HANCOCK
Matthew

• 1. Early life and career
• 2. Personal life

Matthew John David Hancock is a British politician serving as Secretary of State for Health and Social Care since 2018. He previously served as Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport in 2018 for six months. A member of the Conservative Party, he has been Member of Parliament (MP) for West Suffolk since 2010.

Early life and career

Matthew John David Hancock was born on 2 October 1978 in Chester, Cheshire, to Michael Hancock and Shirley Hills (now Carter). Hancock attended Farndon County Primary School, in Farndon, Cheshire, and the independent King's School, Chester. He took A-levels in maths, physics, computing and economics. He later studied computing at the further education college, West Cheshire College. He studied at Exeter College, Oxford, and graduated with a first in Philosophy, Politics and Economics, and earned a MPhil degree in Economics at Christ's College, Cambridge a few years later. Hancock became a member of the Conservative Party in 1999.

After university, Hancock briefly worked for his family's computer software company and for a backbench Conservative MP, before moving to London to work as an economist at the Bank of England, specialising in the housing market. In 2005, he became an economic adviser to the Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne, later becoming Osborne's chief of staff.

Personal life

Hancock married Martha Hoyer Millar, an osteopath, in 2006. She is a granddaughter of Frederick Millar, 1st Baron Inchyra. They have a daughter and two sons. They live in Little Thurlow in his West Suffolk parliamentary constituency. Hancock has an older sister and a brother. He has dyslexia.

Hancock trained as a jockey in 2012 and won a horse race in his constituency town of Newmarket.

Hancock supports Newcastle United, and auctioned his 'pride and joy' signed team shirt to raise money for the NHS in May 2020.