I’m a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! viewers are preparing for this year’s most controversial contestant.
Matt Hancock is taking part in the 2022 edition of the long-running ITV reality series, after reportedly being offered £400,000.
Over the past few years, the Conservative MP has been on TV many times – but for a flurry of negative reasons. As former health secretary, he was one of the faces plastered all over the newspapers during the pandemic.
He was criticised over elements of the government’s response to Covid, and in June 2021, found himself publicly disgraced after admitting to violating his own social distancing rules when his affair with aide Gina Coladangelo was exposed.
Hancock became a Tory MP for West Suffolk in 2010, and was appointed health secreary under Theresa May’s Cabinet reshuffle in 2018. After May’s resignation, he announced his plans to stand for party leadership, but soon withdrew from the race, and pledged his allegiance to Boris Johnson.
After his affair with Coladangelo was exposed, he separated from his wife of 15 years, an osteopath called Martha Hoyer Millar, with whom he has three children.
Hancock is said to have been asked to do I’m a Celebrity throughout the year, but declined until Rishi Sunak was appointed PM after Liz Truss’s resignation.
However, Sunak has condemned Hancock’s decision, with a spokesperson stating: “The PM believes that at a challenging time for the country, MPs should be working hard for their constituents in the House or in their constituencies. The public when they elect their MPs, expect them to work hard for their constituency.”
Hancock has since been suspended as an MP by his party.
Hancock is expected to enter the Australian jungle a few days into the new series alongside comedian Seann Walsh.
Meet all of the I’m a Celebrity contestants for 2022 here.
