EXCLUSIVE: ‘Colleagues mocked my faith in the vaccine’: Matt Hancock says he was ridiculed in Westminster and recounts the moment he wept on TV when first doses were administered

• CLICK HERE TO READ MATT HANCOCK’S EXPLOSIVE INTERVIEW AND WATCH THE VIDEO EXCLUSIVELY ON THE MAIL+
• EXCLUSIVE: Matt Hancock says he was ridiculed for believing in the vaccine
• He said he blubbed’ on television when the first Briton was inoculated on ‘V-day’
• Gina Coladangelo who became his lover said: ‘At least you showed how you felt’ 

Matt Hancock claims he was ridiculed in Westminster for believing in the vaccine and recounts weeping on live TV the day the first doses were administered.

The former health secretary says in his diaries that, in the months before the first vaccine was approved, he faced opposition from ‘sceptics’, including inside No10.

But on December 1 the UK became the first country in the Western world to authorise the Pfizer and BioNTech jab.

Hancock describes the scenes of ‘elation’ as he announced the news in the Cabinet room – recalling that Boris Johnson ‘danced a jig’ – and his embarrassment as he ‘blubbed’ on television when the first Briton was inoculated on ‘V-day’.

Matt Hancock recounts weeping on live TV the day the first doses were administered

Gina Coladangelo, his communications adviser who later became his lover, said: ‘At least you showed how you felt.’

He also reveals how he feared the rollout would have to be cancelled because three early recipients had serious reactions and his relief when it turned out they could continue after all.

In the diaries, Mr Hancock tells a series of stories about his focus on the vaccine as the route out of the pandemic, mentioning the vaccine more than once-a-page. He even claims he told health leaders in January 2020: ‘I want it by Christmas.’

But one of the most extraordinary claims in the latest extract of his pandemic diaries is the strength of opposition to his ‘optimism’ over the vaccine.

Mr Hancock refers to a ‘briefing against me from No10’ in a newspaper article which quoted a Whitehall source saying that ‘Matt Hancock is the only person here who thinks there is actually going to be a vaccine… it’s a running joke with other departments’.

The report was published less than two months before the vaccine was approved. Mr Hancock says he was happy to ‘own’ the joke.

Hancock describes the scenes of ‘elation’ as he announced the news in the Cabinet room – recalling that Boris Johnson ‘danced a jig’

Two days previously he had also been told to delete sections of his speech that suggested vaccines ‘are the way out’. ‘I will not be blown off the vaccine drive by the sceptics – in No10 or anywhere else,’ he says.

It was only a few weeks later, in November, he was presenting the plan for the vaccine rollout to the prime minister.

‘I’ve rarely seen him as enthusiastic. Finally I think he realises this really is going to happen,’ Mr Hancock’s diary reads, recalling that Mr Johnson banged the table and boomed: ‘Can we go faster?’

Mr Hancock adds: ‘As expected, the price of success is that No10 has gone from not believing the vaccine will happen to getting completely carried away.’

CLICK HERE TO READ MATT HANCOCK’S EXPLOSIVE INTERVIEW AND WATCH THE VIDEO EXCLUSIVELY ON THE MAIL+

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In December the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency formally authorised the vaccine, allowing the former health secretary to announce the news the nation had dreamt of.

He writes: ‘I walked into the Cabinet Room where the PM was standing behind his chair with Rishi, [Cabinet Secretary] Simon Case and a few others dotted around: ‘We have a vaccine! It’s been formally approved!’

‘Boris danced a little jig, his jubilant moves giving every impression that he hadn’t had much dance practice of late. We were all elated.

‘We know this is the only way out. So many people feared it would never happen. But here it is, the first in the world, in under a year.

‘On the way out of Downing Street I bumped into Rishi, who gave me a man-hug and thanked me for pulling off the vaccine.’

A week later he recalls a series of television appearances to mark the day the first Britons were inoculated. ‘You need to relax’, Coladangelo told him while he was waiting. ‘Stop being so buttoned up.’

Mr Hancock continues: ‘What she did not mean was that I should lose it altogether, which unfortunately is exactly what happened. I was on my own in a dark windowless booth, answering questions, when they played the video of Margaret Keenan [the first person] getting her jab.

‘Suddenly I completely lost it, blubbing away, battling to regain my composure as tears streamed down my face.

‘For Christ’s sake, pull yourself together,’ I told myself desperately. Then the camera was back on me, my microphone was live and my watery red eyes were there for all to see. Gina said at least I’d shown how I felt.’

At the time he was accused of faking tears, or forcing viewers of breakfast television to watch the ‘awkward’ or ‘cringey’ moment.

He also revealed he felt ‘physically sick’ after receiving an 11.43pm phone call from Professor Chris Whitty telling him three out of 400 vaccinated on the first day ‘had a massive reaction’.

Mr Hancock’s diary entry reads: ‘We may well have to halt the entire vaccination rollout… Still feeling nauseous, I slumped into bed, knowing I wouldn’t get a wink of sleep.’

But first thing the following morning a member of Mr Hancock’s private office rings: ‘All three had a clinical history of anaphylaxis,’ she says.

‘I can’t remember ever being so relieved in my life,’ Hancock writes.

CLICK HERE TO READ MATT HANCOCK’S EXPLOSIVE INTERVIEW AND WATCH THE VIDEO EXCLUSIVELY ON THE MAIL+ 

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