A BILLBOARD has appeared in the city centre taking aim at Matt Hancock after video footage emerged of him kissing an aide.
The poster in Robert Street, Brighton displays a photograph of the former Health Secretary kissing his aide Gina Coladangelo in his ministerial office in an apparent breach of coronavirus restrictions.
A quote written alongside the image reads: “If one person breaks the rules, we will all suffer.”
It also displays a parody version of the government’s coronavirus safety message “stay alert, protect the NHS, safe lives”, which has been edited to read, “stay alert, government hypocrisy, costs lives”.
The billboard is the work of protest group Led by Donkeys, who first went viral in early 2019 by plastering politicians’ past statements onto billboards in an effort to highlight hypocrisy.
Mr Hancock is the latest political figure to be targeted by the group when he was forced to resign after a video of him in an embrace with Ms Coladangelo last month was published by the Sun.
After leading the nation through the pandemic as the government’s Health Secretary, Mr Hancock announced his resignation on Saturday in a video and formal letter to the Prime Minister.
He said: “I understand the enormous sacrifices that everybody in this country has made, you have made.
“And those of us who make these rules have got to stick by them and that’s why I’ve got to resign.”
Following a series of uncomfortable headlines in recent weeks, the married minister faced pressure to stand down.
The CCTV images published in The Sun were taken on May 6 when guidance on social distancing were still in place, with hugging between people from different households recommended against.
Mr Hancock, who is said to have met Ms Coladangelo at university, has been married to his wife Martha for 15 years and they have three children together.
Led By Donkeys first rose to prominence as anti-Brexit campaigners, pasting giant posters to billboards in Dover, including one showing former Prime Minister Theresa May tweeting her support for remain in early 2016 and another of Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg in 2011 suggesting the UK could have two EU referendums.
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