Matt Hancock gave his first TV interview since his eye-watering fee for appearing on I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! was disclosed.
The MP appeared on Good Morning Britain on Tuesday morning, sitting in the ITV studio with Susanna Reid and Richard Madeley.
The MP appeared on screen for 720 hours (30 days) alongside the likes of Mike Tindall, Owen Warner and Queen of the Jungle, Jill Scott and earned £320,000.
Documents published by the Houses of Commons state that Hancock received an eye-watering amount from Lifted Entertainment, ITV, with the fee being registered on January 11, 2023.
At the time of appearing on the show, Hancock explained that a sum of his fee would be donated to several charities, although a spokesperson was unable to confirm if all of the fee would be donated.
Richard asked if he would have done the show for £10, to which Mr Hancock said: "ITV asked me to come on. My primary motivation was to communicate with people about who I am as a person."
Later in the interview, Susanna returned to the topic and Hancock admitted there was a negotiation over his fee but insisted he was telling the truth that the pay cheque was not his primary motivation.
The 44-year-old said: "I did absolutely give some of the money to charity and they're two brilliant charities."
But Richard held his feet to the fire as he replied: "It would seem to most people with basic arithmetic, that you did do it for the money."
Hancock replied: "I didn't primarily do it for the money. I primarily did it to show who I am. I gave a five figure sum to charity."
"£10,000 out of £330,000," Richard replied. "You're skating off and saying that's a substantial sum."
Hancock replied: "It is. I'm really proud of the money I raised for charity before and I'll do lots in future," to which Richard said: "Not much though is it out of £330,000."
Hancock concluded: "I think £10,000 is still a decent amount."
They told The Mirror that Hancock "will be making a donation to St Nicholas Hospice in Suffolk and causes supporting dyslexia - including the British Dyslexia Association, off the back of his appearance," but refused to comment when asked where the rest of the money would be going.
A spokesperson later confirmed that the amount donated to each charity would be discussed with Mr Hancock upon his arrival back into the UK.
Despite initial backlash after entering the ITV programme, Hancock managed to sail through to the final and came third on the show after completing several Bushtucker Trials.
In April 2022, Hancock apologised after the High Court ruled government policies on discharging patients from hospital into care homes at the onset of the pandemic were "unlawful".
And in June 2021 he was forced to resign as Health secretary after CCTV footage surfaced of him embracing his aide Gina Coladangelo at a time when this would breach his own rules on physical contact. It also ended his 15-year marriage.
The former Health Secretary announced he would not stand for the Conservative Party in the next General Election – despite his team insisting that he had no intentions of turning his back on politics.
