FORMER health secretary Matt Hancock has revealed that he was paid £320,000 for appearing on the reality TV show “I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!”.
The MP was stripped of the Tory whip for taking time off his work in parliament to appear on the ITV show, which he claimed he took on in a bid to raise awareness of dyslexia.
The revelation of his extraordinary pay packet – which is said to have made him the eighth highest paid person to appear I’m a Celeb – came from his register of interests as an MP.
It tops off a busy day for Hancock, which also saw Andrew Bridgen – another MP who has lost the Tory whip – say he is suing the former health secretary for after he hit out over comments Bridgen made about Covid jabs.
Bridgen had appeared to compare Covid-19 vaccines to the Holocaust, leading to widespread condemnation.
Bridgen had already threatened legal action against Hancock in relation to a tweet criticising the comments, with the North West Leicestershire MP saying that he would “allow Matt three days to apologise publicy [sic] for calling me an antisemite and racist or he will be contacted by my legal team”.
Bridgen has said that he is not antisemitic while also defending his language about the safety of coronavirus vaccines, claiming that his suspension from the Conservative parliamentary party “says much about the current state of our democracy”.
In the days after the original remarks, he also said he was not racist and was “speaking to a legal team who will commence action against those who have led the call suggesting that I am”.
He tweeted on Thursday: “I can confirm that Matt Hancock had a legal letter before action from Bad Law Team on my behalf regarding defamation on Monday.”
The legal action is being supported by the Reclaim Party and the Bad Law Project. The project, which is linked to Reclaim Party leader Laurence Fox, claims to oppose “political ideology disguised as law”.
A spokesperson for Hancock said: “What Matt said was obviously not libellous and he stands by his comments.
“Rather than wasting his time and money on an absurd libel case he will undoubtedly lose, let’s hope Bridgen does the right thing and apologises for the hurt he’s caused and keeps his offensive view to himself in future.”
Furthermore, Thursday also saw a man charged with assaulting Hancock on the London Underground.
Geza Tarjanyi, 61, from Leyland in Lancashire, will appear in court next month accused with three offences relating to the MP, British Transport Police (BTP) said.
A charge of common assault and a public order offence relate to what Mr Hancock’s spokesman described as an “unpleasant encounter” that began at Westminster station on Tuesday morning before continuing on a Tube train.
Tarjanyi was also charged with a second public order offence relating to the MP for West Suffolk, which took place on January 19 in nearby Parliament Street.
BTP acted after receiving a report of a man being “assaulted and harassed” at the station next to the House of Commons before 9am on Tuesday.
Tarjanyi was released on bail to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on February 22.
After the arrest, Hancock’s spokesperson said: “Both Transport for London staff and the British Transport Police were fantastic and the man has since been arrested.”
He added that “this sort of behaviour is a rare occurrence” and stressed the “importance of shutting down baseless misinformation which causes so much harm”.
