Matt Hancock’s tell-all interview on Steven Bartlett’s Diary of a CEO podcast has been labelled ‘nauseating drivel’.
The former Health Secretary met with the Dragon’s Den star for an interview that lasted almost two hours.
In the chat, Hancock defended his now-very-public kiss with aide Gina Coladangelo, saying it was not casual sex but that he ‘fell in love’.
The tense clip from the podcast saw the MP repeatedly ask Bartlett to restart the section about his extramarital affair.
Bartlett said: “In September 2020 there was guidance given to stop us engaging in and having casual sex with people outside our household.”
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Matt Hancock appearing on the Diary of a CEO podcast. Credit: YouTube, Diary of a CEO
Hancock then interrupted him and said: “Do you think you could ask that question in a little bit more respectful way?”
He later added: “Can we just start this section again?
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“I don’t mind all of it except that opening bit about casual sex. I haven’t had casual sex with anybody, I fell in love with somebody.
“Let’s start this bit again and I’ll relax.”
Hancock said: “I resigned because I broke the social distancing guidelines. By then they weren’t actually rules, they weren’t the law, but that’s not the point.
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“The point is they were the guidelines that I’d been proposing, and that happened because I fell in love with somebody.”
The clip has been widely shared on social media today since the podcast was released.
Jim Bob edited the clip with the music from Our Tune, a long-standing feature/segment on British radio presented by broadcaster Simon Bates.
I don’t know who* added music to this but it’s brilliant. (*It was me. I’m brilliant) pic.twitter.com/GeLWP2IFVt
Another person wrote: “Oh Jesus god. I’ve just seen polo-necked Matt Hancock explaining that he broke the social distancing rules because he ‘fell in love’. And I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a nauseatingly self-indulgent clip. It could be worse than his snog video.”
Many people also had comments to make about Hancock’s outfit of a dark polo-neck top with skinny blue jeans – including Lorraine Kelly.
Lorraine said on her show this morning that he looked like a ‘pound shop Milk Tray man’ in reference to the Cadbury advert that aired between 1968 and 1984.
Manchester’s historic Portico Library secures £6.4m funding grant towards its transformation
Emily Sergeant
Manchester’s Portico Library has secured a whopping £6.4 million grant from The National Lottery Heritage Fund.
In case you missed it, ambitious plans to transform the historic Grade II-listed building on Mosely Street were already unveiled last October… but now, The National Lottery Heritage Fund has announced it is committing £6.4 million of funding towards the project, hoping that the building thrives as the UK’s most sustainable historic library for generations to come.
The grant is being described as a ‘major milestone’ in the approximately £12 million Portico Reunited project.
The Portico Reunited project will look to ‘reunite’ the historic building’s three floors for the first time in over a century, creating a fully-accessible and sustainable cultural library.
Founded all the way back in 1806, The Portico Library played a central role in Manchester’s rise as the world’s first modern city, and since then has been serving as a window into the past and a providing a place of inspiration for anyone who needs it.
The Portico Library has secured a £6.4m funding grant towards its transformation / Credit: Purcell Architecture (Supplied)
Crucially, plans will see a step-free entrance and lift installed to make the library accessible to all.
There’ll also be new exhibition and event spaces introduced as part of the scheme to explore the stories of Manchester’s communities and the city’s heritage. There will a Northern Bookshop, showcasing regional and emerging writers, and independent publishers, as well as a creative Portico Kitchen, which will celebrate the city’s food culture, writing, and history.
A place for school groups, families, and all people to explore Portico’s collection and experiment creatively also forms part of the plans.
Dr Thom Keep, Librarian and CEO of The Portico Library, called the funding grant a ‘landmark moment’ in the Portico’s ‘rich and complex history’, and a ‘huge achievement’ for its staff, trustees, volunteers, and partners.
“Thanks to National Lottery players, we can reunite this extraordinary building and make room for people to discover, learn and create together,” he added.
“We have listened to thousands of people about what the Portico could become, and their ideas and experiences have helped shape these plans.
“Our ambition is a library that belongs to the whole city – a place to discover remarkable collections, question the stories we have inherited, and create new possibilities together.”
Manchester City Council has granted planning permission and listed building consent for the project, and the building is expected to close for construction in late spring 2028 and reopen once again in early March 2030.
Following reopening, the transformed library is expected to welcome around 95,000 visitors each year.
Featured Image – Purcell Architecture (Supplied)
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New data estimates that 7.3m Oasis fans are set to miss out on 2027 tour tickets
Emily Sergeant
New data has revealed that as many as 7.3 million Oasis fans could be set to miss out on tickets to the band’s 2027 tour.
In case you need bringing up to speed a little, it was announced earlier this week that, following the unprecedented success of the reunion tour, Oasis Live ’25, last year, including five nostalgia-drenched gigs at Manchester’s Heaton Park, Oasis would be hitting the road once again in 2027, and this time around, they’re going BIG.
We’re talking 11 nights at the Etihad Stadium and a return to the iconic grounds of Knebworth for four special shows there too, kind of ‘big’.
The iconic Manchester band will also be taking to a range of other world-famous stages across the globe, including five nights at Glasgow’s Celtic Park, and major cities like Barcelona, Amsterdam, Paris, Rome, and Las Vegas.
But despite the elevated number of dates the Gallaghers and co will be performing, some new data has unfortunately revealed that millions of fans may still not be lucky enough to snag a ticket.
The ticketing system for Oasis Live ’27 is not what it was for the last tour, nor will it be similar to many other tours of a similar scale in the past either, as this time, the band and their promotors are taking necessary measures to ensure ‘genuine fans’ get their hands on the tickets and that dynamic pricing doesn’t creep in.
Instead of going into detail on that now though, you can read our full guide on how to get tickets for the Manchester and Knebworth shows here.
Experts at online ticketing platform TicketSource have analysed the scale of demand for Oasis tickets by comparing the 10 million fans worldwide who queued for the initial release of 1.4 million tickets for their 2025 tour, with the newly announced 2027 tour dates and stadium capacities.
With an estimated 2.67 million tickets available across 38 dates and 11 locations between 21 May and 19 September 2027, Oasis could still face huge demand from fans hoping to see them live.
But research reveals the band would need to play 112 Wembley-sized shows to accommodate everyone who tried to get a ticket in 2025.
The 2027 tour would accommodate just 26.7% of those who tried to get tickets last time, meaning almost three-quarters (73%) of them could miss out, leaving a shortfall of more than 7.3 million fans.
Fingers crossed you’re among the lucky lot that secure tickets, though.
Featured Image – Joshua Halling (Press Image – Supplied)
Daisy Jackson -
1st March 2022 
