Matt Hancock
Matthew John David Hancock is a British former politician who served as Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General from 2015 to 2016, Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport from January to July 2018, and Secretary of State for Health and Social Care from 2018 to 2021. He was Member of Parliament for West Suffolk from 2010 to 2024. He is a member of the Conservative Party.
Hancock was an economist at the Bank of England before serving as a senior economic adviser and later as chief of staff to George Osborne. Hancock was first elected as an MP for West Suffolk at the 2010 election.
In Parliament, Hancock served as a junior minister at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills from 2012 to 2015 and was the United Kingdom Anti-Corruption Champion from 2014 to 2015. He attended David Cameron's cabinet as Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General from 2015 to 2016. After Theresa May became prime minister following Cameron's resignation, Hancock was moved to the post of Minister of State for Digital and Culture. He was promoted to May's cabinet as Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. In July 2018, after Jeremy Hunt became Foreign Secretary, Hancock replaced him as Secretary of State for Health and Social Care. After May's resignation, Hancock stood in the Conservative Party leadership election to replace her, but withdrew shortly after the first ballot and endorsed Boris Johnson. After Johnson became prime minister, Hancock kept his position as health secretary.
Hancock's time as health secretary was marked by the COVID-19 pandemic, and he played a prominent role in the government's response to it. He oversaw efforts to procure supplies needed, but the lack of a competitive tendering process for some contracts proved controversial. He expanded COVID-19 testing and tracing and also oversaw the early stage of the UK's COVID-19 vaccination programme. In June 2021, it was shown that he had breached COVID-19 social distancing restrictions by kissing and embracing Gina Coladangelo in his office. She was a director at the Department of Health and Social Care, and Hancock was having an extramarital affair with her. Following this, Hancock resigned as health secretary and returned to the backbenches. He was succeeded by Sajid Javid.
In November 2022, Hancock had the party whip suspended after announcing he would appear as a contestant in the twenty-second series of the survival reality television show I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!, in which he finished in third place. He did not seek re-election as an MP at the 2024 general election.
Early life and education
Matthew Hancock was born on 2 October 1978 in Chester, Cheshire, to Michael Hancock and Shirley Hills, who had a software business. He has an older sister and a brother.Hancock attended Farndon County Primary School, in Farndon, Cheshire, and then was privately educated at the King's School, Chester. He took A-levels in Maths, Physics, Computing, and Economics. He later studied computing at the further education college, West Cheshire College. Hancock then studied at the University of Oxford where he was an undergraduate at Exeter College, and graduated with a first class degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics. He later earned a Master of Philosophy degree in economics from the University of Cambridge, where he was a postgraduate student at Christ's College. He was diagnosed with dyslexia at university. Hancock became a member of the Conservative Party in 1999.
Early career
After university, Hancock briefly worked for his family's computer software company, Border Business Systems, and for a backbench Conservative MP, before moving to London to work as an economist at the Bank of England, specialising in the housing market. In 2005, he was an economic adviser to the Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, later becoming Osborne's chief of staff.Parliamentary career
Hancock was selected as the Conservative candidate for West Suffolk in January 2010. He narrowly won the contest, defeating Natalie Elphicke, by 88 votes to 81 in the final ballot. At the 2010 general election, Hancock was elected as MP for West Suffolk with 50.6% of the vote and a majority of 13,050.In June 2010, Hancock was elected to the Public Accounts Committee. He served on this committee until November 2012. Hancock also served on the Standards and Privileges Committee from October 2010 to December 2012.
In 2011, Hancock became a member of the Free Enterprise Group, a group of Thatcherite Conservatives co-founded by Liz Truss. In January 2013, he was accused of dishonesty by Daybreak presenter, Matt Barbet, after claiming he had been excluded from a discussion about apprentices after turning up "just 30 seconds late". Hancock acknowledged on social media that he was running late, but said he turned up ahead of time for the interview and was unfairly blocked from going on set by producers. Barbet said Hancock knew he was "much more than a minute late" and he should have arrived half an hour beforehand to prepare for the interview.
In October 2013, Hancock joined the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills as the Minister of State for Skills and Enterprise.
