Why Matt Hancock will have the last laugh

The great irony is that Cummings has actually made it more difficult for Johnson to sack Hancock, says Sean O’Grady

The embattled health secretary has had some vocal support from the Conservative backbenches (Reuters)

What a difference a day makes. By the end of Dominic Cummings’s evidence session with MPs it was a wonder that Matt Hancock didn’t just resign and turn himself into the nearest police station. It was devastating stuff. And yet, 24 little hours later, Hancock was back at the Downing Street podium, untroubled by the fuss, behaving, apparently, as though nothing had happened. Appropriately for a man in charge of the health service, it was the biggest comeback since Lazarus.

How so?

First, he is fortunate in having Dominic Cummings for an enemy. True, Cummings can muster evidence, deploy an argument and pursue it with determination; but on the other hand, “Dom” is pretty much still hated by the public and, more to the point, much of the Conservative party, who cannot easily forgive or forget the damage he has inflicted on their government and party. Cummings is far from being rehabilitated, and can easily be portrayed as an unreliable witness, a bitter and twisted figure who is mad, bad and dangerous to know.

Second, partly for that reason, the embattled Health and Social Care secretary has had the benefit of some vocal support from the Conservative backbenches, possibly orchestrated by the whips, but with, notably, Jeremy Hunt offering conditional backing. The former health secretary and chair of the health select committee that had interrogated Cummings reminded the House of Commons that the allegations against Hancock are, as yet, unproven – an important intervention.

Third, Hancock has struck the right notes himself. When “doorstepped” by the media on his way he didn’t get narked or barge his way through them like some criminal going into the Old Bailey, but offered a confident statement as bright as the unusually sunny spring morning before getting into his car. In the chamber he struck just the right sombre tone, sounding all hurt when Labour assailed him with Cummings’ litany of hate. Hancock doesn’t always do well in the Commons when he can be bothered to show up (he didn’t appear for an urgent question on the local lockdown fiasco earlier in the week). There was one cringing moment last year when Hancock attempted to patronise Rosena Allin-Khan, a Labour shadow minister and hospital doctor, and he has often bickered with Mr Speaker Hoyle. This time, though, dragged in by Labour’s Jon Ashworth, Hancock judged the mood of the chamber more sensitively than usual. For a man who was a Treasury spad to George Osborne, he made a good job of giving the impression that he’d never spun anything in his life. By the end of the performance Hancock looked like he was enjoying himself, as well he might, because he knew the bulk of his MPs were behind him and that he’d survived. At least for now.

Labour failed to make the most of the material that Cummings had gifted them, and the calls to bring forward the public inquiry were dismissed and only have Hancock the opportunity to remind everyone that all of Cummings’ claims can be examined properly when the inquiry gets going (conveniently far into the future). Ashworth wanted to make a point that either Cummings was fibbing or the prime minister had recruited a nutter – ignoring the fact that both are perfectly possible, and that we all know what Cummings and Johnson are like anyway. The follow-up was sorely lacking and defused by the catch-all promise of a public inquiry.

The great irony is that Cummings has actually made it more difficult for Johnson to sack Hancock. Cummings revealing that the prime minister was advised to keep him in his role “because he is the person you fire when the inquiry comes along” – obvious enough if you think about it – makes it a bit more tricky to do precisely that. Besides, we all know Hancock isn’t up to the job – it’s not news. We can see his mistakes for ourselves, and that major parts of his role have anyway been taken off him and given to task forces and the likes of Michael Gove (Covid passports) and Nadhim Zahawi. His reputation is shot and his future is in question but, unlike Cummings, Hancock is still standing.