Matt's ‘honest and heartfelt’ apology was dripping with insincerity - Vladimir McTavish

He said it was a “colossal failure” to assume that the outbreak could not be halted. As if this had nothing to do with him. He was Health Secretary. Was it not his job to try to halt it? He was at the heart of a government that enabled Tory party cronies to make millions out of contracts for PPE, much of which was not fit for purpose.

Hancock then went on to criticise the government for being more concerned with ordering body bags than ordering PPE. Hancock said he was “profoundly sorry” for every Covid death, but that some people would find it hard to accept this. He said his apology was “honest and heartfelt”. Am I the only person who felt this “apology” was dripping with insincerity?

This is the guy whose bumbling incompetence and lack of care led to well over 100,000 deaths on his watch as Health Secretary, who resigned from his job in cabinet in disgrace, and then took the TV dollar by entering the jungle in I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here, while remaining an MP.

I wonder whether his constituents were impressed by his buggering off to Australia to eat insects for six weeks.

Of course, his appearance on telly was not only a money-making jaunt in itself, it was a ham-fisted attempt at re-invention. It conveniently timed with the release of his autobiography, a book in which he blamed everyone but himself for the UK’s bungled mishandling of the outbreak of Covid.

Let’s not forget that Hancock did not resign because of his incompetent mishandling of the pandemic.

He resigned because he broke his own government’s rules around Covid. His affair with a workplace colleague was deemed to have broken social distancing rules. In fairness to the guy, it is quite difficult to get your leg over your secretary and still stay two metres apart. Sorry Matt, I don’t believe you.