Election 2019: Government adviser in altercation as health secretary visits Leeds General Hospital

A government special adviser has been involved in an altercation at Leeds General Hospital, during a visit by health secretary Matt Hancock.

Hancock had been dispatched to the hospital after pictures emerged of a four-year old boy with suspected pneumonia sleeping on the hospital floor with coats for cover.

However, Labour activists then turned up at the hospital in order to protest the Conservatives who are blamed for cutting resources to the NHS as a result of austerity.

Multiple journalists have reported the incident, which appears to have occurred after the two groups met.

Hancock’s intervention comes after Prime Minister Boris Johnson was criticised for his tone-deaf response to the picture of Jack Williment-Barr.

Johnson has repeatedly dodged the matter, instead offering a general apologie to anyone who has had a bad experience in A&E. He has also pledged to invest more in the NHS, and framed it as an issue relating to the Brexit delay.

Johnson even took a journalist’s phone away during an interview, rather than look at the picture.

Main image: Getty