ANDREW PIERCE: Matt Hancock CCTV dilemma runs up a £10k bill

ANDREW PIERCE: Matt Hancock CCTV dilemma runs up a £10k bill

The CCTV system that did for Health Secretary Matt Hancock is still whirring away at his old department, despite mandarins running up a £10,000 bill for legal advice on the rights and wrongs of having it removed.

Hancock, 43, was forced to quit a year ago last week after his passionate clinch with a colleague, Gina Coladangelo, also 43, was caught on a camera mounted in his ministerial office.

When the footage was leaked to a newspaper, it triggered the end of both parties’ marriages.

In the aftermath, international law firm Pinsent Masons was hired to examine the implications of ‘Hikvision CCTV equipment removal’ across the DoH estate.

Hancock, who is keen to restart his ministerial career, has declared in the Commons Register of Members’ Interests £11,000 of hospitality in New York and Miami from Hawksmoor Technology Advisors. They hosted his visit to a crypto-currency conference called the Permissionless Experience.

Some might say it’s not the first time that he’s had a permissionless experience.

Hancock, 43, was forced to quit a year ago last week after his passionate clinch with a colleague, Gina Coladangelo, also 43, was caught on a camera mounted in his ministerial office

Strictly for Portillo? 

The defeat of Michael Portillo was a defining moment of the 1997 general election rout of John Major’s Tory Party. But his TV career — notably presenting railway shows — has brought Portillo popularity. 

Asked on GB News if he was now a national treasure, an ever-modest Portillo said: ‘I’m actually merely on the ladder to becoming a national treasure. I’m not an Ed Balls figure at this stage but I’m working towards it.’ 

Does Strictly Come Dancing beckon? 

Labour’s Stella Creasy is put firmly in her place after failing to gain permission for MPs to bring babies to the Commons chamber.

Tory MP and father Tim Loughton, says: ‘Babies are not being banned from Parliament, only coming into the debating chamber. You would not take a young child on a factory floor. Why should we be different?’

Shadow foreign secretary David Lammy is suffering less than many of his colleagues from the cost-of-living crisis.

In the past year, he earned nearly £90,000 from speeches and media work, in addition to his £84,144 MP’s salary.

Labour members used to frown on those (often Tories) with second jobs. Now many are found in their own ranks.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak, speaking at the Policy Exchange think tank summer do, mocked ex-Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt’s bid for the Tory leadership. ‘This is a very exclusive party,’ he said. ‘Rumour has it my colleague and friend Jeremy Hunt got turned away last year. But knowing Jeremy, it will not deter him from having another go.’ 

It was standing-room only for Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner’s speech at the Unison trade union conference last month. As for leader Sir Keir Starmer, if he had addressed it, one wag observes, the union would have been able to fit his audience into a telephone box. 

Tory toffs resent grammar-educated ex-minister David Davis, according to colleague Andrew Mitchell. Davis told the The Political Party podcast that Mitchell, an alumnus of £38,450-a-year Rugby School, told him: ‘Old Etonians hate you because you’re just as cocky as they are but you didn’t pay for it.’

On the second anniversary of her breast cancer diagnosis Tory MP Tracey Crouch, now clear, says: ‘I’ve spent ages trying to think of something profound to say . . . But can’t quite nail it, so instead I’ll just say take a mo and check your bits and bobbins . . . it could save your life.’ Wise words.

Carlton Club snubs Mordaunt

The bookies may have to think again about making Penny Mordaunt, the trade minister, a favourite as next Tory leader. Three days before a dinner she was addressing at Tory bastion the Carlton Club, an email went out: ‘Members £95, Guests £100. Tickets remaining.’ A flyer for another event in the email stated. ‘Alsatian Wine & Seafood Evening. Members £85, Guests, £90. SOLD OUT.’ 

The bookies may have to think again about making Penny Mordaunt, the trade minister, a favourite as next Tory leader

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