Hancock added: “My seven-year-old listens to Harry Potter and reads Harry Potter avidly, including at 5.30 this morning when I got up to do this morning’s media round.”
The prime minister talked to Daniel Rashford, he considered it and made his decision – I think it’s terrific.”
The minister later told radio station LBC his child’s fondness for the JK Rowling novels may have been to blame for the slip and that “maybe I had Harry Potter on the mind”.
Denying the government had made an embarrassing U-turn on the subject, Hancock told Sky News on Wednesday morning: “Righty-ho, I will tell you what happened.