Matt Hancock suspended as Tory MP for joining I'm a Celeb cast

[Still Waters]

Former health secretary Matt Hancock has been suspended as a Conservative MP after joining the cast of I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!

Mr Hancock will swap representing his constituents at Westminster for eating bugs in the jungle.

But Tory party managers have taken a dim view of the West Suffolk MP's decision to take part in a reality TV show while Parliament is sitting.

The Tory chief whip said it was "serious enough" to warrant suspension.

Simon Hart, who is in charge of Tory MP discipline, said he had taken the decision after speaking to Mr Hancock.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-63471923

[Ozymandias]

Nadine Dorries failed her Bush Tucker Trial miserably, winning nothing for her campmates. I am sure Matt Hancock will step up and show the world what Brexiteer Tory MPs are made of. He'll take control and help to make Britian a laughing stock great again, I have no doubt. He'll come out of that jungle a hero, ready to be made PM. I wonder will he break the jungle rules or have an affair in the bushes (he's used to being caught on camera). You have to laugh!!

[Inn Spectre]

He knows he's finished in parliament, so not much to lose.

[Still Waters]

Matt Hancock’s I’m a Celeb appearance ‘insulting’, says bereaved daughter

A bereaved daughter who won a high court ruling that Matt Hancock’s policy on care home discharges at the start of the Covid pandemic was unlawful has urged TV viewers to boycott his appearance on I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here!

Dr Cathy Gardner, whose father was among more than 11,000 care home residents in England whose deaths involved Covid in March and April 2020, said “to see him just paraded on television, like he’s some kind of fun figure, so he can make some money and make himself into some kind of fake celebrity” was “insulting” and “completely sick”.

She said the producers’ decision to cast the former secretary of state, and pay him a fee reported to be in the hundreds of thousands of pounds, was “two fingers to those of us who are bereaved, because they just don’t seem to care about how significant he was”.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/nov/06/matt-hancock-im-a-celeb-appearance-insulting-says-bereaved-daughter

[pellinore]

Apparently, he has justified his affair with Gina in the book he is releasing for Christmas ("How we beat Covid"), likening the pair of them to the 'gallant Brits in WW2'. He sees them as battling valiantly 24 hours a day on the front-line against a deadly virus, snatching a brief moment of happiness together; while everyone else saw him on the make by channeling PPE contracts to chums and porking his aide, while the rest of the government whooped it up with karaoke parties in Downing Street.

[Still Waters]

Matt Hancock’s trip to the jungle: ill defined job descriptions enable MPs to abandon their constituents

Former health secretary Matt Hancock’s constituents in West Suffolk have been vocally expressing their ire over his decision to take part in reality TV show I’m a Celebrity Get me Out of Here.

The prime minister has called Hancock’s departure from the UK while parliament is sitting “very disappointing”. The Conservative Party has removed the whip from Hancock, meaning he no longer represents the party in parliament.

But Hancock’s TV side gig is an opportunity to consider a surprisingly unresolved question: what is an MP’s main job? Is it to make and change laws in Westminster – campaigning for important issues along the way to facilitate change? Or is it the main job of an MP to address problems in their constituency and speak up for constituents?

https://theconversation.com/matt-hancocks-trip-to-the-jungle-ill-defined-job-descriptions-enable-mps-to-abandon-their-constituents-194129

[Still Waters]

Former Health Secretary Matt Hancock was paid £320,000 for taking part in ITV's I'm a Celebrity reality show.

The West Suffolk MP remains suspended from the Conservative Party for taking time off from his parliamentary duties to appear on the show.

Mr Hancock said he donated £10,000 to charity from the fee, revealed on the register of MPs' financial interests.

The register also shows former Prime Minister Boris Johnson was paid £510,000 as an advance for his memoir.

Mr Hancock also received £48,000 for his Pandemic Diaries book, which was serialised in the Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-64421025