A 61-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of assaulting Matt Hancock at a London Tube station.
The alleged attack took place when the former Health Minister was approached yesterday morning at Westminster Underground station and harassed.
The incident was caught on video and showed the man following the politician who appeared on I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here late last year.
The attacker repeatedly calls Hancock a "murderer" and "fraud", attacking the MP's handling the coronavirus pandemic.
🚨 | BREAKING: A 61-year-old man has been arrested for allegedly ASSAULTING Matt Hancock on the Tube pic.twitter.com/Skg11Yjpiz
— Politics UK (@POLITlCSUK) January 25, 2023
In a statement, the British Transport Police said that officers were called over reports of a man being harassed just before 9 am.
In the video, one station staff member can be heard repeatedly telling the man: "Please stop doing this."
Hancock, who appeared to be pushed by the man when at the top of an escalator, told someone sitting next to him: "I don't think this aggression is appropriate."
All of this was captured on a 10-minute video recorded and shared on social media by the suspect.
British Transport Police said of the incident: "We received a report of a man being assaulted and harassed at Westminster Underground station at 8.47am yesterday morning (January 24).
"A 61-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of common assault and a public order offence and remains in custody. Enquiries into the incident are ongoing."
A spokesperson for Hancock added that the MP had been subject to a "very aggressive and unpleasant encounter".
Adding: "Matt wants to put on record his thanks to TFL and the British Transport Police for their extraordinary work."
He said: "this sort of behaviour is a rare occurrence" and pointed out how important it is to combat "baseless misinformation which causes so much harm".
Matt Hanock was the Health Minister from 2018 to 2021 and held this position throughout much of the Covid pandemic.
However, he was forced to resign after footage of him kissing a government advisor, something that was against his social distancing guidance, was shared.
He also appeared on ITV's I'm A Celebrity last year and came in third behind Jill Scott and Owen Warner.
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