In June 2014, Hancock, in his role as a minister, encouraged employers to become involved in offering more apprenticeships, allowing young people to learn and earn simultaneously.On 15 July 2014, Hancock was appointed to the position of Minister of State for Business and Enterprise. On 27 July, he announced protection from fracking for National Parks, seen as a method of reducing anger in Conservative constituencies ahead of the election. Interviewed on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme, he rejected the suggestion that fracking was highly unpopular but he was unable to name any village that backed it.
Hancock served as Minister of State for Energy from 2014 to 2015. In this role he was criticised for hiring a private jet with senior diplomatic officials to fly back from a climate conference in Aberdeen, where he signed a deal with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto to use British expertise in Mexico. A Department of Energy and Climate Change spokesman said the chartered flight was organised to fit around diary commitments, and the conference was not about climate change, but it was a visit to a university and discussion about investment. Hancock was later criticised for accepting money from a key backer of climate change denial organisation, Global Warming Policy Foundation.
In October 2014, he apologised after retweeting a poem suggesting that the Labour Party was "full of queers", describing his actions as a "total accident".
At the 2015 general election, Hancock was re-elected as MP for West Suffolk with an increased vote share of 52.2% and an increased majority of 14,984.
Hancock became Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General on 11 May 2015. Hancock launched a new social mobility drive to promote diversity within the civil service, outlining his vision in a speech in February 2016. He led David Cameron's "earn or learn" taskforce which aimed to have every young person working or studying from April 2017. He announced that jobless 18 to 21-year-olds would be required to do work experience as well as looking for jobs, or face losing their benefits.In the 2016 UK referendum on EU membership, Hancock supported the UK remaining within the EU.
Hancock was again re-elected at the snap 2017 general election with an increased vote share of 61.2% and an increased majority of 17,063. He was again re-elected at the 2019 general election with an increased vote share of 65.8% and an increased majority of 23,194.
Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
Hancock moved to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport as the Minister of State for Digital and Culture on 15 July 2016 after Theresa May became prime minister. As minister for digital policy, Hancock in June 2017 recommitted to a "full fibre" digital policy. This promised that 97% of the UK would enjoy "superfast broadband" at speeds of at least 24 megabits per second by 2020.In August 2017, Hancock oversaw the strengthening of UK data protection law. As Digital Minister he announced people would have more control over their personal data and be better protected in the digital age.
On 8 January 2018, Hancock was appointed Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport in Theresa May's 2018 cabinet reshuffle, succeeding Karen Bradley. On his first day in the role he criticised the BBC for the amounts of pay its foreign journalists received, and said that some men at the corporation were paid "far more than equivalent public servants".
In early 2018, Hancock was the first MP to launch his own mobile app, eponymously named the "Matt Hancock MP App", which functioned as a social network for him to communicate with his constituents and give people updates in relation to his cabinet role. The head of privacy rights group Big Brother Watch called the app a "fascinating comedy of errors", after the app was found to collect its users' photographs, friend details, check-ins, and contact information. Hancock said his app collected data once consent was granted by the user. The app was eventually shut down at the beginning of 2023.
In May 2018, as Media Secretary, Hancock confirmed the highest stake on fixed odds betting terminals would be cut to £2, after Prime Minister May sided with him over the issue.
Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
May Ministry
Following Jeremy Hunt's appointment as Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, Hancock was appointed Secretary of State for Health and Social Care for England on 9 July 2018.In November 2018, Hancock was criticised after appearing to endorse a mobile phone health app marketed by the subscription health service company Babylon in the Evening Standard. Babylon allegedly sponsored the newspaper article. The Labour MP Justin Madders wrote to Theresa May accusing Hancock of repeatedly endorsing the products of a company that receives NHS funds for patients it treats, which contravenes ministerial guidelines. The ministerial code includes that ministers should not "normally accept invitations to act as patrons of, or otherwise offer support to, pressure groups or organisations dependent in whole or in part on Government funding".In April 2019, Hancock, who had previously said the NHS would face "no privatisation on my watch", was criticised by Labour for allowing 21 NHS contracts worth £127 million to be tendered.