© REUTERS/Henry Nicholls
Britain's Health Secretary Matt Hancock speaks to media outside the BBC Headquarters in London, Britain, June 6, 2021.
The British government has ruled out a review of former health secretary Matt Hancock's private emails, amid reports that his use of a personal account hid records of much of his decision-making during the Covid crisis.
Downing Street has
decided that an inspection of Hancock's private email account was "neither necessary nor proportionate."
However, the government has acknowledged that Hancock - who resigned last month after being caught on camera smooching with an aide, leading to allegations that he violated his marriage vows, as well as his own social distancing guidelines - had used his personal email to carry out official business.
The move comes after the Good Law Project, a public advocacy group, argued that Hancock's emails should be reviewed, following an April court decision which ordered Downing Street to disclose documents and correspondence relating to several ministers' knowledge of a scheme that granted PPE contracts to suppliers with political links to the Tory government.
Downing Street responded by arguing that it had already reviewed more than 1.4 million documents associated with Hancock and several other senior government officials in response to the court order, and found nothing to indicate that it would be "necessary" to review the ministers' private emails.
Comment: It's funny that "most transparent administration in history" has a press secretary ducking and weaving rather straight forward questions. It's almost as if they're not actually very transparent.
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