As no doubt everyone’s heard, and at a time where it seemed like British politics couldn’t get any more unbelievable, former Health Secretary and Conservative MP*, Matt Hancock, has joined this year’s cast of I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here. With the likes of Boy George, TV & radio presenter Chris Moyles and Women’s 2022 EURO winner Jill Scott, the return of the show to its classic Australian location sees the return of Hancock to the media spotlight and scrutiny. Since his resignation from the role of Health Secretary in June 2021, he has been working as an MP for West Suffolk from the back benches of the Conservative party. Therefore, as a serving MP, his unexpected casting raises several questions about his intentions, and whether we should be angry, or at least disturbed by this.
(*NOTE: Since Hancock’s involvement in the show was announced, his party whip was withdrawn meaning he has essentially been suspended from the Conservative Party, leaving him as an independent in the House of Commons.)
HANCOCK AND COVID
First, a bit of background on Matt Hancock.
During the COVID pandemic, Hancock served as Health Secretary under Boris Johnson in his Conservative cabinet. This meant he presided over the government decision making regarding public health during the pandemic, including official government guidelines and COVID restrictions. He oversaw efforts in procuring PPE, and subsequently awarded many of these contracts to private companies and his peers, spending billions of pounds of public money in the process. This mismanagement led to PPE shortages in hospitals and other health and social care facilities, thus putting staff at risk.
Additionally, his government guidelines in March 2020 that failed to establish the COVID testing of patients before they were discharged into care homes as mandatory, is widely considered to be the cause of many COVID outbreaks and subsequent deaths within care homes. A report from Amnesty International in October 2020 states this figure of “excess deaths” could be over 28,000, with care home managers and staff describing a “complete breakdown” of systems in the early stages of the pandemic with struggles to access PPE and receive adequate government guidance.
His resignation from this role came in June 2021 after CCTV footage was revealed of him kissing his aide Gina Coladangelo in his Whitehall office. This exposed both his extramarital affair and his breaching of his own social distancing guidelines in place at the time. Despite being endorsed by PM Boris Johnson who stated “he should leave office very proud”, he ultimately left his role in public disgrace.
This therefore prompts the question…
WHAT ON EARTH IS HE THINKING?
This new, unexpected venture into reality television prompts the question of Hancock’s intentions.
Writing for The Sun, he explained his decision of joining the show, claiming it is the job of politicians “to embrace popular culture” and “to go where the people are- not to sit in ivory towers in Westminster”. He believes that in appearing on I’m A Celebrity, he can “talk directly to people who aren’t always interested in politics”, referring to them as the “politically disengaged”. The implication that those who watch reality TV are “politically disengaged” aside, this idea that he is doing something radical by introducing politics to this show is contested by the numerous political figures who have appeared before him.
Both Nadine Dorries and Kezia Dugdale entered the jungle while they were serving Conservative and Labour MPS, respectively. Furthermore, the likes of Edwina Curry, Lembit Opik and Robert Kilroy-Silk were all former politicians at the time they joined the show, not to mention the more indirect political figures such as Carol Thatcher, the daughter of former PM Margaret Thatcher, and Stanley Johnson, Boris Johnson’s father, who were also contestants. Therefore, this idea that Hancock is making a ground-breaking move in stepping out of the “ivory towers in Westminster” and into the jungle is proven false.
Of course, the lure of money is always a likely motive with one source reporting that he is being paid around £400k to appear on the show- the highest salary this year second only to Boy George at £500k. Unlike fellow Conservative MP Penny Mordaunt who, after being announced as a contestant on reality tv show Splash! in 2014, donated her fee to a charity in her constituency, Hancock has made no such promises.
Finally, there is the possibility that he believes his stint on the show will be some form of redemption, thus salvaging some favour with the general public. Arguably this is the most disturbing possibility of them all: the very idea that he can escape responsibility and even gain popularity after numerous COVID failings, in the name of reality entertainment.
THE OUTCOME?
(At time of writing, although the show has started, Hancock has not yet entered the jungle)
The question now is will Hancock be voted for every bushtucker trial and make it far, will he begin to win the public around, or will he be voted out early in further disgrace?
Ultimately will public opinion change towards him, in his favour or not?
While many may relish the idea of witnessing Hancock eating cockroaches or squirming in a Perspex box full of snakes, getting voted for bushtucker trials means more airtime, more exposure to the public in the name of entertainment and will perhaps generate an element of sympathy, albeit in varying degrees. Furthermore, if successful in these trials it would mean him returning to his fellow campmates having won them food, thus gaining an amount of support from them and somewhat of a badge of honour.
Is the very possibility that he can redeem any amount of public favour from his stint in the jungle after so many suffered during the pandemic due to his decision making irresponsible, disrespectful, disturbing, or is this all just trivial reality entertainment?
PUBLIC OUTRAGE
Many have expressed disbelief and outrage towards this casting decision. I’m A Celebrity Series 17 winner and member of the Conservative Party, Georgia “Toff” Toffolo, spoke of her embarrassment on This Morning:
“I think this is disgraceful […] What Matt is doing is, […] showing to the country that the man who was meant to be in control of our health going through this pandemic, not only did he cheat on his wife and get caught, he’s now leaving his constituents to go to Australia to earn loads of money on the show and flaunting it in front of people that lost so many loved ones and went through the most horrific pain. I’ve never been more embarrassed about this conservative party, ever.”
Notoriously outspoken actress, Miriam Margolyes gave a typically unfiltered opinion:
“What an appalling adulterous creep, and why we have him on our televisions I don’t know. I don’t know why he was thought of a proper person to entertain. He’s a vile human being, he nearly destroyed our national health service, he sent loads of people with covid, old ladies, back into their care homes […]”
However, most poignantly, an NHS nurse calling into radio station LBC recalled her experience of the pandemic and expressed her anger at Hancock and ITV:
“I’m furious… I think ITV should be ashamed of themselves, and I think Matt should be ashamed of himself, and I don’t really care what his motivations are for doing it, the bottom line of it is, he is a serving MP […] I remember at the beginning of the pandemic the struggles that we had for a long time regarding PPE that we couldn’t access […] and now he’s a turn on a gameshow, everyone’s laughing about it and he just gets away with it. Whereas the nurses who actually helped people through the pandemic continue to suffer.”
THE DISTURBING REALITY
Regardless of the outcome of the show or his true intentions for doing it, Matt Hancock has undisputedly left his constituents as a serving politician to take on the status of ‘celebrity’ in a reality entertainment show. At a time where UK nurses have announced strikes against unfairly low pay for the first time in the Royal College of Nursing’s history, it begs the question how a disgraced former health secretary, whose decisions exacerbated the public health crisis at the time, is allowed to take a £400,000 salary to join an entertainment show. Could this set a dangerous precedent in British politics in which political responsibility can be shirked and from exposure on reality tv, as the Guardian puts, “celebrity salvation” can be gained?