Matt Hancock has lost his complaint against a newspaper after it published articles calling him “corrupt”.
Mr Hancock had complained to the press watchdog IPSO over four opinion articles by a Sunday Mirror columnist, in which he was also called “a failed health secretary and cheating husband who broke the lockdown rules he wrote.”
The MP, who has sit as an independent since November 2022, had complained that three of the four articles were inaccurate, alleging they suggested he played a part in personally giving out government Covid contracts.
He complained about another article which called him a “corrupt”, saying the paper did not have evidence of this. Mr Hancock called for an apology to be issued for the articles, published throughout 2022.
But the regulator said the articles weren’t substantially inaccurate, and so did not breach the press code.
The Sunday Mirror had argued a reference to PPE contracts being handed out to unqualified people “because they were mates with ministers” was a comment on Covid ‘VIP lanes’, not on Mr Hancock specifically.
It defended the word “corrupt”, saying this can also mean dishonest conduct.
It argued that Mr Hancock had admitted breaking social distancing rules while Health Secretary after being caught on camera engaging in an extra-marital affair with a member of his staff - and so “corrupt” was not misleading.
It said he was also found to have “committed a minor breach of the ministerial code by failing to declare that a family firm in which he held shares won an NHS contract”.
It added that all of the pieces were clearly opinion pieces.
Ruling in the publication’s favour, IPSO said: “The description of the complainant as being “corrupt” was clearly framed as the columnist’s view of his behaviour.
“The publication had set out the basis for this description – that the complainant had contravened social distancing guidelines while a member of the government that had created them, and that he had failed to declare that a family firm in which he held shares won an NHS contract.”
It added: “The Committee also noted that the term “corrupt” had no set and specific meaning that relates to a precise behaviour.”
Mr Hancock, who resigned as Health Secretary during Covid when his affair came to light, lost the Conservative party whip after appearing on I’m a Celebrity, on which he came third.
The West Suffolk MP has said he intends to stand down at the next election.
