LONDON: UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock resigned on Saturday following revelations that he broke the government's own coronavirus restrictions during an affair with a close aide. The frontman for Britain's response to the pandemic, particularly the nationwide vaccine roll-out, quit in a letter to Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
"We owe it to people who have sacrificed so much in this pandemic to be honest when we have let them down as I have done by breaching the guidance," he wrote. "The last thing I would want is for my private life to distract attention from the single-minded focus that is leading us out of this crisis," he added.
Johnson said he was "sorry" to receive Hancock's resignation, and that he should be "immensely proud" of his service. The prime minister had initially stood by his beleaguered health secretary after he admitted to breaking Covid rules on social distancing, at a time when he was urging the public to stick by the measures, including curbs on funeral numbers.
Opposition parties accused the government of hypocrisy over breaches of lockdown rules which have seen many members of the public slapped with fines. Hancock conceded he had let the public down after The Sun newspaper published a security camera still obtained apparently from a whistleblower showing him kissing the aide in his office on May 6.
Last week, Hancock rejected criticism of his handling of the Covid pandemic after private WhatsApp exchanges emerged in which Johnson appeared to describe him as "hopeless". Hancock has also previously faced allegations that he lied to Johnson and awarded a contract to an unqualified friend.
He has faced further questions about his ownership of shares in a family company that won a Covid-related contract from his ministry last year. But Johnson praised Hancock for his role in Britain's successful vaccine rollout, which he called "one of the greatest successes of the modern state".
"It has been your task to deal with a challenge greater than faced by any of your predecessors and in fighting Covid you have risen to that challenge - with abundant energy, intelligence and determination that are your hallmark," he added. Hancock assumed the role on July 9, 2018, having previously been head of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport department.
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