A failed health sec and cheating husband who broke lockdown rules he wrote and helped enrich his mates via a VIP PPE lane has lost in a bid to have that description ruled inaccurate.
Matt Hancock complained to press regulator IPSO over several articles published by the Daily Mirror.
They’re very festive, so This Writer will just repeat them here in full (because I can):
* Hancock complained over the following pieces:
* “No stranger to ridicule or reinvention” (2 November 2022)
* “Shameful record of blunders” (2 November 2022)
* “He’s no jungle hero… lying Hancock threw us all to the wolves” (11 November 2022)
* “SOLIDARITY IS EMOTIONAL” (3 December 2022)
* The articles included allegations that Hancock:
* “presided over PPE contracts being handed out to acquaintances of ministers and officials, including his ex-pub landlord” during the Covid-19 pandemic
* “broke ministerial code by failing to declare he held shares in a family firm that won an NHS contract”
* was “a failed health secretary and cheating husband who broke the lockdown rules he wrote, doubled down on the lies he told, helped enrich his mates via the infamous VIP PPE lane, and couldn’t resist monetising the infamy he acquired as a result of his ineptitude at managing the pandemic”.
The complaints under Clause 1 of the Editors’ Code (accuracy) were all rejected.
The decision means we’re all free to use the same language about Hancock, and some have beaten This Writer to it:
https://voxpoliticalonline.com/2023/07/29/failed-health-sec-and-cheating-husband-matt-hancock-loses-ipso-complaint/
