Good Morning Britain presenter Kate Garraway has spoken about how aware she thinks Matt Hancock is of the backlash to his I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! casting.
Mr Hancock – who arrived in Brisbane ahead of the show's launch on Sunday – has faced criticism over the decision to join the 2022 line-up for the show.
The West Suffolk MP defended his decision to appear on the show in Australia, saying it is a ‘powerful tool’ to reach young people after he was suspended as a Conservative MP.
Kate subsequently spoke about her experience joining the 2019 line-up of the ITV reality show Down Under on the Thursday instalment of the morning programme.
Co-host Ben Shephard asked Kate how much of the response and headlines Mr Hancock will be aware of, at the start of the programme.
Recalling her own stint, Kate said: “They do take your phone off you, pretty much as you land.
“I didn't realise that and had a bit of a panic. I said, ‘You've got to give me five minutes just to call some people'.
“They take it off you and that's it. You haven't got access to the internet. You haven't got any way of knowing what's happening.”
She added: “They like to keep you separate from your other campmates. You might have suspicions who is going in.
“He won't know who else is going in. He won't be able to talk to home. He won't be able to get access to people like his girlfriend, friends. He'll be completely isolated now with no one to say anything.”
Ben then joked: “I think it's best right now he doesn't know what's being written about him.”
Bookmakers are already predicting Mr Hancock will make history as the campmate nominated for the most trials, with Ladbrokes tipping him at 1/2 to break I’m A Celebrity records.
However, it has now been reported that viewers may be unable to vote for Mr Hancock to do the resilience tests as he is said to have developed trench foot while filming Celebrity SAS Who Dares Wins.
A source told The Sun: “When he was filming SAS Who Dares Wins in October, Matt got trench foot – in fact, a lot of the cast did.
“It can take up to six months to recover from that, so any water-based tasks or swimming trials would be bad news for his feet.”
Good Morning Britain airs weekdays at 6am on ITV.
