Matt Hancock has been accused of cheating on his wife with a close friend and lobbyist who is a taxpayer-funded adviser to his department.
He was allegedly caught on camera kissing Gina Coladangelo, according to The Sun, which published photographs of what it called a “steamy clinch”, at his Whitehall office.
Coladangelo, met Matt Hancock when both were attending Oxford University, was a director at lobbying firm Luther Pendragon.
The security camera pictures were taken on 6 May.
Mr Hancock, 42, has been married for 15 years to Martha, and the pair have three children.
Whistleblower
The paper refers to a whistleblower who revealed the Health Secretary had been spotted cheating on his wife.
He was seen kissing her at the Department of Health’s London HQ during office hours last month as the mutant strain began spreading.
A Whitehall whistleblower told The Sun it was “shocking that Mr Hancock was having an affair in the middle of a pandemic with an adviser and friend he used public money to hire”.
Dominic Cummings has had the daggers out for Hancock, for a long time, but in public since his committee hearings, but Hancock seems to have a lot of enemies these days.
Looking back it is worth recalling when Matt Hancock suggested that Neil Ferguson should be prosecuted for breaking the rules when he meet his lover. “The social distancing rules are there for everyone & they’re deadly serious,” he said at the time.
Matt Hancock suggested that Neil Ferguson should be prosecuted for breaking the rules when he meet his lover.
— Haggis_UK 🇬🇧 🇪🇺 (@Haggis_UK) June 25, 2021
“The social distancing rules are there for everyone… & they’re deadly serious”
https://t.co/NhYdAeQ7fj pic.twitter.com/PKMWcw3hxM
Grant Shapps didn’t want to be drawn into the revelations on LBC today.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps tells LBC he has seen a photo of Matt Hancock embracing a colleague but says ”I’m quite sure that whatever the rules were at the time – they were followed.”@NickFerrariLBC pic.twitter.com/5gqach00NZ
— LBC (@LBC) June 25, 2021
Reactions
Cheating, or allegations of cheating, by MPs is nothing new. However, some might find it awful during the biggest crisis of a generation, the Health Secretary might have spent his time chasing another woman, when he should have been focused on his role.
However, many on social media were wondering how the newspaper managed to get hold of Government CCTV, who from, and why?
1.
The Hancock affair isn’t simply about him cheating on his wife, it is about more than infidelity. Questions:
— Ian Parsons #FBPE #FBNHS (@IanLabour) June 25, 2021
1. Why was the aide appointed without due diligence?
2. Why was departmental CCTV leaked to the Sun?
3. Who leaked it to the Sun?
4. Why hasn’t @BBCr4today covered it?
2.
Matt Hancock accused of having affair – who really cares about who he snogs? But putting your alleged mistress on the board of the DHSC, giving her a Parliamentary pass and appointing her as an aide at taxpayer cost raises questions https://t.co/KrYnwkZZ2H
— Shaun Lintern (@ShaunLintern) June 25, 2021
3.
It’s one thing for a ‘whistleblower’ to say that they’ve personally witnessed Hancock and Coladangelo carrying on, and that their affair is an open secret, but it’s quite something else for The Sun to be handed CCTV from a government office. Was that sanctioned from the top?
— Moog (@a_toots) June 25, 2021
4.
“The Sun claims they have been having an affair – but it is not known if they remain in a relationship that was a secret until today.” Murdoch has decided Hancock must go. pic.twitter.com/1htYPU2jaD
— DL (@Goldbirdwing) June 25, 2021
5.
Why does Matt Hancock’s affair matter, but Boris Johnson’s multiple affairs not matter?
— G #blacklivesmatter #noPlanetB #keepitintheground (@eurasiafantasia) June 25, 2021
6.
I wonder if the manner by which Matt Hancock’s affair was exposed in The S*n is actually collusion between the tabloid and certain ministers to 1) bury bad news or 2) simply the means by which Hancock is ousted. If the latter, it’s also a means to ousting Johnson. Watching ERG.
— Kaye Mac 💙🌻💜 (@KayeMac04) June 25, 2021
7.
God, it would be the most British thing ever if a minister who’s been able to keep his job despite tens of thousands of people dying in care homes on his watch ends up losing it as a result of an extra-marital affair. https://t.co/CR1aFmmNAX
— Tim Bale (@ProfTimBale) June 25, 2021
8.
Harry Cole, from the Sun, pushed back on accusations that this was a ‘private matter,’
Some context for “entirely privately” line:
— Harry Cole (@MrHarryCole) June 25, 2021
-affair conducted in Health HQ
-with an aide given taxpayer funded contract in secret last year
-in the middle of the afternoonhttps://t.co/EMWOpORoex https://t.co/gqlb72lRoK
9.
A world where Hancock is apparently sexy enough to have an affair *shakes head* pic.twitter.com/DF5nRqqlwF
— Dr Owain Connors (@OwainConnors) June 25, 2021
10.
I honestly couldn’t care less about Matt Hancock having an affair.
— Scarlett Parrish (John Bercow stan account) (@ScarredParrot) June 25, 2021
What concerns me is CCTV footage making its way from a government office to The Sun’s.
There’s either been a leak or a security breach.
If Hancock goes because of an affair, so should the Prime Minister.
11.
Look I'm the very last person on Earth to defend Matt Hancock… but where is The Sun's front page from when Boris Johnson's affair with Arcuri or his current wife, Carrie, were revealed? Why the selective moral outrage? pic.twitter.com/mIhhD6x7uN
— Otto English (@Otto_English) June 25, 2021
12.
I don’t really care about any of them having affairs. That’s their private life. But how did The Sun get their hands on government department internal cctv? pic.twitter.com/2q3r81ycO9
— Fran 🇬🇧🇪🇺🇩🇪🌹 (@FranS199) June 25, 2021
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