Matt Hancock: Man charged with assaulting former health secretary

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

Geza Tarjanyi, 61 and from Leyland, Lancashire, has been charged with common assault and two public order offences, British Transport Police said.

He has been released on bail and will appear in court next month.

The MP is not thought to have been hurt in the incident, which took place on Tuesday.

Mr Tarjanyi was arrested the following day, after police received a report of a man being "assaulted and harassed" at Westminster station, close to the House of Commons. The encounter continued on a Tube train.

In a statement on Wednesday, Mr Hancock's spokesman praised Transport for London staff and the British Transport Police for their response to the incident.

He added that "this sort of behaviour is a rare occurrence".

Mr Tarjanyi was also charged with a second public order offence, over a separate incident related to Mr Hancock, which took place on nearby Parliament Street on 19 January.

Mr Hancock, the MP for West Suffolk, currently sits as an independent and announced last month that he would not seek re-election.

He was suspended as a Conservative MP last year after signing up for the ITV reality show I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here, which saw him trade Westminster for the Australian jungle.

The 44-year-old became a household name in spring 2020, at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, when he regularly spoke for the government as health secretary under then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

He was forced to resign from his job the following year, after images emerged showing him kissing one of his advisers, Gina Coladangelo, who later became his partner.

He admitted breaking social distancing guidance.

Following his appearance on I'm a Celebrity he announced that he would not be standing to be an MP in the next general election, saying he would instead "engage with the public in new ways".