A petition to stop former health secretary Matt Hancock from appearing on I'm A Celebrity. . . Get Me Out of Here! is nearing 40,000 signatures. The petition was launched on the 38 Degrees campaign site by Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice, who say his appearance on the reality show will bring them fresh pain.
Hancock, 44, who was forced to resign after being caught in an embrace with his aide and lover Gina Coladangelo, breaking pandemic social distancing rules, is being paid a reported £400,000 for entering the celebrity jungle. But his critics are appalled that he is now making money from his notoriety.
The petition organisers write: "Matt Hancock was at the very centre of decisions such as locking down late, allowing large scale sporting events to go ahead as the virus ran rampant and failed to get our healthcare workers the PPE they needed.
"On top of that he was fired after breaking the rules he helped set. His profiteering and shameless search for publicity in the run up to his book launch is another insult to already grieving families."
Petition signatories also vented their fury at the politician and called on ITV bosses to drop him from the show. Miranda M wrote: "Although we’d all be better off if he didn’t do his job (especially those who died due to his incompetence and corruption), Hancock is paid a ton to represent his constituents, and skiving off for a lucrative jolly in the jungle should automatically disqualify him from holding that office."
The MP for West Suffolk has come under fire from across the political spectrum for jetting out to Australia while Parliament is still in session. He has had the Conservative Party whip suspended, although his former Cabinet colleague Nadine Dorries, who suffered a similar sanction when she appeared on the show in 2012, was quickly reinstated.
Meanwhile, the show’s executive producer, Olly Nash, has told ITV News that Hancock’s appearance is “not a question of trying to divide camp”, Birmingham Live reported. He added that it wasn’t the first time “people who have very strong views about certain things” had starred on the show.
Nash said: “We’ve put in loads of politicians over the years, we also put in people who have had very strong views about certain things and sometimes it plays out in camp and sometimes it doesn’t. It’s not a question of trying to divide camp, we have never been a deliberately divisive camp."
Birmingham Live also report that Hancock upset fellow contestants when he took part in a previous reality show with his "greedy habits". An insider on Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins, claimed: "“They all had to share military-style rations, but Matt always got up first and helped himself to big portions, leaving less for the others – understandably this seriously annoyed his cast mates."
The source added: “Matt clearly looks after number one first. He’s bound to annoy his I’m A Celebrity cast mates when he does the same thing in the jungle.”
Hancock has insisted he is not going into the Celebrity jungle for the money. The show's new series begins on Sunday (November 6).
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