Man charged with assaulting Matt Hancock

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

Geza Tarjanyi, 61, from Leyland in Lancashire, will appear in court next month accused with three offences relating to the MP, British Transport Police (BTP) said on Thursday.

A charge of common assault and a public order offence relate to what Mr Hancock’s spokesman described as an “unpleasant encounter” that began at Westminster station on Tuesday morning before continuing on a Tube train.

Tarjanyi was also charged with a second public order offence relating to the MP for West Suffolk, which took place on January 19 in nearby Parliament Street.

BTP acted after receiving a report of a man being “assaulted and harassed” at the station next to the House of Commons before 9am on Tuesday.

Tarjanyi was released on bail to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on February 22.

After the arrest, Mr 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 that “this sort of behaviour is a rare occurrence” and stressed the “importance of shutting down baseless misinformation which causes so much harm”.

Mr 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 images showed him kissing an adviser in his office, in breach of his own social distancing guidance.

Mr Hancock also angered colleagues and constituents by flying to the Australian jungle to appear on I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! but won some sympathy from TV voters to come third.

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