Matt Hancock’s ‘Affair’: controversy over assistant Gina Coladangelo won’t go away easily despite No.10 trying to shut it down | Politics News

Boris Johnson was never likely to fire a member of his cabinet over an alleged affair.

This afternoon Downing Street is busy trying to shut down the Controversy over Matt Hancock and specifies that they consider the matter closed.

But there are many reasons to believe that this problem will not go away so easily.

Angel number 10 knows the damage that can be done by stories that remind the public that there can be one set of rules and assumptions politicians keep – and one for everyone.

Dominique cummingsBarnard Castle’s trip preceded a drop in Conservative poll scores last May.

Mr Johnson is believed to have regretted not sacking his senior assistant at the time rather than taking the damage done to the government by defending him.

Could this cycle repeat itself?

As Secretary of Health, Mr Hancock promulgated the regulations he is accused of having broken.

It doesn’t help that everyone is being asked to judge whether the kiss in The Sun was a “reasonably necessary” exception to the ban on indoor contact, the legal test provided for by the regulations.

It also doesn’t help that Mr Hancock was memorably quick to judge Professor Neil Ferguson when the then-Sage scientist was found visiting his lover, and he later resigned.

An instant poll from YouGov found that 49% wanted him to quit and 25% the rest.

Angel number 10 will also be worried about known unknowns.

The Sun, which produced the extraordinary snatched photos of Mr Hancock in an embrace with his college friend, says the health secretary was carrying out a “secret affair.”

That’s not what the pictures show, and it’s unclear what made the newspaper confidently state this on its front page – and what else will come out of it.

Some officials believe the footage was taken from a newly constructed high-rise building overlooking the …