Britain’s health minister Matt Hancock has resigned after he admitted breaking COVID-19 guidance by kissing and embracing an aide in his office, angering colleagues and the public during lockdown.In a letter to the PM he said the government “owe it to people who have sacrificed so much in this pandemic to be honest when we have let them down”.
Boris Johnson said he was “sorry” to receive the resignation.
Former chancellor Sajid Javid has been confirmed as the new health secretary, Downing Street said.
Mr Hancock had been under increasing pressure to quit, after The Sun published pictures of Mr Hancock and Gina Coladangelo, who are both married with three children, kissing. The newspaper said they had been taken inside the Department of Health on 6 May.
Fellow Tory MPs, as well as Labour and the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group, had called for the health secretary to be sacked.