London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Monday, Sep 08, 2025

Minister's affair caught on camera prompts questions about surveillance among Britain's political elite

Minister's affair caught on camera prompts questions about surveillance among Britain's political elite

Westminster, the beating heart of British politics, is very worried about how safe the UK government's most important secrets are.

Over the weekend, Matt Hancock, now the country's former health secretary, was forced to resign after images of him kissing a female adviser were published in a newspaper.

It isn't the fact that the woman in question was not Hancock's wife, nor that the pictures meant Hancock was breaking his own government's Covid rules, that is most freaking out Westminster colleagues.

It's that the images came from a security camera in Hancock's office -- and that he seems to have had no idea it was filming him.

The security implications for this are enormous and the opposition Labour party is demanding a sweeping review of security across government buildings.

"This is not about Matt Hancock's hypocrisy being exposed, it's about the potentially huge risks posed by such a lax approach from Government to security in its own buildings," said Conor McGinn, Labour's shadow security minister.

"The Government must urgently review all of its key buildings, have the intelligences agencies sweep them for bugs and unauthorized CCTV, and address the speculation about a private company with links to China having access to Whitehall's inner sanctums," he added.

Matt Hancock, the UK's former Health Secretary


Whitehall is a major thoroughfare through Westminster where a lot of government buildings are based, and the term is colloquially used to refer to the UK's civil service.

For what it's worth, Downing Street is not officially commenting on the matter beyond saying there will be an internal review and guiding away from all speculation on foreign involvement.

Government officials suggested to CNN that the fact a camera ended up in the office of a senior cabinet minister was an error rather than conspiracy. They pointed to the fact that the building is rented from a private landlord and that the camera should have been taken down in 2017 when the government department relocated.

However, the fact that any information from inside what is supposed to be a secure office was taken from the building and handed to an external figure -- in this case, the press -- is deeply concerning for those who know what happens inside government.

"All sort of meetings take place in a cabinet minister's office, well beyond the reach of your brief," says David Davis, the UK's former Brexit secretary. "You could have classified documents on a desk; you could have briefings on matters of national security."

This hyper-sensitivity is far from hysterical. The sorts of conversations that take place in the official offices of the most senior people in the government of a G7 nation are obviously very sensitive.

"It isn't just that camera was there in the first place that worries me as such," says a current government minister. "It's that we didn't have sufficient safeguards to stop a human being with malign intent from leaking that information to a newspaper. Replace an affair with sensitive defense plans and a newspaper with a foreign adversary, and you start to understand why every minister I've spoken to is very concerned."

Davis explained that when he first became a cabinet minister, one of his senior civil servants warned him that he was now "a subject of interest to every intelligence agency in the world."

Beyond national security and secrets falling into the hands of Britain's enemies, Hancock's office has hosted some of the most sensitive policy discussions of any cabinet minister in recent years because of the pandemic.

The front door of 10 Downing Street, home and workplace to the British Prime Minister.


"Over the past year, Matt has invited people from all across parliament, from private industry, scientific experts, you name it, to discuss things in private about how to tackle this virus," says a senior Conservative source. "Those conversations need to take place in private because if, say a chat looking at models showing numbers of deaths in different scenarios leak, the public would go doolally."

Worries over information security could also lead to a damaging chilling effect within government.

"Governments need to be able to discuss stuff in private so that all options can be considered without political fallout," says Tim Durrant, associate director of the Institute for Government think tank.

"Dismissing ideas that are on the surface a little out there could lead to poorer policy decisions ultimately being made. If ministers cannot be certain their conversations remain private, that could be very damaging for government overall," he adds.

The fear of further security blunders in Westminster hasn't calmed just yet.

Robert Buckland, the justice secretary, told Sky News that he has asked his department to be "swept just in case there are unauthorized devices in there that could be a national security breach."

Hancock's successor, Sajid Javid, told reporters that the offending camera had been disabled.

Ministers past and present will tell you that if you have an important job in government, you are always at risk of being watched.

The Hancock affair could have been much worse. The existence of the camera was a mistake, there is no suggestion it was a deliberate spying attempt, and the content of the leak was not of huge national importance.

However, modern espionage often preys on weak links and amateurish mistakes. If the camera footage had been exploited by an enemy, Hancock might have been open to blackmail.

