'How dare he think he can flout the rules. Hypocrisy is too small a word for this betrayal of public trust': Unanimous voice of Fleet Street's columnists call for Matt Hancock's resignation

Matt Hancock became embroiled in a scandal yesterday when grainy images emerged of the Health Secretary locking lips with his married aide. 

Mr Hancock kissed and embraced mother-of-three Gina Coladangelo in the corridor outside his Department for Health office on May 6, days before he lifted the ban on hugging.

The footage sparked an onslaught of criticism and hypocrisy allegations, with Boris Johnson urged to sack the minister despite Mr Hancock issuing a brief apology for breaking social distancing rules.

Fleet Street has joined the furious commentary, with the media's most seasoned columnists dubbing Mr Hancocks's apparent disregard for his own rules a 'betrayal of public trust'.

Below is a selection of today's reaction to the jaw-dropping controversy.        

Matt Hancock became embroiled in a heated scandal yesterday when grainy images emerged of the Health Secretary locking lips with his married aide

Alison Pearson - Daily Telegraph  

Alison Pearson said Matt Hancock had betrayed public trust 

'How exhausting it must be to deliver pious, finger-wagging homilies to the nation, warning the doubly-vaccinated that they still aren't in the clear (breaking an earlier Hancock promise). 

'Then, after menacing people to carry on observing the rules, there's just time for a quick 'pilot scheme' with the mistress before dashing home to the wife and three kids in north London. 

'Apparently, Mr Hancock was happy to run the risk of giving "this lethal virus" to his poor family, even though such behaviour was strictly prohibited under his own regulations.   

'How dare Matt Hancock think he can flout the rules with impunity, rules which have caused an ocean of suffering to the good people of this country who have strived to do as they were told by this utter charlatan. 

'Hypocrisy is too small a word for this betrayal of public trust.'

Janice Turner - The Times 

Janice Turner said: 'How can you preach forbearance and restraint to the nation, yet be unable to control yourself?'

'Hands, face, space. You can't voice such mantras and get away with French-tongued embrace. 

'Especially since it raises the question of whether Hancock really hired Gina Colangelo, an old college friend, for her lobby company's "deep understanding of the mechanics of government". 

'How can you preach forbearance and restraint to the nation, yet be unable to control yourself? 

'It is young people who must be angriest with Hancock. Damned unfairly for irresponsibility, most have stuck to the rules to save the oldsters they love. 

'Nature is telling these healthy young creatures to go forth and get laid, yet all through winter first dates were reduced to trudging stone-cold sober around icy parks.'  

Marina Hyde - The Guardian    

Marina Hyde said: 'That said, if Hancock does end up being resigned for this, it would fit with the general twilight mood in the UK’s national story'

'Sorry, but the only thing I want to see Matt Hancock doing against the back of his office door is sliding down it with his head in his hands. 

'But he can probably bank on not being sacked by Boris Johnson for having an affair. It would be like being sacked by Stalin for being slightly arsey to work with.

'Even so, Hancock will be glad that the British Antarctic Territory has been added to the green list, just as he’s been added to the s**t list. 

'The South Pole suddenly looks well worth packing his bags for. Temperatures are currently minus 87 but feel like minus 108, making it considerably less frosty than any of Matt’s current climes.

'That said, if Hancock does end up being resigned for this, it would fit with the general twilight mood in the UK’s national story. 

'Nothing says “country that’s going to make a massive success of itself” like a guy getting away with contributing to tens of thousands of unnecessary deaths but having to quit for a knee-trembler. It’s like getting Al Capone for snogging.' 

Jan Moir - Daily Mail

Jan Moir condemned the Health Secretary for having 'one rule for us, but another for him'

'A Health Secretary in the middle of a national health emergency breaking the rules that he himself imposed on the nation: if that is not a matter of urgent public interest, then what is?

'At the beginning of this crisis, Hancock asked a lot of this country — and the majority of people responded heroically. We were all in it together, he insisted. Got it, we said, nodding in agreement.

'On this fraught journey, we were his fellow travellers. In matters of community and responsibility, we sacrificed and did our best — in fact, we are still doing our best. Hour upon hour, day after day, month after long month.

'We socially distanced, we wore our masks, most of us somehow managed not to have spontaneous encounters with people who worked for us, no matter how attractive they were, or how neatly they filed important correspondence.

'Yet Matt Hancock did not. It was one rule for us, but another for him. 

'What a hypocrite he has proved himself to be — leading the clap for the NHS, pretending to cry when the first vaccines arrived, scuttling back to the office to administer a double-dose love potion of his own. 

'And it is not as if he didn’t have enough going on.'

 Amanda Platell - Daily Mail

Amanda Platell said the photographs show an 'appalling betrayal'

'How can the Health Secretary live with himself after such an appalling betrayal? While his thought he was saving the world from Covid, he was grappling with something — or someone — beyond her worst fears.

'Martha must feel utterly belittled as her agony is splashed across the public domain. And how world shattering for their three children.

'She won't be fussing over whether the appointment of Coladangelo broke the official rules. All any loyal, betrayed wife would see is that picture of her husband urgently kissing another woman, his hand placed on his paramour's bottom, seared into her mind forever.

'Leaked messages suggest the PM viewed Hancock's performance as Health Secretary as "hopeless". He is worse than that as a husband.

'The arrogance of his 'affair' is breathtaking. And reckless. Do politicians not realise that when they become MPs, their family can become public collateral damage?

'That as holders of the highest offices of state they are expected to hold themselves to a higher standard?'

Melanie McDonagh - The Spectator     

Melanie McDonagh said 'hands, face, space' had clearly escaped Mr Hancock's mind

'Matt Hancock has not, we can agree, made it his business to lighten the public mood during the pandemic. 

'That lugubrious face was designed by nature for a downbeat message. 

'Who can forget his injunction to "hug carefully" and responsibly as lockdown eased? 

'(Before that, his regulations meant no one got within hugging distance of anyone.) 

'He would, he said, be hugging his parents outside: "I’m really looking forward to hugging you, dad, but we’ll probably do it outside and keep the ventilation going: hands, face and space".

'Well! Hands, face and space weren’t quite what came to mind looking at the completely fabulous if grainy pictures in the Sun of Hancock in a clinch – a real adolescent snog – with his adviser, Gina Coladangelo, an old university friend and PR boss.'