Matt Hancock resigned as Health Secretary because he felt “isolated” after the affair

Matt Hancock claims he resigned as Health Secretary because he felt “increasingly isolated” following the backlash over his affair.

He and aide Gina Coladangelo were pictured kissing in breach of the Tory’s own social distancing guidelines last May.

In the latest excerpt of his diary, published by The Mail+, Mr Hancock said Boris Johnson had assured him he could carry on despite the uproar.

The Covid guidelines at the time prohibited physical contact with people from separate households.

After the story broke in The Sun last year, Mr Hancock said he felt “increasingly isolated” politically and had no choice but to quit.

He also revealed that his final statement of resignation was filmed on a mobile phone by Mr Johnson.

Mr Hancock said he had to take repetitive shots because the camera panned up and down so much.

The release of his Pandemic Diaries coincides with his return to Westminster from Australia after his controversial appearance on ITV’s I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!

In the diaries, Mr Hancock records meeting the Prime Minister at Downing Street on June 24, 2021 to let him know what The Sun intended to publish.

Mr Johnson reportedly replied: “Well you haven’t broken the law. The guidelines are not binding – they are recommendations. So I will stand by you.’

However, over the weekend Mr Hancock said he had realized his position had become untenable.

“Privately, I still get positive messages from colleagues. In public, few were willing to defend me. I was increasingly isolated politically,” he wrote.

‘I went to Checkers to see the Prime Minister. I explained that I had thought about what had happened and how people had felt about it – and that I had made my decision. The damage to my family and the government was too great.

“I told Boris that I have to resign.”

Mr Hancock also described this farcical scene in the Garden of Checkers – the Prime Minister’s official country residence – as they attempted to film his declaration of resignation.

“In the end, the great state machine was nowhere. It was just me and the PM fiddling around with an iPhone. He was standing on the grass holding the phone while I said my part. It took a few tries to get it right,” he wrote.

“He nodded so much sympathetic encouragement during the first shot that the camera waved up and down. It wasn’t perfect in the end, but I didn’t care: I had to get it out.

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