‘How the f*** did anyone photograph that?’ – Leaked messages show Hancock’s reaction to footage of him and aide in passionate embrace
New leaked messages between Matt Hancock and officials show the then health secretary trying to rescue his career after pictures were published of him embracing aide Gina Coladangelo.
In the messages, Mr Hancock is shown discussing the COVID-19 guidance in place at the time and deciding what his initial response to media questions should be.
As he awaits publication in June 2021, Mr Hancock asked a special adviser: “How bad are the pics?”
Told it’s a “snog and heavy petting”, he replied: “How the f*** did anyone photograph that?”
The messages also showed the reaction of Mr Hancock and Ms Coladangelo to a video obtained by The Sun.
“OMFG”, Ms Coladangelo said.
Mr Hancock said: “Crikey.
“Not sure there’s much news value in that and I can’t say it’s very enjoyable viewing.”
He resigned as health secretary shortly afterwards.
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The exchanges are among more than 100,000 messages leaked by journalist Isabel Oakeshott, who was given them by Mr Hancock while they were collaborating on his memoir.
Ms Oakeshott turned the messages over to The Daily Telegraph, something Mr Hancock has described as a “massive betrayal”.
She insists her actions were in the public interest.
‘Increasingly isolated’
In his memoir, Mr Hancock said that Boris Johnson had assured him he could carry on even though he and Ms Coladangelo had been pictured kissing in his office in breach of his own social-distancing guidelines.
But after the story broke, Mr Hancock said he was “increasingly isolated” politically and was left with no choice but to quit.
Earlier on Friday, another set of leaked messages were published showing Mr Hancock branded a ministerial colleague a “w*****” and mocked Rishi Sunak’s Eat Out to Help Out scheme as “eat out to help the virus get about”, leaked messages show.
After the latest leaks a spokesperson for Matt Hancock said: “There’s nothing new in these messages, and absolutely no public interest in publishing them given the independent inquiry has them all.
“It’s highly intrusive, completely inappropriate and has all been discussed endlessly before.”
‘Just officials making mischief’
The latest release of information from The Telegraph focuses on Mr Hancock’s relationship with then chancellor – now prime minister – Rishi Sunak.
One exchange of messages published today took place in June 2020, as the country began to open up from the first lockdown.
Matt Hancock and Rishi Sunak
Mr Hancock was angry about a story claiming that Mr Sunak had issued warnings over some departments’ spending being out of control.
Speaking with one of his advisers, Mr Hancock said he “spoke to Rishi”, who was “horrified” at the story.
Mr Hancock and his adviser discussed where the story could have come from – who had told the journalist what Mr Sunak was said to think.
The adviser said he assumed it was “just officials making mischief”.
Steve Barclay and Matt Hancock
Mr Hancock said “Or Steve Barclay. W—ers. Trying to be all clever about spending control.”
At the time, Mr Barclay, who is now health secretary, was chief secretary of the Treasury, under Mr Sunak.
‘Eat out to help the virus get about’
In December 2020, Mr Hancock complained to his adviser about the Eat Out to Help Out scheme.
Launched in summer 2020 by Mr Sunak, the scheme subsidised food at restaurants in order to help support the hospitality industry.
After the scheme had ended, Mr Hancock’s adviser asked if he could call Mr Hancock back after dinner – to which the health secretary quipped “Isn’t that illegal?”
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The adviser said: “Not any more, all thanks to Rishi…”
Mr Hancock replied: “He hasn’t launched another eat out to help the virus get about has he?”
The adviser said: “Got to give the virus a fighting chance, given how well you’re doing with vaccines and testing right now…”
Messages from when the scheme was active show Mr Hancock saying Eat Out to Help Out was “causing problems in our [i]ntervention areas”, but the cabinet minister “kept it out of the news but it’s serious”.
He said the Treasury under Mr Sunak had been told, but Mr Hancock had been “protecting them in the comms”.
It was later estimated that the scheme had caused a “significant” rise in infections.
UK
Home secretary admits illegal immigration numbers still ‘too high’ under Labour – but says Farage can ‘sod off’
The home secretary has admitted the UK’s illegal immigrant numbers are “too high” – but said Nigel Farage can “sod off” after he claimed she sounded like a Reform supporter.
Shabana Mahmood, speaking just after announcing a major policy change on migration, said she was “horrified” by the 27% increase of irregular arrivals in the year to June.
Politics latest: Labour MPs attack asylum plans
Speaking to Sky News’ political editor Beth Rigby, the home secretary said: “I acknowledge the numbers are too high, and they’ve gone up, and I want to bring them down.
“I’m impatient to bring those numbers down.”
She refused to “set arbitrary numbers” on how much she wanted to bring illegal migration down to.
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Beth Rigby: The two big problems with Labour’s asylum plan
Earlier on Monday, Ms Mahmood announced a new direction in Labour’s plan to crack down on asylum seekers.
