Matt Hancock is enjoying a little holiday in the Swiss Alps – come on, he’s earnt it

So what if he oversaw one of the worst Covid death rates in the world – and resigned for having an affair with his aide, breaking his own social distancing guidelines in the process?

Matt Hancock, you may remember, was once the health secretary. He, alas, appears to have forgotten this. Apparently no recollection at all of his department’s disastrous response to the pandemic; of the 133,000 dead; of being called “totally f**king hopeless” by the prime minister; of crying on national television; of running away from reporters. None of this stuff appears to be logged in Matt Hancock’s mind. It can’t be, right? Surely there is no way a man carrying such heavy burdens could look this carefree? But then again, this is Matt Hancock. He doesn’t always play by the rules.

So what if he oversaw one of the worst Covid death rates in the world? Matt Hancock needs a little holiday. So what if he resigned for having an affair with his aide Gina Coladangelo, breaking his own social distancing guidelines in the process? Hell, Matt Hancock will take her with him. You sort of have to respect it. Here is a “Live Laugh Love” poster in human form.

The photographs of Hancock’s £87-a-night holiday to the Swiss Alps, published in the Daily Express, are quite something. He is wearing a dreadful baseball cap and a striped shirt, which may or not be from Oliver Bonas, and can be seen mooching about in a pretty town (lots of wooden railings) with Coladangelo and their expensive-looking pals.

In one glorious shot, while the rest of the group share a joke, Hancock can be seen to one side, alone, struggling to work out how to put a jumper on. Head first, Matt, that’s right. Was this what cabinet meetings were like? “Hang on, that graph is the wrong way up. So Covid deaths aren’t going down, after all?”

The post-cabinet fun is only just beginning for Hancock, too. Just a couple of days ago, he announced on Twitter that he “was going to run the London Marathon for the very first time”. And who can blame him? What better time to start ticking off that bucket list than in the months after screwing up the country’s Covid response so badly that the prime minister seriously considered replacing you with Michael Gove?

Not everyone agrees, of course. You can gauge how the public feels about Hancock’s jolly marathon attempt from some of the comments on his JustGiving page. Most don’t belong in a family newspaper, but it’s only fair to give you a flavour. One donation, registered (we assume not seriously) under the name Dom Raab, includes the following message: “Matty, come back please. I’m the weakest link now and think BJ will get rid of me next!”

Here’s the thing, though. It is quite funny to see Matt Hancock dressed in sub-Blue Harbour clobber in the Swiss Alps. And it is quite funny to read the comments on his JustGiving page. But Hancock’s behaviour really isn’t that funny at all. He was a disastrous health secretary – I mean, really, really bad – and one day, I hope, a Covid inquiry will properly hold him to account.

Yet none of this seems to matter. Failure in politics is little more than a hiccup (though not for those who died of Covid, of course). Matt Hancock looks happier than ever. That was then; this is now. Get over it. Something has gone seriously wrong with our political system when catastrophic failure, an affair and a humiliating resignation leads to... well, nothing.

To my mind, if you ever needed confirmation that politics is just a big game to many Tories, a chance to have a go at the controls, look no further than the photograph of Matt Hancock grinning from under a baseball cap in the Swiss Alps. Does he care? Probably not.