Matt Hancock says his bright red office is a ‘soothing boudoir’

Some viewers found the remark funny, while others questioned whether it was a distraction tactic

Health Secretary Matt Hancock described his bright red office as ‘soothing’ and ‘like a boudoir’ in an interview Monday.

Mr Hancock was quizzed about the bold decor choice by Holly Willoughby and Philip Schofield on ITV’s This Morning, who noted the reaction it got on All4’s Gogglebox.

Willoughby noted that lots of people had mentioned it was a “brave choice of paint,” but the health secretary adamantly defended the choice.

“I love my office,” he said.

When Willoughby asked if he found the shade of red to be quite an “angry” one, Mr Hancock’s response seemed to startle Schofield.

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“No, no, it’s like a boudoir,” he said. “It’s soothing.”

The Cambridge Dictionary defined boudoir as “a beautifully decorated room used in the past by a woman for sleeping, dressing, relaxing, and entertaining.”

Taken aback, Schofield asked: “What have you just said?”

The quote garnered a mixed response from This Morning viewers online, with some “feeling queasy” after hearing his description of the office and others finding it humorous. 

“Never thoughtMatt Hancock would make me laugh out loud #boudoir#ThisMorning,” one Twitter user wrote.

Another wrote: “I’d rather not hear the words ‘boudoir’ and ‘Matt Hancock’ in the same sentence.”

Other viewers predicted the following furore from the quote, saying it was an “amazingly easy way to change the narrative from the fact that he has awarded millions of pounds in PPE deals to friends and unqualified businesses.”

In February, a High Court judge ruled that the health secretary had acted unlawfully by handing out coronavirus contracts without publishing details in a timely way.

A ruling released by the High Court found: “There is now no dispute that, in a substantial number of cases, the secretary of state breached his legal obligation to publish Contract Award Notices (CANs) within 30 days of the award of contracts.”

It added that the health secretary had spent “vast quantities of public money on pandemic-related procurements during 2020” and that if the government had complied with its legal obligations, anyone with concerns about the spending of taxpayer money would have been able to scrutinise the CANs freely.