The Tories have said Matt Hancock’s affair with a close aide which broke Covid rules contributed to the party’s by-election defeat in Batley and Spen.

But Keir Starmer and Labour sources sought to play down the impact of the former health secretary’s resignation, after Boris Johnson refused demands to sack him.

The prime minister initially stood by Hancock after CCTV footage emerged of him kissing Gina Coladangelo in his office but the minister was forced to resign the following day after Tory MPs made clear his position had become untenable.

Labour’s Kim Leadbeater won in Batley and Spen, the constituency previously held by her murdered sister Jo Cox, by just 323 votes after a bitter and divisive campaign that many had predicted the party would lose.

Conservative Party chair Amanda Milling said Hancock’s conduct was an issue in the final days of the by-election campaign.

“It was something that came up on the doorstep, I have to be honest about that. They (voters) had some issues over the weekend in terms of what happened,” she told Sky News.

She added: “I know the public will be incredibly frustrated because at the end of the day we have all made a huge number of sacrifices. But Matt did the right thing by resigning. The matter is now closed.”

One local Tory source also admitted that the Hancock affair did not help the party’s chances.

But Labour leader Keir Starmer said: “I don’t think that it played a huge part. 

“What I’ve been struck by walking round the streets and being in Batley and Spen with Kim is just how positive she is, and how many people who would normally vote for other parties know her and respect her for the work she has done through the Jo Cox foundation. She is of the community and for the community.”

Christopher Furlong via Getty Images

Labour sources told HuffPost UK there was evidence that Tory voters had switched to their party in the by-election.

One campaigner said George Galloway’s supporters’ divisive intimidation of Leadbeater – captured on camera this week – was a turning point in the campaign and “made Tories switch to us in the villages outside Batley”.

Another source said that was only part of the story in an “against all the odds” victory.

“A lot of Tories voted Kim because of her local credentials or her local record. 

“Plus we were talking about the things they were talking about.

“It’s a broad range of successes on our part.

“We also ran an excellent campaign, particularly the ground game – it was very much the Labour Party at its best.”

YouGov’s Patrick English told HuffPost UK that Hancock was likely a factor in the election as data shows that the vast majority of people were aware of the story.

But he said both Labour and the Tories could be right “in so far as it’s part of a wider story of government approval drifting back out over recent weeks”.

“People are less happy with the job Boris Johnson and his government have been doing than they were a few months ago.

“The Hancock revelations are like one card in that pack.”

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Matt Hancock put “all of us across the UK first” by resigning as health secretary after being caught breaking his own Covid rules and deserves “credit”, a cabinet minister has claimed.

Hancock quit on Saturday following the leaking of video footage showing him breaking social distancing rules by kissing an aide in his ministerial office.

He has been replaced as health secretary by former chancellor Sajid Javid.

Brandon Lewis, the Northern Ireland secretary, said on Hancock had rightly apologised.

“I think it’s a credit to Matt that his first thought is around making sure the country and the government can continue to do the work that we need to do as we are moving out of the Covid pandemic,” he told Sky News’ Trevor Phillips On Sunday programme.

“I think in doing that he has put his family and indeed, all of us across the UK first, because he wants to focus as the PM does, as we all do, to be getting out of this pandemic in the best possible way and as quickly as we can.”

Anneliese Dodds, the chair of the Labour Party, said it “speaks volumes about the total lack of integrity at the heart of Boris Johnson’s government” that Lewis could think Hancock deserved credit for resigning. 

“Hancock’s record includes wasting huge sums of taxpayers’ money, leaving care homes exposed and breaking his own Covid rules,” she said. “If Boris Johnson had any backbone, he would have removed​ him.” 

Reports suggested Hancock was made aware of the footage on Thursday evening, and he apologised on Friday following its publication but did not immediately resign.

No 10 said Johnson considered the matter closed following Hancock’s apology, but pressure mounted throughout the day and into Saturday, and Conservative MPs began to call for Hancock to go.

