Matt Hancock has so far donated just 3% of the fee he was paid for appearing on I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here! to charity, it has been revealed.
The former health secretary received £320,000 for his stint on the reality show, of which £10,000 was donated to charity, according to the register of MPs’ financial interests.
As a result of the appearance, he lost the Tory whip. The prime minister, Rishi Sunak, said he was “disappointed” at Hancock’s decision to travel to Australia.
The West Suffolk MP, who is still suspended from the Conservative party, also received £48,000 for his Pandemic Diaries book, the register reveals.
A spokesperson for Hancock told BBC News: “As well as raising the profile of his dyslexia campaign in front of 11 million viewers, Matt’s donated £10,000 to St Nicholas hospice in Suffolk and the British Dyslexia Association.”
Earlier this month, Hancock declared he had received £45,000 for appearing on another reality TV show, Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins.
It was also revealed that the former prime minister Boris Johnson had picked up an advance of more than £500,000 for his forthcoming memoir. That came as it emerged that Johnson could get more taxpayers’ money to cover extra legal support as the inquiry into his Partygate denials drags on.
Johnson’s latest entry in the register of members’ interests says he “received £510,000 as an advance on an upcoming book yet to be published”.
The publisher HarperCollins said this month that it had acquired the rights to what was described as a prime ministerial memoir “like no other”.
