Matt Hancock’s decision to resign as health secretary yesterday over his failure to comply with social distancing rules has left a sea of questions wide open in the aftermath.
To name but a few – was he any good as health secretary? Why would a cabinet minister take such risks with their career? It has been confirmed former Chancellor Sajid Javid has replaced him – is he the right replacement? In a bid to help bring some clarity to the situation I will be here tomorrow to answer your questions about the weekend’s drama.
The former health secretary resigned after leaked CCTV footage showed Mr Hancock embracing aide Gina Coladangelo.
The now former health secretary, who announced his decision to resign on Saturday evening, met married aide Mrs Coladangelo when the pair studied together at Oxford University. She was initially taken on as an unpaid adviser in the DHSC on a six-month contract last year, before being appointed as a non-executive director at the department.
The way in which Mr Hancock left his job and was swiftly replaced by Mr Javid also tells us a great deal about Boris Johnson as prime minister.
He seems not to like sacking people, offering Mr Hancock initial support while allowing him to come to his own conclusions. When Mr Hancock said yesterday, “Those of us who make these rules have got to stick by them, and that’s why I’ve got to resign,” nobody could disagree.
The prime minister has been here before. He didn’t sack Javid as chancellor; he just allowed his chief adviser Dominic Cummings to make Javid’s position impossible. Cummings even boasted on Twitter yesterday that he “tricked” Johnson into getting rid of Javid – and criticised Javid’s appointment as health secretary, saying he is a “bog standard” politician given to “chasing headlines” and the result will be “awful for the NHS”.
The new health secretary certainly faces some huge challenges. NHS funding has been squeezed for 10 years, and promises of higher spending in future have been knocked sideways by the pandemic, which leaves a huge hangover in waiting lists, both recorded and hidden.
On top of which Javid now inherits the prime minister’s pledge to sort out social care, a problem that was urgent when Johnson claimed to have a plan to fix it when he became prime minister two years ago, which has become more so because of the weaknesses revealed by coronavirus. As a former local government minister, Javid does at least know about the complex relations between the NHS and local councils in managing care.
I will be here at 4pm tomorrow to answer your questions. If you have a question, submit it now, or when I join you live at 4pm on Monday (28 June). All you have to do is register to submit your question in the comments below.
If you’re not already a member, click “sign up” in the comments box to leave your question. Don’t worry if you can’t see your question – they will be hidden until I join the conversation to answer them. Then join us live on this page at 4pm as I tackle as many questions as I can.
