Mark Brown considers the role and impact of the recently departed Secretary of State

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Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Matt Hancock resigned from office on the evening of 26 June, after video footage of an amorous escapade in his office with close aide Gina Coladangelo.

After some suggestion that he might weather the storm Hancock resigned, stating “those of us who make these rules have got to stick by them”, and he had not done this because of his “breaking the guidance” and compromising social distancing measures intended to halt the spread of COVID-19.

Health secretaries tend only to be noticed when something goes wrong. The pandemic placed health and social care, and specifically the NHS and Hancock, right at the centre of everyday national experience.

During this period, and especially from the election victory of Boris Johnson’s government in December 2019 and then on through the pandemic, there was a sense of mental health ceasing to be a big ticket issue for Westminster government.

Mental health is always at risk of being sidelined when another crisis comes along and Hancock’s time as health and care minister contained two massive ones: Brexit and the COVID-19 pandemic.

The story of Hancock’s time as secretary of state will always be reduced to his actions during the pandemic and his final ignominious departure from office. But he was in post for three years. Nearly half of that time was spent as health secretary during the most serious pandemic for over a century and the rest of that time was conducted under the intense pressure of Brexit negotiations.