Following the not-so-surprising revelation that the former Health Secretary Matt Hancock had breached social distancing guidelines and broken The Ministerial Code after the Sun had published pictures of Hancock and his married aide, Gina Coladangelo, caught red-handed kissing, Hancock resigned on the 26th of June amid the mounting pressure from his Tory colleagues. As many have recognised, Hancock’s handsy encounter with Coladangelo violated the many guidelines that were rigorously enforced by Hancock himself, not once, but several times, which proposed that co-workers should keep a distance of at least 2m apart where possible – or 1m with “risk mitigation”, such as standing side-by-side or wearing masks, and even advising not to hug loved ones. Hancock then issued an apology where he admitted that he “breached the social distancing guidelines in these circumstances” and apologised for merely “letting people down”. Though Downing Street has stated that PM Boris Johnson had accepted Hancock’s apology and considered the matter closed, regardless of how insufficient it actually was, many are, rightfully, not as forgiving as Johnson, including myself.

The key thing that is baffling to me, (yet not so surprisingly), is that Hancock, someone who has continued to serve as the Health Secretary, despite being called ‘totally f***ing hopeless’ by the PM himself and has been plunged in the face of several allegations regarding cronyism, ineptitude, and unlawfulness, is afforded the comfort of safely resigning and even gaining some sympathy after committing something as disagreeable as an affair, in spite of his ineptness and neglect during the COVID-19 pandemic. Why is this? Here’s a clue – It’s all down to the glaringly obvious different set of standards that are applied to white men like Matt Hancock, particularly in the cesspool that is the Tory party. Rewind to June of 2019, Conservative MP Michael Gove admitted to taking cocaine on ‘several occasions’, a confession which brought no repercussion, whatsoever, for Gove’s career, and exemplified the hypocrisy of Tory policy, as they continue to back the damaging policies that view drug misuse as a criminal offence with no possibility for retribution, thus contributing to the disproportionate number of Black and Asian men who remain imprisoned. All the while, Gove assured the public that his dabbling with cocaine was simply ‘a mistake’, and was allowed to continue to run as potential PM. Meritocracy, am I right? 

Let’s compare this scenario to that of Diane Abbott, the Labour MP for Hackney North, and Stoke Newington. Despite becoming the first Black woman to ever be elected to British Parliament in 1987, Abbott is repeatedly pilloried and mocked by the media – from being chastised for drinking an M&S cocktail on public transport, to her supposed ‘car-crash’ interview, to even her wearing mismatched footwear, the abuse that Abbott has had to endure, and still does from anonymous trolls on Twitter, to even her own colleagues, is indicative of how sinister and troubling British politics has become. Even in 2018, Labour MP Kate Osamor was forced to resign from the Shadow Cabinet following events surrounding her son’s drug-use. Could you imagine the response if the Gove story had broken about Diane? If past Leader of the Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn, had handled the COVID-19 pandemic as poorly as Johnson’s administration has? If another Labour MP had been caught doing something as unethical as the Tories? It would be a witch-hunt. 

Let’s face it: it’s a narrative we’ve all seen before. Tories like Hancock, Johnson, and Gove will always be protected by their socio-economic privilege, and above all, their whiteness. It does not matter about the countless number personal and public scandals they are embroiled in; it will subsequently have no effect upon their career or livelihoods because they are white. This pattern is supported by findings from Amnesty International UK, which concluded that Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic (BAME) women MPs face far more abuse on social media, for simply speaking out, despite there being almost eight times as many white MPs in the study. In the same way, though the UK almost has the highest death toll in Europe along with the severest economic slump in the world, the serial incompetence of the Tories is repeatedly excused and ignored, despite the deadly consequences for many Britons. Just as people won’t (and shouldn’t) be surprised if Boris Johnson’s continuing marital infidelities hit The Sun tomorrow, it should not shock anyone that people of their privilege remain unscathed and the rest of us are subjected to a much more arbitrary, and dare I say, authoritarian, standard in comparison to the apparently sacrosanct Tory elite. I don’t have to spoon-feed you the information to know that the double standards and hypocrisy cannot be clearer – Matt Hancock had the easy way out, and still has the potential to return to Johnson’s cabinet, despite the 150,000+ deaths and a predicted third-wave. We all know it isn’t down to his work performance, that’s for sure.

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