Did Hancock resign to ‘put his family first’?

A belated effort is underway to salvage the remains of Matt Hancock’s reputation. The latest line, repeated by a dutiful Brandon Lewis on Sky this morning, is that the former Health Secretary quit for the good of the country – which begs the question as to why he waited 48 hours after the news broke to do so. 

A cynic might suggest that Hancock’s resignation had more to do with public anger and media pressure failing to subside rather than any high moral principle but for Lewis the answer was clear: Hancock went for the good of his family. The Northern Ireland Secretary told breakfast viewers this morning:

His position was untenable and distracting from the wider work that we’ve all got to do to move forward in the pandemic and out of the pandemic. There’s no getting away from that and I think that’s why Matt ultimately made the decision he did. As I say, I think in doing that he has put his family and indeed all of us across the UK first, because he wants the focus, as the PM does, as we all do, to be on getting out of the pandemic.