'Did your dyslexia make you misread social distancing rules?' Phillip Schofield takes down Matt Hancock on 'This Morning'

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Matt Hancock faced awkward questions in a This Morning interview about his dyslexia as Phillip Schofield asked whether it had been responsible for him misreading social distancing rules.

The former Health Secretary joined Schofield and Holly Willoughby on Tuesday morning to talk about his own experiences of being dyslexic and his new campaign calling for dyslexia screening for all primary school children.

It started well, as Willoughby related to Hancock over her own dyslexia diagnosis, but things took a cringeworthy turn when Schofield called him out on the controversy that ended his time as Health Secretary.

He asked: "Was it your dyslexia that meant you misread the social distancing rules?"

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The question referred to Hancock being caught cheating on his wife with aide Gina Coladangelo in CCTV footage which showed them kissing at his Whitehall office earlier this year when he had been promoting social distancing rules that stated those not in a household bubble should stay two metres apart to slow the spread of COVID.

An awkward-looking Hancock answered: “No, I can’t blame that on dyslexia or anything else. In fact, I’m not asking for any special favours because I’m dyslexic. In politics I’ve got some things to offer.

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"In that case, that was a mistake and I’ve apologised for it. It was a failure of leadership because I came on shows like this and asked people to do things and then I didn’t follow those rules myself.”

The affair scandal saw Hancock lose his key government role and he is now working as a backbench MP.

Schofield asked whether he wished he was still at the forefront of dealing with the pandemic and he answered: "I think that Sajid Javid, who’s doing the job, is doing an excellent job.”

As Schofield asked: “Better than you?” Hancock replied: "Who knows? Because there’s so many uncertainties and new things hitting us like the new Omicron variant, but I think he’s doing a great job.

"But, you know, in those jobs, the pressures are big but that’s no excuse. It was a failure of leadership on my part and I’ve apologised for that."

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