Hancock scandal widens: Labour demands answers on contracts, appointments and CCTV leak

Matt Hancock's resignation last week should have closed a chapter. The health secretary had been caught on CCTV kissing Gina Coladangelo, a friend and paid adviser, in his Whitehall office while the country remained under strict Covid restrictions. He stepped down. The story, by conventional measure, was over. But in the days since, it has become clear that the affair was never the real scandal at all—it was merely the visible crack in something larger.

Coladangelo had been appointed to a role at the Department of Health and Social Care in September 2020, earning up to £15,000 a year as a nonexecutive director. She left the position over the weekend, but her appointment has now become the focal point of a widening investigation into potential abuse of public money. The questions are straightforward and serious: How qualified was she for the role? How did she receive a parliamentary pass from another health minister? And most pressingly, why was she given the job at all?

Caroline Slocock, who served as private secretary to Margaret Thatcher and now leads the Civil Exchange thinktank, told the Guardian she had "quite significant concerns" that the focus on Hancock's breach of Covid rules had allowed him to escape scrutiny for what may amount to misuse of public funds. Coladangelo worked as a communications director before her appointment to advise the health department on its core policy areas. Slocock was blunt: "It's quite hard to see" how that background qualified her for the role. She described the sequence of events as "murky" and said Hancock had "at best, essentially appointed an old chum." The implication was unavoidable—personal connection, not merit, had determined the decision.

Labour has seized on the opening. Sir Keir Starmer, the party leader, said both Sajid Javid, the new health secretary, and Boris Johnson himself have "serious questions to answer." He demanded clarity on three fronts: how Covid contracts were awarded to companies, why Coladangelo received her parliamentary pass, and how the CCTV footage leaked to the Sun newspaper in the first place. "If anybody thinks that the resignation of Matt Hancock is the end of the issue, I think they're wrong," Starmer said. Angela Rayner, Labour's deputy leader, added that "the buck doesn't stop with Hancock and this matter is not closed." The party has also written to the cabinet secretary and information commissioner over claims that Hancock conducted government business through personal email accounts.

The pressure is not confined to the opposition. Conservative MPs, speaking anonymously, have raised their own concerns. One former minister said there were "more questions" that needed answering, including Hancock's reported reliance on personal email for government business, his decision to take Coladangelo to the G7, and the "apparent favouring" of family and friends for Covid contracts. "It's very serious," they said. "None of this has been clarified." Another Tory MP suggested that the answers to these lingering questions "will probably influence" whether Hancock ever returns to the frontbench. A third admitted the former health secretary had "few fans" in his own party.

Some Conservative MPs have attempted to redirect attention by attacking the installation of CCTV cameras in Hancock's office, which captured the footage that led to his downfall. One called the video monitoring "utterly unacceptable," while another suggested the cameras amounted to malicious snooping. Brandon Lewis, the Northern Ireland secretary, said the matter "is something we need to get to the bottom of" because sensitive government work requires privacy. But a senior Conservative dismissed this line of argument as a "distraction" from what they called the "absolute car crash" of Hancock's career.

The scandal has also unsettled the broader machinery of government. Javid will address Parliament on Monday afternoon with a statement expected to confirm that England's final stage of lockdown easing will not proceed on July 5 as originally promised. It will be his first major performance at the dispatch box since he quit in February 2020 over a dispute with Johnson and Dominic Cummings. Meanwhile, speculation is building about a cabinet reshuffle before parliament's summer recess on July 22. Gavin Williamson, the education secretary, is said to be most at risk, and several Conservative MPs want to see Lord Bethell, a health minister and Hancock ally, moved as well. One senior Conservative said bluntly: "We need a reshuffle and we need it soon."

The government has maintained that Coladangelo's appointment followed correct procedure and that secretaries of state are entitled to make direct appointments without external competition. A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson insisted that all ministers conduct government business through departmental email addresses. But these statements have done little to quiet the questions. What remains unresolved is whether a personal relationship determined a public appointment, whether government contracts were steered toward favored companies, and whether the health secretary used informal channels to conduct sensitive state business. Hancock's resignation may have removed him from office, but it has not removed the questions about how power was exercised while he held it.