New leaked messages between Matt Hancock and officials show the then health secretary scrambling to save his career after footage emerged of his embrace with aide Gina Coladangelo. They are among the latest set of WhatsApp correspondence to emerge from the leak of more than 100,000 messages by the journalist Isabel Oakeshott to the Daily Telegraph. The latest tranche to be published centres on the hours after Hancock discovered that leaked footage, showing him breaching social distancing rules, would appear on the front page of the Sun in June 2021. He resigned as health secretary shortly afterwards. The messages, published by the Telegraph, show Hancock discussing the guidance in place at the time and deciding what his initial response to media questions should be. As he awaited publication, Hancock asked his special adviser, Damon Poole: “How bad are the pics?” Told it was a “snog and heavy petting”, he replied: “How the fuck did anyone photograph that?” The messages also show the reaction of Hancock and Coladangelo to a video obtained by the Sun. “OMFG,” Coladangelo said. Hancock said: “Crikey. Not sure there’s much news value in that and I can’t say it’s very enjoyable viewing.”
In his diaries, worked on with Oakeshott and published last year, Hancock said he resigned as health secretary after colleagues failed to defend him publicly. By his own account, he said Boris Johnson had assured him he could carry on, even though he and Coladangelo had been pictured kissing in his office in breach of his own social distancing guidelines. But after the story broke, Hancock said he found himself “increasingly isolated” politically and was left with no choice but to quit. The messages show Hancock and his advisers discussing among themselves and liaising with No 10 about how to respond to the story, amid an unfolding political storm. Hancock set up a WhatsApp group called “Crisis Management” with Poole and Coladangelo. They talked about the transport secretary, Grant Shapps, going out to support Hancock in broadcast interviews, saying he was “probably the best person you could hope would be out this morning” other than the prime minister. Poole asked Hancock and Coladangelo to think “really hard” about whether they could have broken any Covid rules. Referring to the social distancing rule to keep 1 metre apart from others when 2 metres was not possible, Hancock said: “Other than obviously the 1m+ I honestly can’t think of any.” He then said that the worst thing he and Coladangelo could be accused of was that they had “kissed before they legalised hugs”. At the time, the UK was in step 2 of the coronavirus regulations, which criminalised indoor gatherings “of two or more people”. Separate government guidance in place at the time stated that people should maintain social distancing of 1 metre-plus. The messages also show that Hancock asked Poole to “keep the focus” on whether Coladangelo’s appointment as a paid adviser had broken any rules, rather than whether their embrace had broken social distancing restrictions. Coladangelo worked as a paid adviser for the government, acting as a non-executive director at the Department of Health and Social Care. The messages also reveal that Hancock asked his former mentor and ex-chancellor George Osborne for advice about a video statement, as he prepared to resign. Osborne advised him against revealing he had fallen in love with Coladangelo and to include an apology to his family. A spokesperson for 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.”