MATT HANCOCK’S failure to resign over his ministerial code breach sets a precedent that rules do not apply and gives ministers free rein to break the rules, Labour said today.

The warning follows Lord Geidt’s investigation, which found that the Health Secretary broke the code by failing to declare his stake in a family firm that received NHS contracts, but said it fell short of being a resigning matter.

In March in the MPs’ register of interests Mr Hancock declared that he owns 20 per cent of shares in Topwood Ltd, a firm owned by his sister and other close family members that specialises in secure storage, shredding and scanning of documents.

The company won a place on a framework to provide services to the English NHS in 2019, as well as contracts with the NHS in Wales: Mr Hancock was appointed to his Cabinet brief in July 2018.

Lord Geidt, the government’s recently appointed independent adviser on ministers’ interests, found that the awarding of the contract to Topwood could be seen to represent a conflict of interest that should have been declared.

He said the failure to declare the link at the time was a “technical” breach of the rules. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who makes the final decision on breaches of the rules, said no further action was required in the case.

Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner wrote to Lord Geidt today to warn that his conclusion “sends a very clear message that the rules don’t apply to Cabinet ministers.”

In the letter, Ms Rayner argued that this precedent damages public trust in Britain’s politics, fundamentally weakens the ministerial code system and gives carte blanche to other ministers to also break the rules safe in the knowledge that they will not face sanctions.

Ms Rayner said that Lord Geidt’s assertion that the Health Secretary had been justified in not declaring the “blatant and glaring conflict of interest” is not believable or reasonable.

Earlier, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer condemned Mr Johnson and his ministers for being too busy covering their own backs to address the threat posed by the so-called Indian variant of Covid-19.

Following former Downing Street adviser Dominic Cummings’s explosive evidence to MPs last week about the handling of the pandemic, Sir Keir said that mistakes are being repeated as the government considers whether to further ease restrictions.