made in office didn’t find full expression until the 1890s, with first Chancellor of the German Empire Otto von Bismarck’s landmark three volume memoir.
Since then, accelerated by the “professionalisation” of politics during the early 20th century, the pressure to hold politicians to account has grown significantly. As Egerton writes, since the post-war period it has been the norm for politicians to “publish an account of their leadership”.
Hancock is hardly the first modern British politician to make use of this trend in an attempt to set the record straight. Tony Blair’s A Journey (2010) and David Cameron’s For the Record (2019) are just two recent examples.
What is perhaps unique about Hancock’s contribution to the genre is its fundamental unseriousness.
This is not just in the lack of willingness to take any responsibility for the mishandling of the pandemic, or in the fact that inventing a diary is an astonishing feat of post factual audacity. It is in the general ridiculousness of the account that is offered.
Less redemption, more slapstick
The image that will stay with most readers of Hancock’s diaries is unlikely to be that of a nation bravely facing a crisis.
The picture that has been indelibly imprinted upon my mind, for instance, is instead of Hancock struggling “to keep a straight face” at the sight of Thérèse Coffey “chomping on a sandwich” during “an extremely important” Zoom meeting about shielding the vulnerable.
Or of Hancock delivering his instructions as Health Secretary from “a director’s chair with ‘Hancock’ across the back”, gifted to him by Pinewood Studios.
Or of George Osborne whispering into Hancock’s ear how much he reminds him of “Tigger from Winnie the Pooh”.
Of course, the slapstick is on theme for the current Conservative Party: it’s evocative of Michael Gove’s skits on BBC breakfast, or Grant Shapp’s Elf on the Shelf routine, or Boris Johnson’s Love Actually parody.
|
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8744
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1
| 24
|
https://news.sky.com/story/matt-hancock-to-appear-before-covid-inquiry-12910200
|
en
|
Matt Hancock to appear before COVID inquiry
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2023-06-27T01:49:00+00:00
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The former cabinet minister will be the first politician directly involved in the pandemic response to appear before the inquiry
|
en
|
/resources/favicon.ico?v=2
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Sky News
|
https://news.sky.com/story/matt-hancock-to-appear-before-covid-inquiry-12910200
|
Former Health Secretary Matt Hancock will be questioned by the COVID inquiry today on the UK's resilience to and preparedness for the pandemic.
Mr Hancock is the first politician directly involved in the government's response to the coronavirus to face the inquiry, followed by former First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon who will appear on Thursday.
So far, former prime minister and former chancellor David Cameron and George Osborne have defended spending cuts during their time in office, claiming austerity had little effect on the NHS's ability to react to the pandemic.
However, as a cabinet minister during the pandemic, Matt Hancock's appearance is likely to enrage organisations like the COVID -19 Bereaved Families for Justice group and others who have been heavily critical of his record in government.
For now, the independent MP will only be questioned regarding the UK's resilience and preparedness ahead of the spread of the coronavirus.
But this is likely to be the first of several appearances in front of the inquiry as Boris Johnson's former government remains under heavy scrutiny.
Read more:
Austerity measures hit public health services, inquiry told
What we learned from the first week of the COVID inquiry
High levels of obesity and diabetes worsened pandemic in UK
Moreover, the former Health Secretary's appearance will be a gift to Labour, reminding the public once again of the slew of political scandals under the Tories, most notably Hancock standing down after breaching COVID rules by kissing his then colleague and now partner Gina Coladangelo.
|
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8744
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dbpedia
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3
| 85
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https://guernseypress.com/news/uk-news/2021/06/25/matt-hancock-from-student-journalist-to-central-role-during-covid-crisis/
|
en
|
Matt Hancock: From student journalist to disgraced Health Secretary
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2021-06-25T00:00:00
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The Health Secretary has resigned after pictures were published appearing to show the married minister in an embrace with his aide.
|
en
|
/pf/resources/icons/favicon-gp.ico?d=213
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https://guernseypress.com/news/uk-news/2021/06/25/matt-hancock-from-student-journalist-to-central-role-during-covid-crisis/
|
After leading the nation through the pandemic as the Government’s Health Secretary, Matt Hancock has resigned in the aftermath of his affair with an aide that broke his own coronavirus rules.
The senior minister, who had held three cabinet positions before reaching his 40th birthday, announced his resignation in a video and formal letter to the Prime Minister.
He said: “I understand the enormous sacrifices that everybody in this country has made, you have made.
“And those of us who make these rules have got to stick by them and that’s why I’ve got to resign.”
