Farage Astounded Bishop Downplayed Moral Dimension to Hancock Affair, More Concerned About Covid Rules

LONDON, ENGLAND - MAY 01: Health Secretary Matt Hancock followed by Gina Coladangelo, aide
Dan Kitwood/Getty Images
Victoria Friedman

Brexit leader Nigel Farage has criticised the Church of England for its moral decay after a bishop failed to defend the institution of marriage by expressing more concern over Matt Hancock breaching social distancing rules than having had an affair that destroyed two families.

Last week, The Sun released footage of Matt Hancock, a married father of three, kissing and embracing his aide Gina Coladangelo, a married mother of three. Hancock resigned on Sunday as minister amidst accusations of hypocrisy for demanding Britons socially distance during the pandemic while not doing so himself.

Cohosting an episode of GB News’s Political Correction on Sunday, Farage had asked the Bishop of Manchester, the Right Reverand David Walker, whether there should there be a discussion over the moral issue of Mr Hancock and Ms Coladangelo having an affair, a topic almost entirely absent from the mainstream media’s reporting of the affair.

Surprisingly, the senior clergyman said: “I’m actually feeling quite sorry for Mr Hancock this morning — a middle-aged man, struggling a little in his job, he has a fling in the workplace — it’s hardly that controversial at that level, is it? And I think…had he not been the health secretary, then maybe the matter should have been left entirely private — something for the families to sort out between themselves.”

After downplaying a breach of the sacred union of marriage as “hardly that controversial”, the bishop went on to say that “what is of concern is, of course, when somebody who’s telling the rest of us how we have to behave during the pandemic then is videoed very blatantly behaving in an extremely different way… So, I think I’m more worried about the fact that he failed to keep the social distancing than I am about the fact that here is a middle-aged bloke having a bit of a fling.”

Reacting to the bishop’s remarks on Tuesday, Mr Farage said he was “disappointed” and had hoped the state church of England would offer more solid “moral and spiritual leadership”.

“I know the church is full of all sorts of oddballs, but if the Church of England cannot stand up and defend the sanctity of marriage, I wonder what the point of it is?

“It says to me why their congregations are collapsing. It is a complete failure of our established church, and I was very disappointed. I wanted to get a lecture. I wanted to come away thinking, ‘I must become a better person.’ What I got was, ‘Yeah, let it all hang out. Who gives a damn?'” Farage said.

In 2017, statistics from the British Social Attitudes survey revealed that for the first time, more than half of Britons declared that they had no faith, with just 15 per cent of those surveyed saying they identified as Church of England. Just four years before, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey, warned that England’s church is only “one generation away from extinction”.

The Church of England has embraced several left-progressive causes in the past few years, including espousing the gender neutrality of God, expressing support for illegal mass migration, and aligning itself with climate change activism.

The church also became sucked into the Black Lives Matter (BLM) agenda, and inspired by the Marxist movement, this year, commissioned a review of its memorials, stained glass, and statues for links to slavery or empire.

Last year, the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby confessed his sin of “not knowing” he had so-called “white advantage. Educational advantage. Straight advantage. Male advantage.” and then went on to claim that his own church was “still deeply institutionally racist”.

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