Matt Hancock: Lancashire man, 61, charged with assaulting former Health Secretary on London Underground

A man has been charged with assaulting former health secretaryMatt Hancock on the London Underground.

Geza Tarjanyi, 61, from Leyland, Lancashire, will appear in court next month charged with common assault and two public order offences, British Transport Police said. The MP who appeared on I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! is understood to have been unhurt in Tuesday’s (24 January) incident which began at Westminster station before continuing on a Tube train.

A spokesman for Hancock, who represents West Suffolk, said it was an “unpleasant encounter”.

British Transport Police said they received a report of a man being “assaulted and harassed” at the station next to the House of Commons before 9am. “A 61-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of common assault and a public order offence and remains in custody,” the force said. Inquiries are ongoing.

Hancock’s spokesman said: “Both Transport for London staff and the British Transport Police were fantastic and the man has since been arrested.” He added “this sort of behaviour is a rare occurrence” and stressed the “importance of shutting down baseless misinformation which causes so much harm”.

“Matt wants to put on record his thanks to TfL and the British Transport Police for their extraordinary work,” the spokesman added.

Video circulating online showed a transport worker supporting the MP throughout much of the incident. Hancock, 44, was health secretary when the coronavirus pandemic struck and was a key figure in the lockdown restrictions and vaccine rollout that followed.

He resigned after leaked CCTV image showed him kissing an adviser in his office, in breach of his own social distancing guidance. Hancock angered colleagues and constituents by jetting to the Australian jungle to appear on the reality show but won some sympathy from TV voters to come third.

Having been stripped of the Conservative whip over the appearance, he said he would not contest his seat at the next election when he will step down.