There are people out there who have a crush on Matt Hancock. Unbelievable – but true. And I’m a Celebrity is to blame. When he entered the ITV reality juggernaut last year, he was – how can I put this? – not well-liked. He was the man who had presided over the worst Covid death toll in Europe, who broke his own lockdown rules to play tonsil tennis with his aide Gina Coladangelo. When he left, 21 days later, his sweaty, grinning form loping across the rope bridge to grope Coladangelo’s bottom, he was... someone else. He was someone who came in third place after national treasure footballer Jill Scott and the lovely Hollyoaks actor Owen Warner. Someone who, according to 42.8 per cent of people in a poll conducted on Lorraine, improved his reputation on I’m a Celebrity. Someone who people fancied.
“Am I the only one who finds Matt Hancock sexy?” wrote one poster on Mumsnet. Someone else on Twitter/X said they thought he had “great snogging lips”. I am sorry for writing those words. I really am. But we need to talk about it. Because now, Nigel Farage is going down under to get intimate with snakes and spiders and scrotums (clearly keen to get back on the frontline of politics). The former UKIP leader, whose behaviour during the EU referendum campaign prompted nearly 40,000 people to complain to the police that he was inciting racial hatred, who once said working women are “worth less” than men and that he would be “uncomfortable” if a Romanian family moved in next-door, is entering the jungle alongside Britney Spears’ sister Jamie Lynn and Fred Sirieix off First Dates.
