Piers Morgan: Matt Hancock clashes with Good Morning Britain host and refuses to apologise for breaking the law

Matt Hancock has clashed with Good Morning Britain host Piers Morgan on Tuesday morning, and refused to apologise for breaking UK transparency laws.

Last week, a judge found the Health Secretary had “breached his legal obligation” by not releasing details of publicly awarded contracts quickly enough.

Since the start of the pandemic, the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) has faced accusations of cronyism after striking deals worth hundreds of millions of pounds with private contractors.

Under the transparency law, the government must publish a "contract award notice" within 30 days of the awarding any contracts for public goods or services worth more than £120,000.

On Tuesday, Mr Hancock locked horns with the Good Morning Britain host in a live interview, and said his department had to learn “the right lessons” from the ruling.

“If we learnt the lesson that we should put paperwork ahead of saving lives that will be the wrong lesson.

“That's why I take the approach I do.”

But Mr Morgan interjected: “We just expect our cabinet ministers to abide by the law. I don't think it's too much to expect.

“And if you do get caught breaking the law, we just expect you to say sorry.”

He added: “You don't agree. We'll have to disagree.”

“That's a fair summary of the situation,” replied the Health Secretary.

In his ruling on Friday, Mr Justice Chamberlain called the DHSC breach a “historic failure”.

He said: “There is also no dispute that the secretary of state failed to publish redacted contracts in accordance with the transparency policy."

He added: "The public were entitled see who this money was going to, what it was being spent on and how the relevant contracts were awarded."

Green Party MP Caroline Lucas, who supported the legal case against Mr Hancock, also criticised his claim that the DHSC had done the “right thing”.

Ms Lucas tweeted: "How dare Hancock suggest he broke [the] law to prevent shortages of PPE on the frontline?

"Health workers died for lack of [the] right PPE at [the] right time because of incompetence, cronyism and waste - does he think our memories are so short?"

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