London: Britain’s health secretary Matt Hancock resigned from his position on Saturday after he was found in breach of social distancing norms by kissing a colleague.
In his resignation 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”, the BBC reported.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson while accepting the letter said he was “sorry” to receive the resignation.
Former chancellor Sajid Javid has been confirmed as the new health secretary, Downing Street said.
Hancock had come under pressure to quit both from fellow Troy MPs and from the Labour Party, after The Sun published pictures of Hancock and Gina Coladangelo, who are both married with three children, kissing.
BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg said No 10 had stressed that it had been Hancock’s decision to go and that he had not been pushed out by the prime minister.
She said Coladangelo was also leaving her role as a non-executive director of the Department of Health.
