“I messed up and I fessed up. I resigned.”
That’s what Matt Hancock told his celebrity campmates when inevitable questions around his career-shattering affair emerged just hours into his I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here stint.
Matt’s arrival created a strange atmosphere in the camp as his fellow contestants attempted to welcome a man who they all, aside from a couple, held strong views about already. The ITV reality show is usually a bit of light entertainment, or escapism on the dark November nights. Some contestants may rub people up the wrong way but truly controversial characters are rare, and debates around whether a contestant should even be in the jungle are more likely to focus on whether they’re famous enough, not whether they’re skiving off work.
A handful of politicians have appeared in previous series, but this was different. Wounds from the pandemic are still raw, and here, marching into the Australian jungle in that unmistakable red and khaki uniform, was the man who created the rules that kept us away from our loved ones - and brazenly broke them.
It’s no surprise he didn’t receive the same cheery greeting that most in his situation do. But as the days go by, and awkward conversations have been had, most of the campmates seem willing to look past his mistakes and get on with the show. That’s fair enough when they have to live with the bloke - but the public watching from a distance shouldn’t be so forgiving.
The Suffolk MP, who has had the Tory whip removed over his decision to enter the jungle, will have had plenty of time to practice his lines of apology. But ‘I messed up and I fessed up’ doesn’t cut it.
The one-hour highlight show the public gets to see each night might not have included every conversation Matt has had about his demise as health secretary, but from what we’ve seen he’s missing some key parts of the story.
Matt ‘messed up’ on May 6 2021. CCTV footage from that day shows him having a steamy kiss with former aide, now girlfriend, Gina Coladangelo - ‘grabbing booty’ in the words of Babatunde - inside the Department of Health. A clear breach of the social distancing rules he had been hammering into our subconscious during press conferences and morning media rounds for months.
Matt ‘fessed up’ nearly two months later - after footage of the affair appeared in The Sun newspaper on June 25, and then every news publication in the UK and more further afield soon after.
By lunchtime, he had apologised for his rule-breaking and asked for privacy. He said in a statement: “I accept that I breached the social distancing guidance in these circumstances, I have let people down and am very sorry.”
But no resignation.
It wasn’t until around 6pm the following day that he finally announced he would do the right thing, as the vast majority of people excluding the prime minister had been insisting, and step down as health secretary. “I understand the enormous sacrifices that everybody in this country has made, you have made. And those of us who make these rules have got to stick by them and that’s why I’ve got to resign,” he said in a video posted to Twitter.
For nearly 48 hours the politician attempted to cling to his job, despite his blatant disregard for his own rules being front-page news. If Matt messed up, fessed up and resigned all in one day perhaps the public would be more forgiving. But he didn’t. He spent weeks believing he could get away with it.
Matt was part of a unique group during the pandemic. He was a key worker, allowed to head into the office every day and mingle with his colleagues - maybe even go as far as having a glass of wine with them after work if stories from other departments are anything to go by. Millions of others stayed at home, worked from home and led their social lives on Zoom.
But not only this, Matt was a member of government tasked with deciding how others should live their lives to stop the pandemic from spreading. Matt and his Westminster chums would never know the impact lockdown had on people who actually lived in the way they were ordering them to, because they never had to.
Their position meant they could essentially gaslight the public. At times, social distancing guidance was either so vague, or so convoluted, ministers would never be found giving a simple yes or no answer to questions about what was allowed.
Members of the public were left clueless and anxious about things like whether hopping in the car to check up on your family, and to maybe drop off a birthday present for a celebration you couldn't have together, would be deemed ‘essential’ in the eyes of the police or not.
Meanwhile, the government had the privilege of twisting the rules to suit themselves. Party at your friend’s house - not okay, ‘work event’ in the garden of No 10, we’ll allow it. Pretty much every rule they created had a loophole in to allow them to carry on living their lives in the way they wanted. And still, they couldn’t stick to them.
Law enforcers having to decide whether to fine people for meeting up with a friend to go for a walk in the countryside, or if a pub was allowed to be serving drinks based on how ‘substantial’ the food offering to go with it was, became “scape goats for poor policy”. Brian Booth, chairman of the West Yorkshire Police Federation (WYPF), said officers trying to enforce the rules had been “hung out to dry” as a result of “woolly laws” after police came under fire for their handling of lockdown fines.
Matt even scoffed at his campmates when they suggested that he had been fined by the police for his rule-breaking. "I didn't break any laws. Guidance is different," he flatly told fellow campmate Chris Moyles.
Legally, he may be right. But it doesn’t change the fact that his half-hearted apology and soppy defence of ‘I fell in love’ come across as totally disingenuous in the context of how his downfall unfolded.
The father-of-three sat in an interview with Sky News and told the public they should be ‘careful’ when deciding whether to hug their relatives as “we all know the risks” ahead of distancing rules relaxing on May 17. He told the programme that he planned to hug his dad but “we’ll probably do it outside and keep the ventilation going”.
At this time, he didn’t realise that footage of his affair captured 10 days beforehand would soon be in the public eye.
“I think personal responsibility is an important mantra here,” he went on. “Because people have been so responsible through the crisis and they’ve really listened and followed the guidance and instructions that the Prime Minister set out, and that’s the approach we should take together.”
Himself not included, of course.
Matt’s time in the jungle could come to an end tonight as the public stop voting for who they want to face the ghastly bushtucker trials, and start deciding who they actually want to win.
Watching him squirm - whether it’s because he’s being grilled about his political and personal misdemeanours or because he’s got a gob full of cow anus - has been worth a watch. But at the point I’m A Celebrity turns into a popularity contest, he has to go.
He admitted he was looking for ‘a bit of forgiveness’ during his time on the show. But we shouldn’t let him off the hook simply because he’s said sorry and let us watch him get covered in fish guts and eat a camel penis.
I’m A Celebrity winners often talk about how they’ve been on a journey in the jungle - perhaps by facing their fears or opening up about parts of their lives that have resonated with the public - but let’s not let Matt Hancock’s journey be one of forgiveness.
The politician is no stranger to the ballot box. I hope votes for Hancock dry up both tonight, and once he's home to face his left-behind constituents.
- READ NEXT:
- Olivia Attwood stuns fans with hot pink glam as she hints at 'silver lining' after leaving ITV I'm A Celebrity
- ITV I'm A Celebrity viewers complain over Boy George's Matt Hancock remark
- Jill Scott reminds ITV I'm A Celeb's viewers of previous contestant with cockroach run-in
- ITV I'm a Celebrity fans praise Owen Warner for kind gesture as Charlene White refuses to sleep in RV
- ITV I'm A Celebrity host Ant McPartlin hits out at fan over show he'd 'never do' as Dec Donnelly drops BBC Strictly Come Dancing hint
