Matt Hancock’s ‘hopeless’ hypocrisy and cronyism will never be forgotten – The Yorkshire Post says

Though he admitted to breaching Covid guidelines during his passionate embrace with his aide Gina Coladangelo, there was no acknowledgement of the hurt that his behaviour is causing to his young family or his betrayal of care homes in the pandemic.

Frankly, Mr Hancock should not have been allowed to resign on his terms – in any other era a politician of his calibre or ilk would never have been appointed to such a key role or, if they had, sacked long ago for multiple failings that even the PM described as “hopeless”.

Yet, while Tory MPs speculate that the ex-Minister will only serve a short period of political “isolation”, this should be at least until the Covid public inquiry has concluded.

In the meantime, there needs to be an investigation into his mismanagement of the Department of Health and Social Care, including its procurement rules, probity over the awarding of contracts and the processes that led to the appointment of Ms Coladangelo to such a senior supervisory role.

Put together, it smacks of a totally unethical culture of cronyism symptomatic of Boris Johnson’s own complacency on matters of probity – and a complete disservice to all the NHS staff, and patients, who have every right to expect better from their political leaders. They, like us, now hope that he likes of Matt Hancock are never again entrusted with an institution as precious as our National Health Service.

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