{"id":70892,"date":"2021-06-26T15:39:24","date_gmt":"2021-06-26T19:39:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/?p=70892"},"modified":"2021-06-26T15:39:24","modified_gmt":"2021-06-26T19:39:24","slug":"finally-the-rogue-uk-health-secretary-is-forced-to-resign-after-breaking-covid-rules-he-brutally-enforced","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/?p=70892","title":{"rendered":"Finally, the rogue UK Health Secretary is forced to resign after breaking Covid rules he brutally enforced."},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock resigns after Covid rule-breaking kiss caught on camera<\/h1>\n<p><!--more--><div id=\"attachment_70893\" style=\"width: 778px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-70893\" src=\"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/60d76dc885f5405bca3bff3c.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"768\" height=\"432\" class=\"size-full wp-image-70893\" srcset=\"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/60d76dc885f5405bca3bff3c.jpg 768w, http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/60d76dc885f5405bca3bff3c-300x169.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-70893\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">\u00a9 Reuters \/ Matt Hancock and Gina Coladangelo stand outside the BBC headquarters in London, June 6, 2021<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n<p>RT.com<\/p>\n<p>British Health Secretary Matt Hancock has resigned. Hancock was caught on CCTV footage released this week kissing an aide, in breach of his own social distancing guidelines and his marital vows.<\/p>\n<p>Hancock announced his resignation on Saturday, apologizing again for breaking social distancing rules, and to his family for\u00a0<em>\u201cputting them through this.\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cWe owe it to people who have sacrificed so much in this pandemic to be honest when we have let them down as I have done by breaching the guidance,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0a statement by Hancock read.<\/p>\n<div class=\"rtcode\">\n<div class=\"twitter-tweet twitter-tweet-rendered\"><iframe id=\"twitter-widget-0\" class=\"\" title=\"Twitter Tweet\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/embed\/Tweet.html?creatorScreenName=RT_com&amp;dnt=false&amp;embedId=twitter-widget-0&amp;features=eyJ0ZndfZXhwZXJpbWVudHNfY29va2llX2V4cGlyYXRpb24iOnsiYnVja2V0IjoxMjA5NjAwLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X2hvcml6b25fdHdlZXRfZW1iZWRfOTU1NSI6eyJidWNrZXQiOiJodGUiLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X3R3ZWV0X2VtYmVkX2NsaWNrYWJpbGl0eV8xMjEwMiI6eyJidWNrZXQiOiJjb250cm9sIiwidmVyc2lvbiI6bnVsbH19&amp;frame=false&amp;hideCard=false&amp;hideThread=false&amp;id=1408836363600936963&amp;lang=en&amp;origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.rt.com%2Fuk%2F527692-matt-hancock-resigns-affair%2F&amp;sessionId=244649dd0b429893ea14a1372b4f68f0ea78757f&amp;siteScreenName=RT_com&amp;theme=light&amp;widgetsVersion=82e1070%3A1619632193066&amp;width=550px\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-tweet-id=\"1408836363600936963\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>A day earlier, The Sun published still images from CCTV footage showing Hancock embracing and kissing aide Gina Coladangelo, a married lobbyist who he had promoted to a paid position last year.<\/p>\n<p>Shortly after the written statement, Hancock posted a video message to Twitter.\u00a0<em>&#8220;Those of us who make these rules have got to stick by them and that&#8217;s why I&#8217;ve got to resign,&#8221;<\/em>\u00a0he said.<\/p>\n<div class=\"rtcode\">\n<div class=\"twitter-tweet twitter-tweet-rendered\"><iframe id=\"twitter-widget-1\" class=\"\" title=\"Twitter Tweet\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/embed\/Tweet.html?creatorScreenName=RT_com&amp;dnt=false&amp;embedId=twitter-widget-1&amp;features=eyJ0ZndfZXhwZXJpbWVudHNfY29va2llX2V4cGlyYXRpb24iOnsiYnVja2V0IjoxMjA5NjAwLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X2hvcml6b25fdHdlZXRfZW1iZWRfOTU1NSI6eyJidWNrZXQiOiJodGUiLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X3R3ZWV0X2VtYmVkX2NsaWNrYWJpbGl0eV8xMjEwMiI6eyJidWNrZXQiOiJjb250cm9sIiwidmVyc2lvbiI6bnVsbH19&amp;frame=false&amp;hideCard=false&amp;hideThread=false&amp;id=1408836570069753858&amp;lang=en&amp;origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.rt.com%2Fuk%2F527692-matt-hancock-resigns-affair%2F&amp;sessionId=244649dd0b429893ea14a1372b4f68f0ea78757f&amp;siteScreenName=RT_com&amp;theme=light&amp;widgetsVersion=82e1070%3A1619632193066&amp;width=550px\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-tweet-id=\"1408836570069753858\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Hancock had apologized on Friday for breaking the social distancing guidelines he helped draft, and said he was<em>\u00a0\u201cvery sorry\u201d<\/em>\u00a0for letting the country down. Prime Minister Boris Johnson accepted Hancock\u2019s apology, with Downing Street deeming the\u00a0<em>\u201cmatter closed\u201d<\/em>\u00a0later that day.<\/p>\n<p>However, calls for his sacking proliferated in the media and online, especially given the fact that Hancock backed the resignation last year of Professor Neil Ferguson, the epidemiologist and government adviser who was\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.rt.com\/op-ed\/487861-neil-ferguson-screwed-coronavirus-uk\/\">caught<\/a>\u00a0breaking quarantine to meet with his married lover.<\/p>\n<p>The resignation comes after multiple Conservative MPs broke ranks on Saturday and added their voices to the chorus demanding Hancock step down.<\/p>\n<p>Hancock is married with three children, and wrote in his resignation letter that he needs\u00a0<em>\u201cto be with my children at this time.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>___<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.rt.com\/uk\/527692-matt-hancock-resigns-affair\/\">https:\/\/www.rt.com\/uk\/527692-matt-hancock-resigns-affair\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock resigns after Covid rule-breaking kiss caught on camera<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-70892","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70892","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=70892"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70892\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=70892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=70892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=70892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}