Man who attacked Matt Hancock in London Tube, arrested

The man who assaulted former Health Secretary Matt Hancock in Tube has been arrested and charged.

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

He was let out on bail, and he will go to court next month. The incident, which happened on Tuesday, is not thought to have hurt the MP.

The next day, accused Tarjanyi was arrested after a man said he was “assaulted and harassed” at Westminster station, which is close to the House of Commons. On a Tube train, the conversation went on.

In a statement released on Wednesday, a spokesman for Hancock praised how Transport for London staff and the British Transport Police handled the situation.

He also said that “this kind of behaviour doesn’t happen very often.”

Tarjanyi was also charged with a second public order crime, which was related to Hancock but happened on nearby Parliament Street on January 19 and was not the same thing.

The MP for West Suffolk, Hancock, is an independent at the moment, and he said last month that he would not run for re-election.

Last year, he was kicked out of the Conservative Party because he joined the ITV reality show “I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here”, which put him in the Australian jungle instead of Westminster.

In spring 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic was at its worst, the 44-year-old became a well-known name when, as health secretary under then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson, he often spoke for the government.

The next year, he had to quit his job because photos showed him kissing one of his advisers, Gina Coladangelo, who later became his wife. He said he broke the rules about staying away from people.

After he went on “I’m a Celebrity,” he said he wouldn’t run for MP in the next general election. Instead, he said, he would “engage with the public in new ways.”