Probe underway after UK health minister resigns

Former chancellor of exchequer Javid takes over, targets a 'return to normal'

The United Kingdom's security services are investigating the leak of surveillance camera footage that triggered the resignation of the country's health secretary.

The security breach that led to images from a security camera in a government minister's inner sanctum appearing on the front page of the tabloid Sun newspaper is, the Daily Mail reported, one of the most pressing issues to follow the resignation of Matt Hancock.

Brandon Lewis, the UK's Northern Ireland secretary, told Sky News the leak obviously has security implications.

"It's something we need to get to the bottom of," he said. "Quite rightly what happens in government departments can be sensitive and important."

The Mail on Sunday newspaper added that security for government buildings is typically contracted out to private companies and that the probe will likely start with those who had access to the footage.

Hancock stood down on Saturday after footage of him and his married lover, Gina Coladangelo, embracing in his office in the Department of Health and Social Care provoked condemnation from the public.

He was widely criticized for breaking the rules on social distancing that he had championed during the fight against the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Some critics questioned whether any taxpayer money had been inappropriately directed toward Coladangelo, who was a non-executive director at the Department of Health and Social Care before she too resigned on Saturday.

The BBC said Hancock is also understood to have separated from his wife of 15 years.

His replacement at the helm of the DHSC, former chancellor of the exchequer Sajid Javid, returns to government 16 months after resigning on a matter of principle.

He tweeted that he was honored to have been asked to serve in the Cabinet again "at this critical time".

The BBC quoted him as saying: "We are still in a pandemic and I want to see that come to an end as soon as possible, and that will be my most immediate priority."

Hancock posted a video online in which he said he understood the "enormous sacrifices that everybody in this country has made — that you have made — and those of us who make these rules have got to stick by them."

He also apologized to his family and loved ones for "putting them through this".

The BBC reported that Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Hancock "should leave office very proud of what (he has) achieved. Not just in tackling the pandemic, but even before COVID-19 struck us".

But the opposition Labour Party's shadow housing secretary, Lucy Powell, told Sky News questions remain about the affair and she said her party has referred Hancock to the police, so investigators can find out whether any laws were broken.

The Guardian newspaper said sources told it Hancock and Coladangelo, who have known each other since they were at the University of Oxford together, now plan to share a home.