Brandon Lewis: Matt Hancock has ‘ultimately’ made ‘the right judgement’
There is only one story in town at the moment: Matt Hancock’s resignation after the Sun splashed a picture of him and his Department of Health colleague Gina Coladangelo on Friday’s front page. Their embrace, recorded on CCTV in early May, has prompted accusations of hypocrisy, with the hapless Health Secretary apparently unable to follow the guidance he laid down for the rest of the country. Hancock initially had Boris Johnson’s full backing, but he stood down on Saturday following mounting pressure, including the full release of the CCTV tape in question. Trevor Phillips asked Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis why Hancock’s decision had taken so long:
BL: Ultimately he’s made, I think, probably the right judgement… He doesn’t want this situation around himself to distract from that key focus and key work for government, which is to deliver for people on the pandemic, and as we are coming out of the pandemic.
‘I accept the frustration and anger’ at Hancock’s behaviour
Phillips was unimpressed with Lewis’s response, and put to him the tragic case of his own daughter, Sushila Phillips, who died in April following a long battle with anorexia. Recounting the restrictions that had been placed on the family during the funeral, Phillips asked why people should be expected to follow the government’s guidance:
TP: I absolutely accept and understand the frustration and even the anger that people have… That is such a tragic situation for any of us to be in, and that’s… why it’s so important all of us to do what we can to keep ourselves, our families, our friends, our wider communities safe… What Matt did was wrong… That’s why he apologised immediately for his behaviour.
Boris Johnson was right to back Hancock
However, when interviewed by Andrew Marr, Lewis argued that the Prime Minister had been correct to support Hancock’s continuation in the role:
BL: I think the Prime Minister was absolutely right…
AM: To back him?
BL: Yes, absolutely. Because what the Prime Minister wanted was the have the Secretary of State, who has got all of that experience and knowledge, working with the phenomenal team at the Department of Health… Matt has also accepted that we need to be able to focus on the core issue, and that is why he has resigned.
CCTV leak will be investigated
Phillips asked Lewis how he thought the Sun might have come by the leaked footage in the first place. The paper credits ‘a concerned Whitehall whistleblower’. Lewis said that an investigation is underway:
BL: That is certainly a matter I know that the Department of Health will be looking into to understand exactly how that was recorded and how it got out of the system…. The Department of Health will be taking [it] forward as an internal investigation… to ensure this kind of situation can’t happen again.
Document leak is ‘a serious breach’ of security
From one security mishap to another, Marr inquired about how 50 pages of classified documents had been found at a Kent bus stop on Tuesday. The documents, since handed to the BBC, contained material relating to HMS Defender, currently on deployment in the Black Sea, and on the British Army’s presence in Afghanistan:
BL: I think it is a serious breach… I’ve spoken to the Defence Secretary… There will be a full investigation by the Ministry of Defence into how this happened.
Irish Sea border tweet ‘has not aged well’
Marr also challenged Lewis over a tweet he had made at the start of the year stating that ‘there is no “Irish Sea border”’. With recent events in Northern Ireland strongly suggesting the alternative, Lewis blamed the EU’s hardline interpretation of the Northern Ireland Protocol for the disturbances:
BL: I fully appreciate that that tweet has not aged well… On the 1st January we were very clear that we were going to have no sea border… What’s happened since then is that… the implementation of the Protocol… the purist way the EU want to see it, has meant that we’ve seen disruption… We’ve got to make sure that there isn’t [a border]… We need to rectify that, and we will do that.
Lucy Powell: Hancock incident shows PM’s ‘dangerous blind spot’
Trevor Phillips also spoke to the Shadow Housing Secretary Lucy Powell, who said that Boris Johnson’s backing for Hancock meant that his judgement was sorely lacking:
LP: This goes to the judgement and the leadership of the Prime Minister as well… The Prime Minister should have sacked him… and I’m afraid it feels to me like the Prime Minister has a very dangerous blind spot when it comes to issues of integrity and conduct in public life.
Hancock’s severance payment should be withheld
Powell argued that Hancock’s severance payment of around £18,000 was unjustifiable, and said that Labour would be calling for it to be withdrawn from him:
LP: I think most of your viewers would be appalled to think that there’s going to be a severance payment to Matt Hancock in this circumstance… for frankly, being caught on the job while he was on the job, I think would be pretty disgusting to most people. And we will certainly be… asking the Prime Minister not to give him that.
Hancock should be investigated by the police
The Metropolitan Police have so far said that they will not be conducting any action against Matt Hancock because his potential rule breach was not a ‘live’ incident. Powell said that she and her party begged to differ:
LP: My colleague Fleur Anderson has referred this to the police, because she wants to know… whether the police will be looking at whether Matt Hancock did break the law… People want to know there is accountability.
Sadiq Khan: I take responsibility for low London vaccination rate
Andrew Marr interviewed the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, and questioned him about statistics showing that as many as 40 per cent of Londoners have not received a single Covid jab:
AM: Do you take responsibility for that?
SK: I do… The reason why we’ve got challenges… is our population is younger, it’s more mobile, it’s more diverse. We’re less likely to be registered with a GP, which means that normal official channels of communication… aren’t there. Also , we have a large migrant population as well [who are] less likely to share their data to receive a jab.
I’ve got faith in Cressida Dick
Marr also asked about the position of the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, Cressida Dick, who has been under fire for the police’s handling of protests during the pandemic, rising crime in the capital, and more recently has overseen the service being branded ‘institutionally corrupt’ over the handling over the 1987 murder of private investigator Daniel Morgan:
SK: I’ve got faith in Cressida Dick, I’ve got full confidence… The key thing is to make sure that the police… the government and myself work together to earn back the trust and confidence lost by Daniel Morgan’s family and others because of the issues you’ve mentioned.
Jeremy Hunt: Care homes policy one of pandemics’ ‘worst failures’
Marr put Matt Hancock’s infamous claim to have ‘thrown a protective ring’ around Britain’s care homes to Jeremy Hunt, the chair of the Commons’ Health and Social Care Committee:
JH: My own view is… there were some of the worst failures of the state in our lifetime, and also some of the biggest successes…
AM: …What happened in care homes – was that one of the great failures?
JH: I think it was, and I think there was a blind spot there about the social care system.
Dr Chaand Nagpaul: Javid will see a ‘baptism of fire’
And finally, Dr Chaand Nagpaul, the chair of the British Medical Association, had a foreboding prediction for the incoming Health Secretary Sajid Javid:
CN: I think what our members are saying is that they are feeling absolutely exhausted after this pandemic… This comes at a time when the new Health Secretary is going to see a baptism of fire… We’re facing… a record 5 plus million patients on waiting lists… [so we’re facing] a backlog crisis of care.
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