I think that even he must have realised that his position (if you'll pardon the pun!) was untenable. Tory MPs up and down the country have faced a furious backlash from their constituency committees - and from constituents - at their weekly meetings this morning. Hancock's own constituency was probably no exception.
Rather depends on whether it was Johnson or the 1922 who 'encouraged' him to go. Johnson hasn't exactly been over affected by Cummings revelations.
Or even....dare I say it for my 700th post?.... a phone call to a certain Jeremy Hunt MP?
He has only resigned as Health Secretary, he remains a Conservative MP and therefore won't be heading to the House of Lords until at the very earliest after the next general election.
We're talking about Boris Johnson being in charge here, so it won't be anyone like Jeremy Hunt or another backbencher who has at least a small degree of competency, because Johnson can't have anyone who can undermine him in his cabinet if he wants to appear as a strong leader. Zahawi would be a likely replacement, but it's also possible with a reshuffle expected in the coming weeks that either the reshuffle is brought forward much sooner, and/or an interim minister is brought in.
I wouldn't think so, he will ask someone who won't say no. Hunt might - chair of the Health Select Committee when they look at what went wrong during the pandemic seems a pretty good seat to be sitting in. He also turned down Defence when offered it in 2019, Johnson won't have forgotten that!
Nope. Hunt and Johnson's lack of mutual admiration as well as Hunt getting the juice from Cummings during the joint committee hearings will ensure it doesn't happen.
Yes, you're right. I don't think Hunt would be prepared to work in Bojo's cabinet. There's obviously no love lost there and IIRC, Hunt was/is an ardent remainer.
Capone on tax evasion, Hancock on an affair. Nice. I feel sorry for his family who have been undeservingly dragged into this though.
Absolutely. Kids, teenagers or below I guess from dates. They may get a very rough ride. They never seem to think about that. At least he hasn't paraded them before the press (wasn't it Mellor that did that - I notice that he poked his head above the parapet, 'position untenable')!
Matt Hancock has resigned as health secretary after he breached social distancing guidance by kissing a colleague.
In a letter to the PM he said the government "owe it to people who have sacrificed so much in this pandemic to be honest when we have let them down".
Boris Johnson said he was "sorry" to receive the resignation.
Former chancellor Sajid Javid has been confirmed as the new health secretary, Downing Street said. [my bold]
Mr Hancock had been under increasing pressure to quit, after The Sun published pictures of Mr Hancock and Gina Coladangelo, who are both married with three children, kissing. The newspaper said they had been taken inside the Department of Health on 6 May.
Fellow Tory MPs, as well as Labour and the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group, had called for the health secretary to be sacked.
BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg said No10 had stressed that it had been Mr Hancock's decision to go and that he had not been pushed out by the prime minister.
She said Ms Coladangelo was also leaving her role as a non-executive director of the Department of Health.
In a video posted on Twitter, Mr Hancock said: "I have been to see the prime minister to resign as secretary of state for health and social care.
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"I understand the enormous sacrifices that everybody in this country has made, that you have made, and those of us who make these rules have got to stick by them and that's why I have got to resign."
In response, the prime minister said Mr Hancock "should leave office very proud of what you have achieved - not just in tackling the pandemic, but even before Covid-19 struck us".
He added: "I am grateful for your support and believe that your contribution to public service is far from over."
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer tweeted: "Matt Hancock is right to resign. But Boris Johnson should have sacked him."
The SNP's Westminster leader Ian Blackford tweeted: "Massive failure of leadership by Boris Johnson, Hancock should have been sacked."
Liberal Democrats leader Sir Ed Davey tweeted that Mr Hancock's legacy was one of "failure" and he said the fact that Mr Johnson "could just carry on regardless brings the prime minister's judgement into question once again".
Tory MP Andrew Bridgen told BBC News it had become clear that a "sizeable minority or even a majority of the public no longer had confidence in Matt Hancock".
Mr Bridgen added it "was not the affair but the hypocrisy of being someone who makes the rules and then broke the rules".
Concerns had also been raised about the process which saw Ms Coladangelo, a friend of Mr Hancock's from their days at Oxford University, appointed to the role - last September.
A No 10 spokesman has insisted the "correct procedure" had been followed but refused to go into detail.
Didn't expect that, let's see how it goes for him. 'Baptism of fire' springs to mind.
Is he going to have to forfeit his JP Morgan role now (not that any MP should have a second job like that)?
Well he's ignored all the other rules, so now he's got time on his hands I'm sure he'll find a way to jet himself and his family out to Madeira or Tuscany in a vain attempt to save his marriage... I assume that's what you mean by a "very hot place", no?
Back in March 2020 he resigned off the back of a condition that appeared to have been set by Cummings that he disapproved of (that being he had to sack his advisors to stay put). Perhaps now Cummings is long gone from the No.10 apparatus he can say/feel the same setup he resigned to escape from is not there anymore.
Yes. There was a stomach-churning photo of the whole Mellor family standing gurning at a five-barred gate. Not that long afterwards he went off to another girlfriend.
Well, all our resident experts.....not many of you ventured this appointment even with aid of the RailUK crystal ball...
Quite a few years ago, John Major was revealed to have "connections" with Edwina Currie.....another event that no-one saw coming.