The “restoring order and control” plan includes:
• The removal of more families with children – either voluntarily through cash incentives up to £3,000, or by force;
• Quadrupling the time successful asylum seekers must wait to claim permanent residency in the UK, from five years to 20;
• Removing the legal obligation to provide financial support to asylum seekers, so those with the right to work but choose not to will receive no support;
• Setting up a new appeals body to significantly speed up the time it takes to decide whether to refuse an asylum application;
• Reforming how the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) is interpreted in immigration cases;
• Banning visas for countries refusing to accept deportees;
• And the establishment of new safe and legal refugee routes.
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Home secretary announces details on asylum reform
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said the plan was much like something his party would put forward, and said Ms Mahmood sounded like a Reform supporter.
The home secretary responded with her usual frankness, telling Rigby: “Nigel Farage can sod off. I’m not interested in anything he’s got to say.
“He’s making mischief. So I’m not going to let him live forever in my head.”
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Nigel Farage said the home secretary was sounding like a Reform supporter
She earlier announced refugee status would be temporary, only lasting two and a half years before a review, and they would have to be in the UK for 20 years before getting permanent settled status, instead of the current five years.
Ms Mahmood said Reform wanted to “rip up” indefinite leave to remain altogether, which she called “immoral” and “deeply shameful”.
The home secretary, who is a practising Muslim, was born in Birmingham to her Pakistani parents.
Earlier, in the House of Commons, she said she sees the division that migration and the asylum system are creating across the country. She told MPs she regularly endures racial slurs.
BBC chair Samir Shah has said there is “no basis for a defamation case and we are determined to fight this” – after Donald Trump said he would sue the corporation for between $1bn and $5bn.
It comes after the US president confirmed on Saturday he would be taking legal action against the broadcaster over the editing of his speech on Panorama – despite an apology from the BBC.
Samir Shah said the BBC’s position ‘has not changed’. Pic: Reuters
In an email to staff, Mr Shah said: “There is a lot being written, said and speculated upon about the possibility of legal action, including potential costs or settlements.
“In all this we are, of course, acutely aware of the privilege of our funding and the need to protect our licence fee payers, the British public.
“I want to be very clear with you – our position has not changed. There is no basis for a defamation case and we are determined to fight this.”
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On Saturday, President Trump told reporters legal action would come in the following days.
“We’ll sue them. We’ll sue them for anywhere between a billion (£792m) and five billion dollars (£3.79bn), probably sometime next week,” he said.
“We have to do it, they’ve even admitted that they cheated. Not that they couldn’t have not done that. They cheated. They changed the words coming out of my mouth.”
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The BBC on Thursday said the edit of Mr Trump’s speech on 6 January 2021 had given the “mistaken impression that President Trump had made a direct call for violent action”.
The broadcaster apologised and said the splicing of the speech was an “error of judgment” but refused to pay financial compensation after the US leader’s lawyers threatened to sue for one billion dollars in damages unless a retraction and apology were published.
Deborah Turness. Pic: Reuters
Tim Davie. Pic: PA
The Panorama scandal prompted the resignations of two of the BBC’s most senior executives – director-general Tim Davie and news chief Deborah Turness.
The broadcaster has said it will not air the Panorama episode Trump: A Second Chance? again, and published a retraction on the show’s webpage on Thursday.
A British man who hacked the X accounts of celebrities in a bid to con people out of Bitcoin, has been ordered to repay £4.1m-worth of the cryptocurrency, prosecutors say.
Joseph James O’Connor, 26, was jailed in the United States for five years in 2023 after he pleaded guilty to charges including computer intrusion, wire fraud and extortion.
He was arrested in Spain in 2021 and extradited after the country’s high court ruled the US was best placed to prosecute because the evidence and victims were there.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said on Monday it had obtained a civil recovery order to seize 42 Bitcoin and other crypto assets linked to the scam, in which O’Connor used hijacked accounts to solicit digital currency and threaten celebrities.
The July 2020 hack compromised accounts of high-profile figures including former US presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden, and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
O’Connor and his co-conspirators stole more than $794,000 (£629,000) of cryptocurrency after using the hacked accounts to ask people to send $1,000 in Bitcoin to receive double back.
Prosecutor Adrian Foster said the civil recovery order showed that “even when someone is not convicted in the UK, we are still able to ensure they do not benefit from their criminality”.
The order, which valued O’Connor’s assets at around £4.1m, was made last week, following a freeze placed on the hacker’s property, which prosecutors secured during extradition proceedings.
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A court-appointed trustee will liquidate his assets, the CPS said.
The attack also compromised the X (then Twitter) accounts of other high-profile figures including Tesla chief executive Elon Musk, investor Warren Buffett, and media personality and businesswoman Kim Kardashian.
The hack prompted the social media platform to temporarily freeze some accounts.
X said 130 accounts were targeted, with 45 used to send tweets.
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