Matt Hancock (MP)

Matt Hancock is a British Conservative Party politician. Born in Chester, Hancock matriculated at Christ’s in 2002 and gained an MPhil in Economics.

After leaving Christ’s, Hancock briefly worked for a backbench Conservative MP, before moving to London to work as an economist specialising in the housing market for the Bank of England. In 2005, he became an economic adviser to the Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, later becoming Osborne's chief of staff.

In the 2010 General Election, Hancock was elected as the MP for West Suffolk. Later in 2010, and until 2012, he was elected to the Public Accounts Committee. In 2013, Hancock joined the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills as the Minister of State for Skills and Enterprise. In 2014, he was appointed Minister of State for Business and Enterprise.

In 2015, Hancock became Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General, and also headed David Cameron's "earn or learn" taskforce which aimed to have every young person either in employment or education from April 2017.

After Theresa May became Prime Minister in 2016, Hancock became Minister of State for Digital and Culture in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. In the 2018 cabinet reshuffle, he was appointed Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. In 2018, Hancock launched his own smartphone app – the first MP to do so. The app was meant as a social network to provide his constituents with information and give the wider public updates on his role in the cabinet.

In 2018, Hancock was appointed Secretary of State for Health and Social Care. In 2019, Hancock announced that he intended to run for Conservative Party leadership after Theresa May announced that she would be stepping down, but ultimately withdrew his candidacy. Hancock kept his role as Health Secretary when Boris Johnson became Prime Minister in 2019 and was in this role during the COVID-19 pandemic. In August 2020, Hancock began making plans to merge Public Health England and NHS Test and Trace into a new body called the National Institute for Health Protection.

In June 2021, Matt Hancock resigned as Secretary of State after admitting to breaching social distancing guidelines.