How did Matt Hancock and Gina Coladangelo meet?

Pair first met at Oxford University and have remained friends ever since

It all started at Oxford University, when the two became friends through their involvement with student radio.

He went on to climb the greasy pole at Westminster but she was never far away, working as the director of a lobbying firm in the capital.

Matt Hancock and Gina Coladangelo have remained close friends ever since their university days.

The pair began working together in March last year when the health secretary secretly hired his long-time friend as an unpaid adviser, before appointing her as non-executive director of the department of health just months later.

Mr Hancock and Ms Coladangelo were subsequently often pictured arriving together at Downing Street press conferences.

And on 5 July they were spotted side-by-side turning up to BBC Brodcasting House for Andrew Marr's Sunday morning political show.

Health secretary and aide at the BBC on a separate occasion (AFP via Getty Images)

Today, it is another picture which reveals the pair's relationship may have strayed into something more than a friendship.

An image first published by The Sun appears to show Mr Hancock and Ms Coladangelo sharing an embrace inside a Whitehall office.

After insisting no rules had been broken, Mr Hancock has apologised for the lockdown breach, but is yet to address questions about the alleged tryst.

Prime minister Boris Johnson has since said he has "full confidence" in his health secretary and considers the "personal" matter closed.

Mr Hancock has had a difficult time of late, facing accusations by his former colleague Dominic Cummings that he lied repeatedly throughout his handling of the Covid pandemic, which he denies.

Recounting a tale from their student days in an interview with the BBC in April 2020, Ms Coladangelo revealed that Mr Hancock may have on at least one occasion had an elastic relationship with the truth.

She said the future health secretary, who covered sport for the student radio station, told a "white lie" after he had "overslept" on the day he was supposed to be covering a rugby match.

"He got one of these special tickets to go and sit in the press box... at Twickenham to watch a big match... and actually overslept," Ms Coladangelo said.

"He hot-footed it to the train but didn't make it back to Twickenham in time from Oxford so had to get off the train at Reading, find a pub, watch the first in the pub and then go to a phone box outside and report in.

"So he told a white lie, pretended he was at Twickenham... when he was in fact at a pub in Reading.

"Successfully nobody ever found out."