⏰Inside Matt Hancock’s 41-hour scramble to save his career after Gina Coladangelo affair revealed
Messages uncovered in #TheLockdownFiles show the former health secretary forever changing his statement on the affair as he tried to rescue career
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telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/03/0…
🔴 It was 1am when the pictures were published online of Matt Hancock and his aide Gina Coladangelo in an intimate embrace in his ministerial office.
Just three minutes later the health secretary and aides began a frantic scramble to save his political career
📞Hancock had been expecting the news to break, having received a call from Victoria Newton, the editor of the Sun at 6.53pm on June 24
📕In his book he says he phoned Mr Johnson to inform him of the affair before setting off home to tell his wife, Martha, and their children
💬Messages reveal he was also discussing media strategy with Damon Poole, his special adviser
As they wait to see the story, they note that the newspaper will be printing pictures of the couple
telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/03/0…
📰As soon as he sees the front page at 1am, Mr Hancock seems to think that the revelations are not as bad as anticipated and asks to “keep the focus on the appointment” of Ms Coladangelo as a non-executive director [NED] in his department
telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/03/0…
⏰ At 6am the same day, Hancock set up a WhatsApp group called “Crisis Management” with Mr Poole and Ms Coladangelo
telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/03/0…
🔴 Beth Rigby, Sky’s political editor, messaged Mr Poole with questions about social distancing rules, which Hancock says he doesn’t want to acknowledge breaking
💬 Mr Poole sends over a link about the law at the time, when Britain was Step 2, and Mr Hancock says that their affair was “arguably charitable”, which was one of the exemptions
telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/03/0…
📞It is only during a Zoom call with his “boss” Boris Johnson that he suggests apologising for the first time
telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/03/0…
Read all the messages from the 41 hours between the affair being revealed and Matt Hancock posting his resignation video in #TheLockdownFiles ⤵️
telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/03/0…
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