SAJID Javid will will replace Matt Hancock as Health Secretary, Downing Street has announced.
The former Chancellor and Home Secretary will take on the role after video footage emerged of Hancock kissing an aide in his ministerial office in a breach of coronavirus restrictions.
Images and video showed Hancock in an embrace with aide Gina Coladangelo last month, and the Health Secretary was facing increasing pressure to quit over the breaking of social-distancing rules.
READ MORE: Matt Hancock resigns as Health Secretary after kissing scandal
Hancock wrote to Boris Johnson on Saturday and said: “The last thing I would want is for my private life to distract attention from the single-minded focus that is leading up out of this crisis.”
He said: “We owe it to people who have sacrificed so much in this pandemic to be honest when we have let them down as I have done by breaching the guidance.”
In response, the Prime Minister wrote: “You should leave office very proud of what you have achieved – not just in tackling the pandemic, but even before Covid-19 struck us.”
WATCH: Matt Hancock explains his decision to resign over alleged affair
Johnson had refused to sack Hancock, with his spokesman saying the PM considered the matter closed after receiving the West Suffolk MP’s apology on Friday.
Ian Blackford, the SNP's Westminster leader, said Scotland should "say goodbye to the chaos and failure of UK leadership".
He tweeted: “Massive failure of leadership by @BorisJohnson Hancock should have been sacked. A fish rots from its head. So does this UK Government.
“In Scotland of course we will face a choice on our future. We can say goodbye to the chaos and failure of UK leadership and take a step forward.”
READ MORE: Ian Blackford renews calls for independence as Matt Hancock resigns as Health Secretary
The party’s Westminster deputy leader Kirsten Oswald said there are “very serious questions” for Hancock and the incident cannot “simply be brushed under the carpet”.
Shadow Scottish secretary Ian Murray also earlier joined those pushing for Hancock to be go, saying if Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross “had any backbone” he join the calls.
Throughout the row Ross’s Scottish Tories have kept tight-lipped.
A snap poll by Savanta ComRes, released hours after photographs of the pair kissing in Hancock’s ministerial office surfaced, found 58% of UK adults feel he should resign, compared to 25% who say he should not.
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