Matt Hancock was chauffeured to Covid Inquiry in a Jag paid for by taxpayers
Taxpayers footed the bill for Matt Hancock to use a chauffeur-driven Jaguar when he appeared at the Covid Inquiry.
The former Health Secretary enjoyed the perk even though it was more than two years after he quit as a minister in disgrace.
Mr Hancock resigned in June 2021 after he was caught on CCTV breaching social distancing guidance by kissing his colleague Gina Coladangelo in his office. Since then he’s cashed in on his infamy, including getting £320,000 to appear on I’m A Celebrity and £45,000 for Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins.
According to the response to a Freedom of Information request, the Department for Health and Social Care provided Mr Hancock with a government car to take him to and from the Covid Inquiry when he appeared on three occasions in June, November and December last year. It said it was unable to give a figure for how much this cost.
Mr Hancock was pictured getting out of a Jaguar SUV at the first hearing. He appeared to have been downgraded to a Honda for the latter appearances.
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Matt Hancock arrived at the Covid Inquiry in June in a Jaguar SUVSajid Javid, another former Health Secretary who appeared at the inquiry, did not get a government car provided by his old department. Jeremy Hunt was taken in his normal chauffeur-driven car that he uses as Chancellor.
Sioux Vosper, 58, who lost her dad and is part of Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK, said: "To hear taxpayers’ money has been used to pay for a chauffeur-driven car to take him to the Covid Inquiry is despicable. He quit his job as Health Secretary two years ago and should pay for his own transport if he had any moral fibre he would have done so.”
Ms Vosper, who lives in Fulham, was unable to visit her father John, 80, when he was admitted to hospital near to his home in Hitchin, Hertfordshire. He died 18 days later in April 2020.
During his grilling at the inquiry, love rat Mr Hancock admitted his rule-breaking affair had a damaging impact on public confidence during the pandemic. The former minister said: “What I'd say is that the lesson for the future is very clear. It is important that those who make the rules abide by them and I resigned in order to take accountability for my failure to do that.”
Asked if that was because he understood the consequences of rule-breaking on public confidence, he said: “Yes.” Mr Hancock also admitted “many, many lives” were lost because the first national lockdown was imposed three weeks later than it should have been.
The inquiry was shown WhatsApps that detailed how Mr Hancock was warned in April 2020 about the need for a "focused effort" on testing people in care homes.
Several key witnesses at the inquiry have accused Mr Hancock of not telling the truth to ministers and officials during the crisis. Ex-Chief Scientific Adviser Sir Patrick Vallance said he had a "habit of saying things" that weren't true, while former Cabinet Secretary Mark Sedwill said he urged Boris Johnson to sack him.
Ex-Deputy Cabinet Secretary Helen MacNamara said he displayed "nuclear levels" of overconfidence. She recalled an occasion early in the pandemic when she asked the then-Health Secretary how he was faring and he told her he was “loving responsibility”. “To demonstrate this [he] took up a batsman's stance outside the Cabinet Room and said 'they bowl them at me, I knock them away',” she added.
Mr Hancock who currently sits as an independent in the House of Commons after being stripped of the Tory whip has announced he will stand down at the next election. The Newmarket MP said he had "discovered a whole new world of possibilities which I am excited to explore". His announcement came as some local party members said he was "not fit to represent" them.
A spokesman for Mr Hancock said: "Matt attended the Covid Inquiry entirely in his capacity as having been the Secretary of State during the pandemic. It is entirely reasonable that the Government should take care of his travel and security arrangements in this instance."
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