Appointed Health Secretary in 2018 after spending 18 months in the culture brief, he has been a prominent figure for the Government during its handling of the coronavirus pandemic until his resignation on Saturday.
Following a series of uncomfortable headlines in recent weeks, Mr Hancock faced pressure to stand down after pictures emerged depicting the married minister appearing to kiss his adviser Gina Coladangelo.
The CCTV images published in The Sun were taken on May 6 when guidance on social distancing were still in place, with hugging between people from different households recommended against.
Mr Cummings accused the senior minister of lying to the Prime Minister over promises to protect those in care homes during the first wave of Covid-19 infections by testing new residents before being admitted.
Mr Hancock has dismissed claims he lied and called Mr Johnson’s “hopeless” jibe “ancient history”.
During the first face-to-face meeting this week between the Queen and Mr Johnson since the pandemic started, the monarch called Mr Hancock a “poor man” following his time in the limelight since the crisis kicked off in March 2020.
Mr Hancock, who in 2018 became the only MP in British politics to launch his own app, took only eight years to rise from West Suffolk MP to Health Secretary.
The former has made a big play of his varied life before entering politics.
Mr Hancock, who is said to have met Ms Coladangelo at university, has been married to his wife Martha for 15 years and they have three children together.
Ms Coladangelo, the lobbyist and aide who Mr Hancock is claimed to have had an affair with, told a BBC Radio 4 profile on the politician that the pair met at the Oxford University student radio station, Oxygen FM, where she was a news reader and he a sports reporter.
The marketing and communications director at Oliver Bonas, a British retailer founded by her husband Oliver Tress, told the BBC about how Mr Hancock had “told a white lie” to his radio news desk after failing to make it to cover an international rugby match.
She said: “He actually overslept and hot-footed it to the train but didn’t make it to Twickenham in time from Oxford, so had to get off the train at Reading, find a pub, watch the first half in a pub and then go to a phone box outside and report in.
The Cheshire-raised politician first attended cabinet after being appointed Minister for the Cabinet Office in 2015 by then prime minister David Cameron.
Mr Cameron’s successor Theresa May later promoted him to the role of culture secretary.
The 42-year-old initially threw his hat into the ring to replace Mrs May in No 10 during the 2019 Conservative Party leadership contest, but withdrew from the leadership race part way through and was quick to throw his weight behind Mr Johnson.
He was among the handful of ministers to retain his brief when Mr Johnson took power in July 2019, making him one of the most prominent ministers when coronavirus rocked Britain eight months later.
Mr Hancock said he is looking forward to “supporting the Government and the Prime Minister from the back benches to make sure that we can get out of this pandemic” in his resignation video.
|
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0
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https://theweek.com/news/politics/961409/covid-inquiry-what-we-have-heard-so-far
|
en
|
Covid inquiry: what we have heard so far
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[
"Arion McNicoll, The Week UK",
"Arion McNicoll",
"The Week UK"
] |
2023-06-28T11:12:48+00:00
|
At the Covid inquiry former health secretary Matt Hancock has given his testimony, and revelations include that the UK was ill prepared for the Covid pandemic.
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en
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theweek
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https://theweek.com/news/politics/961409/covid-inquiry-what-we-have-heard-so-far
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Relatives of those who died during the Covid-19 pandemic turned their backs on Matt Hancock as he arrived to give his testimony at the Covid inquiry.
Some shouted “killer” at the former health secretary, who made his appearance during the second week of the witness stage of the public inquiry, which comes as part of a wider investigation into the UK’s pandemic preparedness.
Following testimony from high-profile figures including David Cameron and Chris Whitty, here are five key revelations that have emerged so far.
Social care plans were in disarray
As he arrived to give his testimony to the inquiry, grieving relatives “turned their backs on Matt Hancock”, reported the Mirror.
The former health secretary criticised the UK’s pandemic planning before Covid, saying it was “completely wrong”, and said he was “profoundly sorry” for each death.
Under questioning, Hancock revealed the scale of under-preparedness in social care for a pandemic, which he described as “terrible”. He admitted his department did not have in place a “single coherent plan” to identify vulnerable users of social care and there was insufficient national guidance for pandemic preparedness in the sector.
Former head of Public Health England, Duncan Selbie, later admitted to the inquiry: “Social care was just not on our radar…there’s no getting away from that.”
Was the UK preparing for ‘wrong type of pandemic’?
In his appearance at the inquiry, David Cameron was asked whether his government had adequately prepared the health system to be able to deal with the full range of possible pandemics.
The former prime minister “faced an hour-long grilling”, said The Independent, as he became the first politician to appear before the inquiry.
