Matt Hancock saga continues: UK Government rages over CCTV Leakage

The Government was on Sunday under pressure to order an urgent Whitehall security review – including a sweep for bugs in all ministerial offices – as an investigation got underway into the leaking of footage showing Matt Hancock embracing an aide.

Some three days after the images were first published, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) confirmed it is conducting an internal inquiry into the disclosure of the video from a camera in the former Health Secretary’s private office inside the ministry’s Westminster building. 

There are conflicting accounts of whether or not the CCTV device trained on the door of Mr Hancock’s office was mounted in clear view on the ceiling or hidden in a smoke detector, with friends of the minister insisting he was unaware of the camera. As several former ministers expressed alarm at the existence of cameras in ministerial offices, officials in the department ordered that the camera be located and deactivated prior to the arrival of new minister Sajid Javid, with a layer of black tape added as a precaution. 

Mr Hancock’s predecessor Jeremy Hunt voiced astonishment that ministers were being recorded, saying it was issue for intelligence agencies to “look at very, very carefully”.  Labour demanded a review of security in Whitehall, including a search by the intelligence services for concealed recording technology. 

Shadow security minister Conor McGinn said: “This is not about Matt Hancock’s hypocrisy being exposed, it’s about the potentially huge risks posed by such a lax approach from Government to security in its own buildings. 

“The Government must urgently review all of its key buildings, have the intelligence agencies sweep them for bugs and unauthorised CCTV, and address the speculation about a private company with links to China having access to Whitehall’s inner sanctums.” 

The cameras used in the DHSC building are manufactured by a Chinese company, Hikvision, whose products are currently being reviewed by the American authorities over security concerns. The company has strongly rejected any suggestion that its equipment could be vulnerable to hacking or data relayed to China. 

Security sources this weekend played down any suggestion that the leaking of the footage – dated 6 May and showing Mr Hancock in a passionate clinch with colleague Gina Coladangelo – was the result of an act by a hostile state. 

The Sun newspaper, which first published the images, has said they came from a whistleblower wanting to expose the former Health Secretary’s disregard for the social distancing policies he himself had advocated and put in place. 

It emerged on Sunday that an individual claiming to work in the DHSC had posted messages on social media from 17 June offering “very damning CCTV footage of someone that has been recently classed as completely f….ing hopeless”. A day earlier former Number 10 chief adviser Dominic Cummings had published a text exchange in which Boris Johnson had supposedly used very similar language about Mr Hancock. 

It is not known if the individual posting on social media, who hinted at seeking payment for the material, was the source of the images eventually published by The Sun and the Instagram account used to post the messages has now been removed. It is unclear whether the video of Mr Hancock was taken directly from a DHSC camera or a recording of a monitor using a mobile phone. 

But the ability of an individual to access footage from the working inner sanctum of a Cabinet minister has set alarm bells ringing across Westminster. Security in Whitehall departments is generally sub-contracted to external companies and several former senior ministers expressed alarm and disbelief that cameras existed in ministerial offices. 

While the decision-making processes of ministers are recorded by civil servants, there is a strict protocol in government – known as the Wilson doctrine – that MPs and ministers cannot be bugged or recorded, unless it is with the permission of the Prime Minister. 

Speaking on BBC One’s The Andrew Marr Show, Mr Hunt said: “I do think we need to understand how this happened and to make sure that ministers are secure in their offices to be able to have conversations that they know aren’t going to be leaked to hostile powers.” 

Former Labour Cabinet minister Alan Johnson said he could see no grounds for the placing of a camera in the office of a senior minister, adding that he had never been aware of a camera in his office when he held five Cabinet positions, including Health Secretary. 

Rory Stewart, former International Development Secretary, said he had specifically asked his officials about the presence of cameras. He tweeted: “I definitely did not know that there were cameras in any of my ministerial offices (in fact I was told – when I asked if there were any cameras – that there were not cameras in my office in DfiD).” 

Scotland Yard said it was aware of the images showing Mr Hancock but no criminal investigation is under way.