Former Health Secretary Matt Hancock Loses Whip After Signing up for Reality TV Show

British Secretary of State for Health Matt Hancock speaks at a memorial tree planting ceremony at Oxford Botanic Gardens following a G-7 health ministers meeting at Mansfield College, Oxford University, on June 4, 2021. Steve Parsons - WPA Pool/Getty Images

The former Health Secretary, Matt Hancock, has had the Conservative Party whip removed after he agreed to appear on the reality TV show “I’m a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!”

Hancock, the Tory MP for West Suffolk, announced on Tuesday he had decided to accept ITV’s offer to appear in the hit show, in which celebrities travel to Australia, spend time in a jungle format, and have to carry out a series of onerous tasks, including eating insects or sharing a cage with snakes.

Simon Hart, who was promoted to chief whip only last week, said, “Following a conversation with Matt Hancock, I have considered the situation and believe this is a matter serious enough to warrant suspension of the whip with immediate effect.”

Hancock, 44, was appointed health secretary by former Prime Minister Theresa May in 2018 and was in charge of the national response to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. He was forced to resign in June 2021 after video footage emerged of him kissing an aide in his ministerial office in a breach of coronavirus restrictions.

Hancock’s decision to sign up for the popular TV show, which is regularly watched by 12 million people, did not go down well with his local constituency association.

Andy Drummond, deputy chairman of West Suffolk Conservative Association, told PA: “I’m looking forward to him eating a kangaroo’s penis. Quote me. You can quote me on that.”

SNP MP Makes Jokes at Hancock’s Expense

SNP MP Pete Wishart said, “It speaks volumes that Matt Hancock would rather be stranded in a remote jungle eating kangaroo testicles than spend a moment longer on the Tory benches at Westminster, as Rishi Sunak’s government lurches from one crisis to another.”

Dave Penman, general secretary of the FDA union that represents senior civil servants, said: “Oh to have a job where you can decide for yourself you’re taking a month off, abandon your work and responsibilities, get paid shedloads and face little consequence. I’m sure he’ll be an inspiration to other public servants.”

Andrew Smith, a Conservative councillor for West Suffolk Council, said: “If I was him I wouldn’t have done it, to be perfectly truthful, but I’m not him. It’s not a show I would watch or indeed I would personally do. I don’t like eating things that I don’t know where they’ve come from, if you get my drift.”

Hancock is not the first Conservative MP to be on the “I’m a Celebrity” programme.

In 2012 Nadine Dorries was suspended by the party after she agreed to be on the show.

She was later censured by the parliamentary standards watchdog after she failed to declare her £82,000 ($94,650) fee for appearing on the show.

Despite this incident, she was promoted to digital secretary by former Prime Minister Boris Johnson in September 2021, a role she only lost in September this year, when she was sacked by then-Prime Minister Liz Truss.

The Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, has not commented on Hancock’s decision.

PA Media contributed to this report.