Matt Hancock may be out of government but that doesn’t mean the matter is closed when it comes to the Prime Minister’s handling of the whole affair. Hancock officially resigned on Saturday as Health Secretary after concluding that his position was untenable, following the publication of photos of him breaching lockdown rules with his married female adviser.
However, the initial suggestion from both Downing Street and Hancock was that he would cling on. When the news first broke on Friday, Johnson took the view that the best way to deal with this type of story was to ignore it. Hancock put out an apology statement and No. 10 aides said the Prime Minister considered it a matter of case closed.
So there is some bemusement in Westminster this morning over the Prime Minister’s apparent change of tune. In a pool clip on a visit to Batley and Spen ahead of Thursday’s by-election, Johnson was asked whether Hancock’s behaviour undermined the government message about being ‘all in it together’. He replied: ‘That’s right, and that’s why when I saw the story on Friday we had a new Secretary of State for Health in on Saturday’ and suggested things happened at the ‘right pace’. Speaking at lobby, the Prime Minister’s official spokesman denied that Johnson sacked Hancock – but did say he agreed Hancock was right to resign.
Given Hancock is out, it may seem unimportant whether he chose to go or was pressurised to do so. But this has turned into an issue of Johnson’s judgment. Labour are currently trying to make hay of Johnson’s early support for Hancock and there is unrest in the Conservative parliamentary party over Johnson’s handling of the situation. Johnson’s former No. 10 aide Dominic Cummings has popped up to twist the knife – suggesting it is typical behaviour of Johnson, who he has nicknamed the ‘wonky shopping trolley’ over his tendency to go off in another direction:
So, what happened? Despite No. 10 attempting to close down the conversation on Friday, a handful of Tory MPs went public with their concerns. Many more conveyed their annoyance to the whips privately. Several of Hancock’s ministerial colleagues were unimpressed at the official line. MPs worried that Johnson’s reluctance to sack his ministers won’t be read by the public as loyalty but instead will play into a ‘one rule for them’ Tory sleaze narrative. That Johnson is now attempting to change the narrative on how he handled the Covid breach suggests this is not lost on him.
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