Flowers are left on doorstep of Matt Hancock’s London home where his wife Martha is staying

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Matt Hancock’s wife was spotted tonight clutching her phone and still wearing her wedding ring after he announced on Twitter that he had resigned as Health Secretary.

His resignation came the day after video footage emerged of him kissing an aide in his ministerial office in a breach of coronavirus restrictions. 

Martha Hancock, 44, has maintained a dignified silence since images, and a subsequent video, were released showing her husband kissing his married aide Gina Coladangelo at the Department for Health in May.

The Health Secretary’s wife of 15 years has remained in the capital with their daughter and two sons, while Mr Hancock is believed to be staying at the family’s home in his West Suffolk constituency.

She was spotted in London walking down the street with a friend holding her phone while still wearing a wedding ring, shortly after he disgraced husband sent a letter of resignation to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, and posted a video message to Twitter. 

Earlier today, Mrs Hancock was pictured being comforted by her mother at her London home amid an outpouring of sympathy amid her husband’s scandal.  

Mrs Hancock was out on a walk with her mother Victoria Hoyer Millar, 70, when the latter threw her arms around her distraught daughter’s shoulders.

The osteopath and her antique-dealer mother were then seen linking arms as they strolled around north-west London.

Hours earlier, a bouquet of flowers was delivered to the London house.  While a note could be seen poking out of the arrangement – which was placed on the doorstep by a delivery man – it is not clear who they were from. 

Whitehall rumours claim she threw Mr Hancock – who she met at university – out over the allegations.

Mrs Hancock did not say anything to reporters today but looked pensive and sad when she stepped out for an appointment at the Luca Beauty Salon in Chamberlayne Road, North West London.

Mrs Hancock later returned to the family home.

Earlier today, a bouquet of pink peonies in a glass vase were placed on the front doorstep by a florist delivery man who arrived just after 10am. 

A card could be seen poking out of the arrangement, but it is not known who the flowers were from.

In a letter to the Prime Minister, Mr Hancock said: ‘The last thing I would want is for my private life to distract attention from the single-minded focus that is leading us out of this crisis.

‘I want to reiterate my apology for breaking the guidance, and apologise to my family and loved ones for putting them through this. I also need to be with my children at this time.’

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.’

He paid tribute to NHS staff and Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) officials and admitted that ‘we didn’t get every decision right’.

But he said: ‘I know people understand how hard it is to deal with the unknown, making the difficult trade-off between freedom, prosperity and health that we have faced.’ 

In a video posted on Twitter, Mr Hancock said: ‘I understand the enormous sacrifices that everybody in this country has made, you have made. And those of us who make these rules have got to stick by them and that’s why I’ve got to resign.’

A statement from 10 Downing Street released around 90 minutes later said: ‘The Queen has been pleased to approve the appointment of the Rt Hon Sajid Javid MP as Secretary of State for Health and Social Care.’

In response to Mr Hancock’s letter, 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.’

And he said: ‘Above all, it has been your task to deal with a challenge greater than that faced by any of your predecessors, and in fighting Covid you have risen to that challenge – with the abundant energy, intelligence, and determination that are your hallmark.’

On Saturday Conservative MPs began to break ranks to call for Mr Hancock to go.

Veteran Tory Sir Christopher Chope said his constituents were ‘seething’.

Norfolk Norfolk MP Duncan Baker said: ‘In my view people in high public office and great positions of responsibility should act with the appropriate morals and ethics that come with that role.’

Mr Johnson had refused to sack Mr Hancock, with his spokesman saying the PM considered the matter closed after receiving the West Suffolk MP’s apology on Friday.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer tweeted: ‘Matt Hancock is right to resign. But Boris Johnson should have sacked him.’ 

Shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth said: ‘It is right that Matt Hancock has resigned. But why didn’t Boris Johnson have the guts to sack him and why did he say the matter was closed?

‘Boris Johnson has demonstrated that he has none of the leadership qualities required of a Prime Minister.’

Liberal Democrats’ leader Sir Ed Davey tweeted: ‘Matt Hancock’s legacy as Health Secretary will be one of cronyism and failure.

‘And the fact that Boris Johnson thought Hancock could just carry on regardless brings the Prime Minister’s judgement into question once again.’

Mr Hancock’s three-year tenure as health secretary came to an end after The Sun newspaper published stills of what appeared to be CCTV footage from inside his ministerial office of him kissing Ms Coladangelo.

Ms Coladangelo, a friend from Mr Hancock’s days at Oxford University, was brought into DHSC as an unpaid adviser last year before being given the £15,000-a-year role of non-executive director in the department.

Legislation in place at the time said that ‘no person may participate in a gathering’ that ‘consists of two or more people… and takes place indoors’.

An exception to this rule was that the gathering was ‘reasonably necessary for work purposes or for the provision of voluntary or charitable services’.

Tory MPs and ministers will also have been eyeing the by-election in Batley and Spen next week.

Christchurch MP Sir Christopher told the BBC the impact on the West Yorkshire vote was on his mind.

Labour MP for Halifax, Holly Lynch, had been preparing to write an open letter to Conservative MPs and the Tory candidate in the election, Ryan Stephenson, challenging them to tell Mr Hancock to resign.

Before he did, Sir Christopher told Radio 4’s PM programme: ‘Of course I feel that. And that’s another reason why I think that the sooner he goes the better, because otherwise the last few days of the campaign are going to be dominated by this issue and it’s obviously not going to be very helpful for the Conservatives.’