Mr Hancock committed the “minor breach” by writing an unsolicited letter to Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards Daniel Greenberg in defence of senior Tory Steve Brine, who was under investigation for an alleged breach of lobbying rules. The Commons Committee on Standards said: “This was a minor breach of the Code; however, Mr Hancock has still not acknowledged his mistake.”Matt Hancock committed a minor breach of the rules, the Committee on Standards said (Jordan Pettitt/PA)The committee recommended that Mr Hancock should make a personal statement to apologise to the House of Commons and the commissioner. He should also attend a “briefing on his obligations under the code with the commissioner”, the committee’s report said. The details that led to that probe were revealed in the tranche of leaked WhatsApp messages from Mr Hancock published by the Daily Telegraph. The case was dealt with under the rectification procedure, with Mr Brine accepting the decision and apologising for the breaches.

Source: The Star June 05, 2023 17:15 UTC