Matt Hancock’s TikTok journey continues – and it looks like one video in particular is really... engaging people.
In the clip, posted on Friday – December 9 – Hancock celebrated the two-year anniversary of the first ever Covid vaccine being administered.
“I can’t believe it,” says the former health secretary, staring directly at the camera while standing very close to it. “Two years ago today that we did the first vaccine in the world in Coventry.”
“And then I cried on TV. So embarrassing,” a deadpan Hancock concludes, a reference to the excruciating Good Morning Britain interview where the then-cabinet minister seemed to wipe a tear away on live TV.
It was heavily criticised at the time, with many accusing him of pretending to cry.
This new 14-second clip might be short but it’s turned out to be quite popular on TikTok, earning more than 117,400 likes and 1.9 million views over the weekend.
Just to recap, Hancock quit the cabinet at the height of the Covid pandemic for breaching his own social distancing rules in his office with an aide and has worked as a backbencher since.
He recently went on I’m A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here! which meant he lost the Tory whip and faced criticism for abandoning his own constituents. He is standing as an independent MP in the Commons right now.
He also just announced plans to leave his political career behind, vowing “to do things differently”.
“I have discovered a whole new world of possibilities which I am excited to explore – new ways for me to communicate with people of all ages and from all backgrounds,” Hancock said in his resignation letter.
And it seems TikTok may just have become one of these new outlets for Hancock to “communicate” with the public.
Watch the video yourself here:
Re-shared on Twitter by palliative care doctor Rachel Clarke, it accumulated more than a million views in just a few days.
She attached the caption: “So this is what Matt Hancock’s doing on TikTok these days, and it’s... quite something.”
And, plenty of people agreed.
Although it was only posted on Friday, the politician has posted two more videos since.
In one, Hancock is seen laughing and joking with his former I’m A Celeb campmates, saying: “This is the first day of the rest of my life.”
Comedian Seann Walsh and musician Boy George then break out into hysterics, in a clip which secured more than two million views on TikTok but didn’t seem to break across into the Twitter-sphere.
He also shared another clip on Sunday morning, showing him dancing at the Jingle Bell Ball with presenter Scarlette Douglas and Owen Warner.