Britain’s government will investigate how images of former health minister Matt Hancock kissing an aide found their way into the media and made his resignation, within the latest scandal to hit Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government
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After first rejecting involves Hancock to be fired or to resign after pictures were published on Friday of him embracing a lady he had appointed to a taxpayer-funded role, Johnson accepted the minister’s decision to step down on Saturday.
The departure put renewed specialise in the govt over its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. Led by Hancock, it stumbled within the youth over testing and protective equipment. Britain has one among the very best official coronavirus death tolls within the world.
A report by the BBC on Sunday that sensitive defence ministry documents had been found by a member of the general public at a stop in the week did little to dispel a way of chaos at the guts of state . The ministry said it had been investigating the incident.
Asked whether the health ministry was investigating how the pictures of Hancock had been taken in his office then leaked, Northern Ireland minister Brandon Lewis told Sky News: “It may be a matter i do know the department of health are going to be looking into to know exactly how that recording … got out of the system.”
He later told Times Radio there have been two issues for the govt to seem into – whether the camera in Hancock’s office was there “appropriately” and, if it had been there for security reasons, “how that video got bent the general public domain”.
The Sun newspaper published photos on Friday of Hancock kissing the aide last month – at a time when coronavirus guidelines banned people from hugging others who weren’t members of their household. it’s also posted video footage.
‘TOO SLOW, TOO WEAK’
After the pictures were published, many of Hancock’s fellow Conservative lawmakers had privately involved him to travel , saying his position was untenable after he admitted to breaking the coronavirus restrictions he had set.
Johnson, who has faced down criticism of varied scandals including the funding of refurbishment of his apartment and a visit that broke restrictions last year by his then senior adviser Dominic Cummings, first stood by Hancock.
He then accepted the minister’s resignation on Saturday and suggested Hancock might return to a better public role.
Britain’s main opposition Labour Party has raised variety of questions on the Hancock scandal, including whether the previous minister had broken government rules.
“If anybody thinks that the resignation of Matt Hancock is that the end of the difficulty , i feel they’re wrong,” Labour leader Keir Starmer told reporters.
“The prime minister should have sacked him. once more Boris Johnson was too slow, too weak and didn’t show the leadership that was needed. When the various people that made huge sacrifices during this pandemic see this, what they see is one rule for them and another rule for those on the brink of government.”
The Sunday Times, citing documents, reported that Hancock faced an investigation into allegations he had used his personal email to conduct government business, breaching guidelines.
A Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) spokesperson said: “All DHSC ministers understand the principles around personal email usage and only conduct government business through their departmental email addresses.”
New health minister Sajid Javid, appointed by Johnson on Saturday, told reporters his top priority was to ascertain an end to the pandemic as soon as possible, a press release that was later diluted during a comment issued by his ministry.
“We are still during a pandemic, which i want to ascertain that come to an end as soon as possible and that are going to be my most immediate priority to ascertain that we will return to normal as soon and as quickly as possible,” said Javid, a former minister of finance .