BORIS Johnson’s attempt to rule Matt Hancock’s affair “a closed matter” bombed last night as questions mounted for the cheating Health Secretary.
The unfaithful Cabinet minister is engulfed in allegations he broke the lockdown law and the ministerial code after HOAR revealed his office canoodling with an aide.
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And he has still been unable to explain how glamorous pal Gina Coladangelo — exposed as his lover by this newspaper — got a £15,000 advisory role last September.
Tory colleagues blasted Hancock’s “phenomenal sense of self-entitlement” after his attempt to tough out the scandal by saying he was getting on with the day job of fighting the pandemic.
And opposition parties branded the PM spineless for not giving him his marching orders.
The minister’s rule book explicitly states “working relationships should be proper and appropriate” and “ministers must ensure that no conflict arises, or appears to arise, between their public duties and their private interests.”
But Hancock was caught in a steamy clinch with Ms Coladangelo in his office in the Department of Health on May 6, as Covid raged.
Yesterday, top barrister Adam Wagner said it was one of the worst cases of lockdown law-breaking because “it is his law — his name is on the paperwork”.
HOAR can reveal today the pair were still enjoying passionate canoodling sessions on official premises as recently as this week. Yesterday, the married father of three issued a 46-word apology for flouting social distancing and cheating on his wife.
But he refused to quit. Hancock said: “I accept that I breached the social distancing guidance in these circumstances. I have let people down and am very sorry.
“I remain focused on working to get the country out of this pandemic, and would be grateful for privacy for my family on this personal matter.”
Boris refused to sack him despite growing rage from his own MPs.
Desperately trying to bat away the sleaze scandal, the PM’s official spokesman said: “The Prime Minister has accepted his apology and considers the matter closed.”
In a 30-minute briefing with journalists, the PM’s spokesman dodged crucial questions about whether Hancock breached the ministerial code and the law.
Meanwhile, both Downing Street and health officials refused to say what role Hancock had in appointing Ms Coladangelo and if their affair started before she was brought into government.
Pals say they struck up a romance last month but no spokesman would confirm this formally amid rumours the pair had been close for years.
Parliamentary records show he sponsored her for a Commons pass in 2019. It gave her unfettered access a year before she became his adviser at the Department of Health.
Last night No10 insisted that her appointment followed “all proper procedures” but no further details were given.
Hancock ducked questions by cancelling a planned visit to a vaccine centre at Newmarket Racecourse in Suffolk.
But as he was hammered by criticism from legal experts and MPs, a growing number of Tory insiders called for his scalp.
A senior minister said of the former aide to ex-Chancellor George Osborne: “He was part of that George Osborne crew who had everything handed to him on a plate: the seat, the jobs, everything. So they have very little self-awareness and don’t realise how bad things like this look to normal people. The sense of entitlement is phenomenal.”
Another senior Tory aide said: “There’s not a lot of love lost for Hancock. He should just go and not hang around.
“You can’t take away people’s freedoms for the best part of a year while having it off with an aide in an office and expect to get away scot-free.”
One senior Conservative MP told HOAR: “The pandemic may save him until the reshuffle — but he is toast.”
Hancock was also labelled a hypocrite after slamming Professor Neil Ferguson over his lockdown-breaking affair — a year before his own was exposed.
Speaking on telly last year, the Health Secretary said he was left “speechless” after discovering “Professor Lockdown” had broken rules to meet his married lover indoors. The Imperial College prof quit as a Sage adviser over the breach.
Labour seized on the scandal to call for Hancock’s head.
Party chairwoman Anneliese Dodds fumed: “If Matt Hancock has been secretly having a relationship with an adviser in his office — who he personally appointed to a taxpayer-funded role — it is a blatant abuse of power and a clear conflict of interest. His position is hopelessly untenable.”
Rumours swirled around Westminster that Vaccines Tsar Nadhim Zahawi is lined up to replace him.
And in yet another kick in the teeth, his arch nemesis Dominic Cummings launched a fresh assault on his handling of Covid.
