TAKE MATT
Huge free speech victory as state witch-hunt into The Sun’s Matt Hancock scoop fails
A WITCH-HUNT into The Sun’s Matt Hancock scoop ended without a single charge yesterday in a huge victory for free speech.
A nine-month probe was launched after we revealed footage of the then-Health Secretary in a lockdown-breaking office clinch with aide Gina Coladangelo.
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Top lawyer Gavin Millar QC hailed the decision, saying: “It is a happy outcome but it should not have got this far.”
Experts have blasted the “wasteful” witch-hunt into the scoop.
Data watchdog the Information Commissioner’s Office launched an inquiry after we revealed the Health Secretary’s lockdown fling with his aide last May.
Officials seized phones and computers and arrested two people.
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But yesterday it closed its case without any charges, saying there was insufficient evidence of any breach.
The nine-month probe is said to have cost taxpayers at least £35,000, a nurse’s annual salary.
Tory MP Julian Knight, chair of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport committee, blasted: “This has proved to be a complete waste of time and effort.”
Sun Editor Victoria Newton said: “We welcome the closure of this investigation.
"It should never have been opened, it was an outrageous abuse of state power which risked having a chilling impact on a free press.”
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Former Justice Secretary Sir Robert Buckland added: “The public interest in the protection of journalistic sources is clear.”
A whistleblower had passed on footage of Mr Hancock in an office clinch with Gina Coladangelo during lockdown.
Shadow Culture Secretary Lucy Powell said: “The issue here is not who leaked the footage, but that Mr Hancock was caught snogging someone outside his bubble — breaking his own Covid rules.”
Human rights lawyer Gavin Millar QC said: “It was obvious from the start this was a member of the public who was angry at lockdown rules being broken, just as your readers were very, very angry.
"It is not territory for the ICO to investigate.”
As cheating Mr Hancock fought to survive, his allies tried to claim he had been targeted by Russian or Chinese spies, or that a bug was planted in his office.
The ICO resorted to its little-used powers to conduct raids.
Giving its verdict yesterday the ICO said: “After taking legal advice, the ICO concluded there was insufficient evidence to charge anyone with criminal offences under the Data Protection Act 2018.”
Mr Millar added: “The ICO’s justification for this investigation is just nonsense.
"This was about someone angry about a minister breaking the rules and acting in the public interest by passing it to a newspaper.
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“It had no implications whatsoever for the wider security of information across Government.”
Sam Armstrong, of the Henry Jackson Society think tank, added: “The cost of the investigation ought to be met by the bungling bureaucrats who ordered it.”
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