The health secretary had a tetchy talk with Jeremy Hunt about his relationship with ‘the science’
There must be many times when Matt Hancock wonders what he has done in a previous life to deserve his present one. Come to think of it, there are many times when most of us must wonder what we have done in a previous life to deserve Matt Hancock. The health secretary’s life is now one of non-stop misery where he is called upon to explain stuff about the coronavirus that is little more than hope and guesswork on his part. Only on Monday, on what he had imagined was a day off, he was forced to ad lib for Boris Johnson in the Commons for 45 minutes when the Downing Street communications nerve centre went mute.
On Tuesday, Hancock was back for a two-hour “lessons learned” interrogation . Sadly this wasn’t to be an extended therapy session for the more profound, existential questions of Door Matt’s psyche. So we never found out whether he had learned his lesson in hubris, and would never again allow his ambition to exceed his capabilities. Just when the country needed a really able health secretary, we’ve got someone whose enthusiasm and patter would have seen him rise to be the manager of an upmarket car showroom.
