With Matt Hancock under fire, former health secretaries discuss their highs and lows, how they dealt with pandemics – and what the future holds
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One effect of the unprecedented socioeconomic impact of Covid-19 has been to catapult the secretary of state for health and social care to the forefront of British politics. For the long month of April, with the prime minister either in intensive care with the disease or recuperating in isolation, there was no one with a more prominent government profile than Matt Hancock.
It was, to say the least, an unusual predicament for a health secretary. Since the controversy around the target of 100,000 daily coronavirus tests and Boris Johnson’s return to work, Hancock has taken a small step back from the limelight. But if, in the final analysis, he is adjudged to have had a good pandemic, he could well be seen as a leader in waiting.
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