By just after 6pm on Saturday, Hancock said he had been to see Johnson to tender his resignation as his personal life threatened to distract from the pandemic effort.

And less than two hours later Javid had been confirmed in the post.

Jacob King – PA Images via Getty Images

Labour’s deputy leader has said an investigation will be launched into who made a “completely unacceptable” claim anti-Semitism among Muslim voters was costing the party votes.

The Mail on Sunday quoted a “senior Labour official” as having said Labour was “haemorrhaging votes among Muslim voters” in the run-up to the Batley and Spen by-election on July 1.

“The reason for that is what Keir [Starmer] has been doing on anti-Semitism.” the source told the newspaper.

“Nobody really wants to talk about it, but that’s the main factor. He challenged [Jeremy] Corbyn on it, and there’s been a backlash among certain sections of the community.”

Angela Rayner said in response: “I want to make clear publicly that these comments that are being attributed to a member of Labour Party staff in a newspaper today are not a Labour Party response or statement, are completely unacceptable and are not condoned or sanctioned in any way by the party.

“Anybody who has made these comments should and will be dealt with in line with our independent disciplinary procedures, which I have no role in as deputy leader.”

The Labour Muslim Network also condemned the “patently vile, Islamophobic briefing”.

“This racism needs to be challenged urgently and publicly by the Labour leadership and the party as a whole,” the group said.

“There can be no hiding behind the anonymity of the source and briefing.”

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Matt Hancock “isn’t useless at all”, justice secretary Robert Buckland has said.

Dominic Cummings, Boris Johnson’s former chief adviser, last week revealed a series of WhatsApp messages between himself and the prime minister.

One exchange included Johnson describing Hancock as “totally f****** hopeless” while discussing testing early in the coronavirus pandemic.

Speaking to Sky News’ Trevor Phillips on Sunday, Buckland said Hancock was “a most useful and dynamic health secretary who enjoys our full support”.

Asked “just how useless” Hancock was, the justice secretary said: ”He isn’t useless at all. 

“I’ve known him for many years and I’ve seen him step up to the plate throughout this crisis, working tirelessly on our behalf to make sure that our response to Covid, the health service response, the health response was as vigorous as possible. 

“It’s been a huge challenge for him, a huge challenge for all of us but to bandy around words like that I think does nobody any service at all.”

John Bercow, the former Commons Speaker who has defected from the Conservative Party to Labour, also gave Phillips his view of Hancock.

“Well I think it would be fair for me to say that I would buy Matt at my valuation and sell him at his and realise a healthy profit in the process,” the former Tory MP told Phillips.

Boris Johnson has defended flying to Cornwall for the G7 summit at which he is expected to urge world leaders to take more action against climate change.

The prime minister spoke in Newquay having flown from London after PMQs on Wednesday.

A journey to the region would take around four hours by rail, a much greener form of transport, or around five hours by car.

I’ve arrived in Cornwall for this year’s @G7 where I’ll be asking my fellow leaders to rise to the challenge of beating the pandemic and building back better, fairer and greener.

It will be a busy and important Summit, and I can’t wait to get started.#G7UKpic.twitter.com/H4VSQ2SCD6

— Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) June 9, 2021

France has recently moved to ban short-haul internal flights where train alternatives exist in a bid to reduce carbon (CO2) emissions.

Around 2.4% of the world’s CO2 emissions come from aviation.

But Johnson defended his 250-mile plane journey as he arrived in Cornwall, where he is hoping to help pave the way for an ambitious climate deal at the key Cop26 summit in Glasgow later this year.

The PM told reporters: “If you attack my arrival by plane. 

“I respectfully point out that the UK is actually in the lead in developing sustainable aviation fuel and one of the points in the 10-point plan for our green industrial revolution is to get to jet zero as well as net zero.”

Johnson will meet US president Joe Biden for their first face-to-face talks on Thursday before the summit begins on Friday.