(London) His position has become unacceptable: UK Health Minister Matt Hancock, who was at the heart of government action against the pandemic, resigned on Saturday for violating anti-COVID-19 sanctions during an affair with an adviser, which spread across all media.
Downing Street has announced that Prime Minister Boris Johnson will replace him with former finance minister Sajid Javed, 51. He will return to government after knocking on the door in early 2020 with dissatisfaction with the conditions imposed on the use of his portfolio.
The son of a former banker and former Pakistani bus driver is the first member of an ethnic minority who previously served as head of the interior ministry in Theresa May’s previous Conservative government.
The change came at a critical time for the United Kingdom, which has killed more than 128,000 people and is facing a contagious outbreak caused by the coronavirus that causes the highly contagious delta variant. The country is opposed to vaccinating as many people as possible with the aim of lifting the last sanctions still in force in July.
“Be honest”
“We owe it to ourselves to be honest with the people who sacrificed so much during this epidemic, when I disappointed them as I did by violating the guidelines,” Matt Hancock, 42, reiterated his apologies to Boris Johnson in his resignation letter.
Boris Johnson, who initially served as his health minister for three years, said he was sorry for his resignation. “You should leave the office very proud of what you have achieved not only in tackling the epidemic, but also before COVID-19 hits us,” he replied.
The tabloid The Sun published a picture from a surveillance camera on Friday of Matt Hancock, who is married and the father of three, kissing Gina Colladangelo, a longtime friend, said the wise appointment was already controversial, May 6, when weeds were banned in his office.
The man who regularly called on the British to respect them, admitting that they had violated the rules, apologized and the head of government reiterated his confidence in himself, feeling that the matter was “closed”.
But Sun hit a nail on the head on Saturday by posting a video from a surveillance camera on his website.
When confronted with this case, which was aired by all the media, the calls for resignation in the opposition increased as it did in the traditional camp in power. Eventually they improved the minister who was guilty of hypocrisy.
“It’s right that Matt Hancock should resign, but Boris Johnson should be fired,” Keer Stormer, the leader of the main opposition Labor party, responded on Twitter.
Conflict of interest?
The Labor Party has also questioned Gina Koladanjelo, a lobbyist known from Matt Hancock College and currently leading the exchange of stores chain of information founded by her husband, over the conflict of interest over the appointment to the ministry. The appointment was not announced before the press revealed.
Prior to the case, other embarrassing allegations had already targeted Matt Hong Kong, who gained prominence in Britain during the epidemic, holding regular daily government press conferences at the height of the First Wave.
At a parliamentary hearing in May, former Prime Minister Dominic Cummings repeatedly “lied” to him and ruled that he had been “fired”. In mid-June, in support of his screen shot, Boris Johnson called Mr. Hancock a “fucking dude” in his pandemic management.
He was critical of the lack of protective equipment for caregivers at the beginning of the crisis or, later, the ambiguity surrounding the awarding of certain public contracts.
A graduate of the prestigious Oxford and Cambridge Universities, the 40-year-old was first elected to the Conservative Party in 2010.
The great cricketer, a former economist at the Bank of England, first entered government in 2012, where he held various portfolios.
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