In his testimony, Cameron, who was PM between 2010 and 2016, admitted that it was a “mistake” for his government to have focussed too heavily on preparations for a flu pandemic rather than one like Covid-19.
He acknowledged that he had “regret” that “more questions weren’t asked about the sort of pandemic that we faced”, one of asymptomatic, highly infectious transmission like Covid.
‘Ready for flu, ready for anything’ was ‘incorrect’
The permanent secretary of the health and social care department since 2016, Chris Wormald, told the inquiry that the government’s pandemic planning had been affected by the incorrect assumption that if they were preparing for influenza pandemics, such as swine or bird flu, they were adequately addressing the biggest potential threat.
“The approach taken was ‘ready for flu, ready for anything’”, Wormald said, but added that this “may have been incorrect… The thinking at the time was, you made a plan for influenza as the most likely risk and is still one of the most dangerous risks and then you adapted that plan. That is thinking that we have moved on from.”
However, in his testimony Wormald also “denied that there was ever a national shortage of PPE”, the Daily Mail said.
The impact of austerity
George Osborne, the chancellor under David Cameron, “disputed allegations from medics and unions that his cuts left health and social care depleted”, Sky News said.
Dame Jenny Harries, the chief executive of the UK Health Security Agency, told the inquiry that cuts to local government funding in the years before the pandemic put public health services under “significant pressure”.
During his appearance, however, Osborne said he did not accept the assertion that “the consequences of austerity were a depleted health and social care capacity and rising inequality in the UK”. Rather, he suggested that without his cuts, Britain “would have been more exposed, not just to future things like the coronavirus pandemic but indeed to the fiscal crisis which very rapidly followed in countries across Europe”.
Osborne insisted that the policy of austerity “had a material and positive effect on the UK’s ability to respond to the Covid pandemic”.
Could lockdown have been avoided?
Current chancellor and the health secretary between 2012 and 2018, Jeremy Hunt said that by the time testing and isolation was considered for Covid, transmission rates were too high, so lockdown became the only viable option.
“Had we got on the case much earlier with that approach, we might have avoided that,” Hunt claimed.
Lessons were not learned from South Korea, he told the inquiry, which devised its own response to the Covid pandemic in response to an outbreak of Mers, another coronavirus, in 2015. Consequently, it had taken greater steps to slow down Covid when it emerged.
South Korea, Hunt told the inquiry, “did not have a lockdown in the first year of the pandemic”. Failing to learn from East Asia was a “blind spot”, he said.
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8744
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dbpedia
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3
| 9
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https://www.newstatesman.com/comment/2022/11/matt-hancock-election-politician-media
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en
|
What did we do to deserve Matt Hancock?
|
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[
"Martin Fletcher"
] |
2022-11-07T16:09:42+00:00
|
This embodiment of the vacuous, self-serving modern politician is profiting from his notoriety.
|
en
|
New Statesman
|
https://www.newstatesman.com/comment/2022/11/matt-hancock-election-politician-media
|
What is it about Conservative politicians? How do they manage not only to escape the consequences of their various misdeeds, but actually to profit from them?
Boris Johnson, who was forced from office in disgrace, is now starting to rake in obscene speaking fees (£315,000 for a 30-minute speech and “fireside chat” at the Council of Insurance Agents and Brokers in Colorado). Suella Braverman, who had to resign as home secretary on 19 October for using her personal email to send sensitive information, was reinstated by Rishi Sunak six days later.
Gavin Williamson, sacked as defence secretary by Theresa May for leaking National Security Council deliberations and as education secretary by Johnson for incompetence, is back in Sunak’s cabinet – at least for now. It remains to be seen whether his vile tirade against Wendy Morton, the former chief whip, for not inviting him to the Queen’s funeral suffices to get him sacked a third time.
And then there’s Matt Hancock, now earning £400,000 for appearing on ITV’s I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! Over at Channel 4 the makers of SAS: Who Dares Wins are said to be less than thrilled, the Sun reports, because Hancock had already signed up as one of their contestants in (and begun filming for) a series that will not be screened until next year. Alas, that’s what happens when you make a deal with a complete charlatan.
Lest we forget, just 17 months have elapsed since Hancock was forced to resign as health secretary for breaching the draconian social distancing rules that he had imposed on the nation during the Covid pandemic. He did so by having an affair with an aide, Gina Coladangelo. He is not a celebrity. He is a disgraced former minister who betrayed the trust not just of his wife and three children, but of the entire country.