So while it may center around a politician's private life, this episode has served as an embarrassing reminder that leaks will always happen and people outside of government will always want to see them. The UK might thank its lucky stars that this time, it was about a relatively trivial matter.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Trump Threatens Retaliatory Tariffs After EU Imposes €2.95 Billion Fine on Google
Tesla Board Proposes Unprecedented One-Trillion-Dollar Performance Package for Elon Musk
US Justice Department Launches Criminal Mortgage-Fraud Probe into Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook
Escalating Drug Trafficking and Violence in Latin America: A Growing Crisis
US and Taiwanese Defence Officials Held Secret Talks in Alaska
Report: Secret SEAL Team 6 Mission in North Korea Ordered by Trump in 2019 Ended in Failure
Gold Could Reach Nearly $5,000 if Fed Independence Is Undermined, Goldman Sachs Warns
Uruguay, Colombia and Paraguay Secure Places at 2026 World Cup
Florida Murder Case: The Adelson Family, the Killing of Dan Markel, and the Trial of Donna Adelson
Trump Administration Advances Plans to Rebrand Pentagon as Department of War Instead of the Fake Term Department of Defense
Big Tech Executives Laud Trump at White House Dinner, Unveil Massive U.S. Investments
Tether Expands into Gold Sector with Profit-Driven Diversification
‘Looks Like a Wig’: Online Users Express Concern Over Kate Middleton
Brand-New $1 Million Yacht Sinks Just Fifteen Minutes After Maiden Launch in Turkey
Here’s What the FBI Seized in John Bolton Raid — and the Legal Risks He Faces
Florida’s Vaccine Revolution: DeSantis Declares War on Mandates
Trump’s New War – and the ‘Drug Tyrant’ Fearing Invasion: ‘1,200 Missiles Aimed at Us’
"The Situation Has Never Been This Bad": The Fall of PepsiCo
At the Parade in China: Laser Weapons, 'Eagle Strike,' and a Missile Capable of 'Striking Anywhere in the World'
The Fashion Designer Who Became an Italian Symbol: Giorgio Armani Has Died at 91
Putin Celebrates ‘Unprecedentedly High’ Ties with China as Gazprom Seals Power of Siberia-2 Deal
China Unveils New Weapons in Grand Military Parade as Xi Hosts Putin and Kim
Queen Camilla’s Teenage Courage: Fended Off Attempted Assault on London Train, New Biography Reveals
Scottish Brothers Set Record in Historic Pacific Row
Rapper Cardi B Cleared of Liability in Los Angeles Civil Assault Trial
Google Avoids Break-Up in U.S. Antitrust Case as Stocks Rise
Couple celebrates 80th wedding anniversary at assisted living facility in Lancaster
Information Warfare in the Age of AI: How Language Models Become Targets and Tools
The White House on LinkedIn Has Changed Their Profile Picture to Donald Trump
"Insulted the Prophet Muhammad": Woman Burned Alive by Angry Mob in Niger State, Nigeria
Trump Responds to Death Rumors – Announces 'Missile City'
Court of Appeal Allows Asylum Seekers to Remain at Essex Hotel Amid Local Tax Boycott Threats
Germany in Turmoil: Ukrainian Teenage Girl Pushed to Death by Illegal Iraqi Migrant
United Krack down on human rights: Graham Linehan Arrested at Heathrow Over Three X Posts, Hospitalised, Released on Bail with Posting Ban
Asian and Middle Eastern Investors Avoid US Markets
Ray Dalio Warns of US Shift to Autocracy
Eurozone Inflation Rises to 2.1% in August
Russia and China Sign New Gas Pipeline Deal
China's Robotics Industry Fuels Export Surge
Suntory Chairman Resigns After Police Probe
Gold Price Hits New All-Time Record
Von der Leyen's Plane Hit by Suspected Russian GPS Interference in an Incident Believed to Be Caused by Russia or by Pro-Peace or by Anti-Corruption European Activists
UK Fintechs Explore Buying US Banks
Greece Suspends 5% of Schools as Birth Rate Drops
Apollo to Launch $5 Billion Sports Investment Vehicle
Bolsonaro Trial Nears Close Amid US-Brazil Tension
European Banks Push for Lower Cross-Border Barriers
Poland's Offshore Wind Sector Attracts Investors
Nvidia Reveals: Two Mystery Customers Account for About 40% of Revenue
Woody Allen: "I Would Be Happy to Direct Trump Again in a Film"
×