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CCTV camera that caught Matt Hancock's affair removed, says Javid
The UK government has moved to probe how was the camera placed inside the Matt Hancock's office smoke alarm and how the footage was leaked in a security breach, forcing Hancock's exit from Boris-led government.
The United Kingdom government has removed the mysterious CCTV camera that captured former health minister Matt Hancock who engaging and kissing an aide in the government's departmental office, successor Sajid Javid said on Monday.
This comes two days after ex-health minister Matt Hancock was forced to resign for he broke Covid-19 guidance amid staunch opposition from Labour Party.
Javid, UK's new health minister, was questioned about the secret device placed in Hancock's office as Cabinet ministers ordered a sweep of their offices. The UK government has moved to probe how was the camera placed inside the minister's office smoke alarm and how the footage was leaked in a security breach, forcing Hancock's exit from Boris-led government.
"I haven't disabled the camera that you are talking about, but it has been disabled by the department,” Javid told reporters, as he began his new job at the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC).
“I think for security it is just common sense… I don't think, as a general rule, there should be cameras in the secretary of state's office. I've never known that in the other five departments that I've run and I am not really sure why there was one here. But I am sure there will be more to this as the whole incident is investigated," said the Pakistani-origin politician who has previously held UK Cabinet posts as Home Secretary and Chancellor.
In his letter of resignation to PM Johnson, Hancock said that the government owes “it to people who have sacrificed so much in this pandemic to be honest when we have let them down.”
British PM Boris Johnson was under mounting pressure on Saturday to fire his health secretary after the admission that he broke Covid-19 guidelines by kissing an employee sparked accusations of blatant hypocrisy.
The 42-year-old minister has been at the centre of the government's fight against the pandemic, routinely telling people to follow strict rules and even welcoming the resignation last year of a senior scientist who broke restrictions in a similar manner.
British tabloids 'The Sun' has released photos and videos of the minister in an embrace and kissing his aide in an office at the Department of Health, evoking demands of resignation from the Opposition Labour Party which termed his position "hopelessly untenable".
