Matt Hancock loses complaint over way Mirror described him and Covid coverage

28 July 2023 , 16:38

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A complaint by Matt Hancock about The Mirror has been thrown out (Image: PA)

Regulators dramatically dismissed a string of complaints by Matt Hancock about the Daily Mirror, agreeing he had "ultimate responsibility" for Covid contracts.

Mr Hancock objected to being described as "a failed health secretary and cheating husband who broke the lockdown rules he wrote, doubled down on the lies he told, helped enrich his mates via the infamous VIP PPE lane".

The former cabinet member - who had the Tory whip withdrawn last year after jetting off to take part in I'm A Celeb - also complained about an article stating he “presided over PPE contracts being handed out to acquaintances of ministers and officials".

This included his ex-pub landlord during the Covid-19 pandemic. But the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO) ruled in favour of this newspaper.

Mr Hancock claimed he hadn't played a direct role in allocating contracts during the Covid pandemic, but IPSO said there was no dispute that a contract with an "acquaintance" had been signed in his name.

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The regulator's ruling said: "It was also not in dispute, that, during the complainant’s tenure as Secretary of State, a contract – explicitly naming the company of his acquaintance, who had been a pub-landlord in his local area – had been signed in his name.

"This supported the position that the complainant held ultimate responsibility for the allocation of such contracts."

He complained about four articles published between November and December last year.

These included two news stories and two opinion pieces, none of which breached the Editors' Code, IPSO ruled.

It said it was not inaccurate to point out that Mr Hancock was found to have breached the ministerial code by not declaring his shares in a family company that won an NHS contract.

IPSO also said The Mirror was entitled to publish a column by former TUC general secretary Frances O'Grady in which she shared her opinions about the former Health Secretary.

Mr Hancock quit as Health Secretary in June 2021 after he was filmed kissing government aide and millionaire lobbyist Gina Coladangelo at the Department of Health's London HQ.

He also came under fire after Alex Bourne, who used to run a pub close to Mr Hancock's home, was awarded a £40million NHS Test and Trace contract.

Mr Bourne's company Hinpack was subcontracted for Covid work contracted to supplier Alpha Laboratories. The former Health Secretary maintained he had no involvement in the decision.

In May 2021 Mr Hancock was found by former ethics advisor Lord Geidt to have broken the ministerial code for not declaring a 20% stake in Topwood Ltd, which won an NHS contract in 2019.

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Lord Geidt said it was a "technical" breaking of the rules in a "minor" way.

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Dave Burke