There was a time when Hancock’s conduct would have permanently disqualified him from public life. Remember John Profumo? In 1963 he had to resign as war secretary for having an affair with a model and spent the rest of his life working voluntarily for an East End charity to make amends. We live in a very different age. Today politicians seem to rise and flourish not by being honourable, good at their jobs or figures of real substance, but through sycophancy, self-promotion and utter shamelessness.
Hancock is a classic example. A creation of David Cameron and George Osborne, he won his West Suffolk constituency in 2010 and was soon using a parliamentary question to plug a book he had written about the financial crash (Masters of Nothing). Cameron gave him his first ministerial job in 2012, when he was 33. Asked to respond to charges that the Conservative Party was full of callow career politicians with little experience of the real world, Hancock had the gall in an interview with the Spectator to compare himself to Winston Churchill and William Pitt, who both took office young.
He was promoted rapidly – too rapidly to make a real impact in any of the five different posts he held over the next four years. At an away-day for Tory MPs a colleague generated much mirth by quipping: “Anyone attempting to lick George Osborne’s backside should be careful because if you go too far you’ll find the soles of Matt Hancock’s shoes in the way.”
[See also: The sick satisfaction of torturing Matt Hancock on I’m a Celebrity]
In January 2018 May promoted him to the cabinet as secretary of state for digital, culture, media and sport, where he attracted derision by becoming the first MP to launch his own smartphone app. Seven undistinguished months later she made him health secretary. In a measure of his capacity for self-delusion he sought the Tory party leadership when May resigned the following year, presenting himself as “the candidate of the future”, but came sixth in the first round with just 20 MPs supporting him. He then withdrew.
Johnson, the winner, retained him as health secretary and he was still there when the Covid pandemic struck in March 2020. Hancock boasts of his part in “rolling out the world’s fastest vaccine programme”. He fails to mention the government’s woeful lack of preparedness for such a pandemic; its catastrophic transfer of infected patients from hospitals to care homes despite his claim to have thrown a “protective ring” around the latter; the uselessness of the £37bn track-and-trace scheme that he oversaw; and the spending of billions more on protective personal equipment, much of which was procured from Conservative Party cronies and turned out to be useless (a former pub landlord in Hancock’s constituency inexplicably received a £40m contract for testing vials).
Roughly 200,000 British citizens died of Covid-19 – giving the country one of the highest death rates in the world. In a text to his former aide Dominic Cummings, Johnson called Hancock “totally f***ing hopeless”.
Then came Hancock’s affair, resignation and the break-up of his marriage. Most politicians would have kept a low-profile for a decent period after such a fall from grace, but not Hancock. Only a few months later he was back boasting of a UN job offer (withdrawn), giving interviews, negotiating a book contract and being photographed swimming in the icy Serpentine lido in Hyde Park.
In this year’s two Conservative Party leadership races Hancock backed Sunak, doubtless hoping for preferment. “Few have worked more closely with him than me. He has fine judgement, seriousness of purpose and good character,” he gushed in a typically oleaginous yet self-promoting Tweet. But he failed to secure a place in Sunak’s cabinet, and the new Prime Minister blatantly snubbed him when greeting a cheering throng outside Conservative Party headquarters after his election.
Unabashed, Hancock is now pursuing a different course. He is following the illustrious examples of Nadine Dorries and George Galloway by cashing in on his notoriety through reality TV (95 per cent of the public have heard of him, though only 16 per cent like him).
He is seeking to portray his appearance on I’m a Celebrity as some sort of good, almost heroic deed. He will be swapping home comforts for the “extreme conditions of the Australian outback”, he says. He will use his appearances to promote his dyslexia campaign. He will give some of the proceeds to a Suffolk hospice, though he has conspicuously failed to say how much. “It’s our job as politicians to go to where the people are – not to sit in ivory towers in Westminster,” he argues.
Nobody is fooled by such self-serving tosh. Not his constituency association, which has accused him of a “serious error of judgement”. Not the Conservative Party, which has withdrawn the whip. Not Sunak, who is “disappointed” Hancock has forsaken his constituents in the midst of such a severe cost-of-living crisis. And not the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group, which said: “Our families were ripped apart by Matt Hancock’s actions, and turning on the TV to see him being paraded around as a joke is sickening.”
In the event, millions of viewers tuned in to the launch of the new series on Sunday night (6 November) to discover that Hancock was not yet on the set. He will appear in later episodes. Hopefully, when he does, this embodiment of the vacuous, self-serving modern politician will be voted off the programme in short order. And hopefully his Suffolk constituents will do exactly the same come the next election.
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