Matt Hancock was chauffeured to Covid Inquiry in a Jag paid for by taxpayers
Taxpayers footed the invoice for Matt Hancock to make use of a chauffeur-driven Jaguar when he appeared on the Covid Inquiry.
The former Health Secretary loved the perk regardless that it was greater than two years after he give up as a minister in shame.
Mr Hancock resigned in June 2021 after he was caught on CCTV breaching social distancing steering by kissing his colleague Gina Coladangelo in his workplace. Since then he’s cashed in on his infamy, together with getting £320,000 to look on I’m A Celebrity and £45,000 for Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins.
According to the response to a Freedom of Information request, the Department for Health and Social Care offered Mr Hancock with a authorities automobile to take him to and from the Covid Inquiry when he appeared on three events in June, November and December final 12 months. It stated it was unable to present a determine for the way a lot this price.
Mr Hancock was pictured getting out of a Jaguar SUV on the first listening to. He appeared to have been downgraded to a Honda for the latter appearances.
Sajid Javid, one other former Health Secretary who appeared on the inquiry, didn’t get a authorities automobile offered by his previous division. Jeremy Hunt was taken in his regular chauffeur-driven automobile that he makes use of as Chancellor.
Sioux Vosper, 58, who misplaced her dad and is a part of Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK, stated: “To hear taxpayers’ money has been used to pay for a chauffeur-driven car to take him to the Covid Inquiry is despicable. He quit his job as Health Secretary two years ago and should pay for his own transport if he had any moral fibre he would have done so.”
Ms Vosper, who lives in Fulham, was unable to visit her father John, 80, when he was admitted to hospital near to his home in Hitchin, Hertfordshire. He died 18 days later in April 2020.
During his grilling at the inquiry, love rat Mr Hancock admitted his rule-breaking affair had a damaging impact on public confidence during the pandemic. The former minister said: “What I’d say is that the lesson for the future is very clear. It is important that those who make the rules abide by them and I resigned in order to take accountability for my failure to do that.”
Asked if that was because he understood the consequences of rule-breaking on public confidence, he said: “Yes.” Mr Hancock also admitted “many, many lives” were lost because the first national lockdown was imposed three weeks later than it should have been.
The inquiry was shown WhatsApps that detailed how Mr Hancock was warned in April 2020 about the need for a “targeted effort” on testing people in care homes.
Several key witnesses at the inquiry have accused Mr Hancock of not telling the truth to ministers and officials during the crisis. Ex-Chief Scientific Adviser Sir Patrick Vallance said he had a “behavior of claiming issues” that weren’t true, whereas former Cabinet Secretary Mark Sedwill stated he urged Boris Johnson to sack him.
Ex-Deputy Cabinet Secretary Helen MacNamara stated he displayed “nuclear ranges” of overconfidence. She recalled an occasion early in the pandemic when she asked the then-Health Secretary how he was faring and he told her he was “loving responsibility”. “To demonstrate this [he] took up a batsman’s stance outside the Cabinet Room and said ‘they bowl them at me, I knock them away’,” she added.
Mr Hancock who currently sits as an independent in the House of Commons after being stripped of the Tory whip has announced he will stand down at the next election. The Newmarket MP said he had “found an entire new world of prospects which I’m excited to discover”. His announcement came as some local party members said he was “not match to characterize” them.
A spokesman for Mr Hancock said: “Matt attended the Covid Inquiry totally in his capability as having been the Secretary of State throughout the pandemic. It is totally cheap that the Government ought to handle his journey and safety preparations on this occasion.”
