Former UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock's United Nations role withdrawn
October 16, 2021, 12:15 pm

Former UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock's United Nations role withdrawn

Matt Hancock-Former UK Health Secretary/Matt Hancock official Facebook page

The BBC reported, former Health Secretary Matt Hancock has had a job offer from the United Nations withdrawn.

It said, Mr Hancock tweeted earlier this week that he had been given a role helping Africa's economy recover from Covid.

This UN said Mr Hancock would bring valuable experience to the role - but it has now told him the appointment "is not being taken forward".

The BBC mentioned, leading figures across Africa and UK opposition parties had criticised the UN's choice of the MP for the role.

It added that Mr Hancock was not available for comment.

On Tuesday, the former health secretary tweeted a copy of the letter from UN Under-Secretary General Vera Songwe offering him the unpaid role.

He was congratulated by former cabinet colleagues, including Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, Housing Secretary Michael Gove and Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries.

But the West Suffolk MP faced a backlash from critics on social media, who pointed to the fact that a highly critical report from MPs on the UK government's handling of the pandemic had been released on the same day.

Mr Hancock's new role came four months after he resigned from his cabinet post for breaking social distancing guidelines by kissing a colleague.

He had been planning to continue as a Tory MP while working as the UN special representative on financial innovation and climate change for the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa.

In her letter to Mr Hancock offering him the job, Ms Songwe said his "success" in handling the UK's pandemic response was a testament to the strengths he would bring to the role.

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In his reply, the MP said: "As we recover from the pandemic so we must take this moment to ensure Africa can prosper."

According to the BBC, the withdrawal of the offer was welcomed by campaign group Global Justice Now.

The group's director Nick Dearden said: "If Matt Hancock wants to help African countries recover from the pandemic, he should lobby the prime minister to back a patent waiver on Covid-19 vaccines.

"If he'd done that when he was in government, tens of millions more people could already have been vaccinated.

"The last thing the African continent needs is a failed British politician. This isn't the 19th Century."

Source: BBC

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Upon arriving to participate in the summit of the European Political Community, which includes around forty heads of state in Budapest, he said, "I look forward to sitting with the elected U.S. president and seeing how we will collectively ensure we meet challenges, including the threats from Russia and North Korea." He also noted that the strengthening of ties between Russia and North Korea poses a threat to the United States as well, according to reports from Agence France-Presse.

Before Trump's victory, Rutte expressed confidence that a united Washington would remain part of the defensive alliance, even if Trump became the 47th president of the United States. In an interview with German public broadcaster ZDF last Monday night, he stated that both Republicans and Democrats understand that NATO serves not only the security of Europe but also that of America. He added that both candidates are aware that the security of the United States is closely tied to NATO.

On Wednesday, NATO congratulated Trump on his victory but did not address the Ukrainian issue.

It is noteworthy that the relationship between the elected U.S. president and the defense alliance was not the best during his first term in the White House. Trump criticized NATO member states multiple times and even hinted at withdrawing from the alliance unless they increased their financial contributions.

Additionally, the issue of the Russian-Ukrainian war is one of the matters that complicate relations between the two sides, especially since Trump has repeatedly stated that he can end this ongoing conflict, which began in 2022, quickly. He implied that he had a peace plan between Kyiv and Moscow, while his vice president, JD Vance, revealed aspects of that plan, which stipulated Ukraine's commitment not to join NATO, thereby sending reassuring signals to the Russians.

Furthermore, many NATO member states in Europe fear that Trump might halt military aid to Ukraine after he previously criticized the U.S. for pouring funds into supporting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.