Third of UK public believe Matt Hancock should resign
More than a third of Britons in England believe that the Health Secretary, Matt Hancock, should resign after a court’s ruling that he had “breached his legal obligation”.
The Health Secretary is accused of unlawfully failing to publish the details of contracts surrounding Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) by the High Court.
The polling conducted by Savanta ComRes, a leading research consultancy in the UK, on Monday (February 23), suggests that people are disappointed with his neglect and 36 per cent voted for his ouster from the Health Department.
Although some hospitals and care homes had reported shortages of PPE, Hancock has consistently maintained that the Department of Health “never ran out of PPE”.
Meanwhile, the polling shows that 49 per cent of English adults believe that the UK probably did run out of PPE last year, while the number of Labor voters for this fact rises to 64 per cent.
However, Hancock has refused to apologize and believes that the decision of not publishing the facts was made on "national interest" grounds and if faced with the same circumstances of breaching laws surrounding the issuing of contracts, he “would do exactly the same thing”.
The Health Secretary's stubborn position was derided by the shadow health secretary, Justin Madders, who said that Hancock “should apologize for breaking the law. He should apologize for allowing PPE [Personal Protective Equipment] stockpiles to dwindle. He should apologize for the worst death toll in Europe. There is plenty for him to apologize for”.
On the issue of public opinion, Chris Hopkins, Associate Director at Savanta ComRes, asserted that while the Health Secretary has remained bullish on the issue, "the perception among a significant proportion of the public that Hancock and his Department did wrong is clear, even among 2019 Conservatives".
He added that “Hancock’s categorical line that Britain did not run out of PPE is not an observation felt by the public, who tend to remember health professionals saying the opposite during the height of the pandemic last year”.
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