LONDON – Sajid Javid has said he was “honoured” to be asked to be Britain’s Health Secretary following the resignation of Matt Hancock amid intense pressure for breaching social-distancing rules by kissing an aide.
Former chancellor and home secretary Mr Javid was appointed to the prominent role just 90 minutes after Downing Street announced Mr Hancock had resigned yesterday evening.
It came the day after video footage emerged of Mr Hancock kissing an aide in his ministerial office in a breach of coronavirus restrictions.
Images and video showed Mr Hancock in an embrace with aide Gina Coladangelo last month, and Conservative MPs told of how their inboxes had filled with complaints similar to those they received during Dominic Cummings’s infamous trip to Barnard Castle during a national lockdown.
In a letter to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Mr Hancock said: “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 said: “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.
Source : RTE
