Matt Hancock’ s fed-up constituents have criticised the “workshy” MP for “abandoning” his post to take part in I’m a Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here!
Hardworking voters in Newmarket - where the former health secretary has served as an MP since 2010 - said they were “furious”.
And they claimed they had been left to fend for themselves as they struggled to pay the bills during the cost of living crisis.
Retired clothes shop owner Roy Fox said he wrote to West Suffolk MP Hancock to complain about difficulties getting his disabled badge - but had not had a response after more than two months.
The pensioner, 88, said: “I wrote to him two months ago and still nothing. He wants drumming out, he’s not interested in the people of West Suffolk.
“Ever since he got his new girlfriend and moved to London he’s abandoned us.
“He’s not liked around here anymore. My wife has voted Conservative all her life but she turned to me today and said, ‘I’m not voting for Hancock again’. He’s workshy and he doesn’t care. I’m furious.”
Pub landlady Suzanne Kilbane, 60, said: “I never normally watch I’m a Celeb... but I might start if he has to complete all those horrible tasks.”
Suzanne’s husband, John Kilbane, 66, used to work as a registered nursing manager before retiring. The couple now run the Red Lion pub in nearby Kirtling.
John said: “I wouldn’t vote for him as an MP now. To me, it comes down to an issue of trust and you can’t trust him.”
Grandmother-of-two Jenny Pratt, 54, started working as a nurse in 1986. She said: “You wonder if he really ever cared about politics. It’s incredible, I’m really shocked.”
And technical assistant Ben Snaith, 27, said: “It seems like a publicity stunt to clear his name and get him looking more human.
“The state the country is in at the minute, it’s not a great look for him.
"It puts me off voting for him again. It’s really inconsiderate.”
Hancock, 44, has been the MP for West Suffolk for more than a decade and had lived in a farmhouse with his wife Martha and their children in Newmarket at weekends.
But he faced a fierce backlash from his constituents when he moved out of his family home when he was caught kissing his aide Gina Coladangelo in his departmental office.
It led to his resignation as health secretary for breaking social distancing rules.
Now his decision to jet across the globe for a reported £350,000 fee has sparked more anger in Newmarket.
Mum-of-one Natalie Finch, 33, said: “I think he’s just trying to make money. I’m very sceptical about politicians - they’re all corrupt.
“I think he’s going on TV because he wants to show a different side of himself and he’s hoping that people might like him again.
“I’ve never had a reason to contact my MP but I know people who have. How can they contact him when he’s in Australia?”
Claire Dean, 40, who previously worked as a personal assistant at a private hospital, said: “I’m just surprised - he’s had a lot of publicity in recent years so it seems like he’s trying to make people like him again.”
Andrew Stringer, leader for the opposition of Suffolk County Council and Green Councillor for Upper Gipping, Suffolk, said: “How will going on a reality TV show help any one of these constituents in fuel poverty or those needing food this winter?
“He will be busy eating the entrails of animals while people are wandering around Newmarket worried about where their next meal is coming from. It’s beyond satire.
“He won’t be upholding his responsibilities as an MP.”
Conservative councillor Brian Harvey for Manor, Suffolk, said: “My first thought was jaw-dropping disbelief. It’s a measure of the man and his ego.
“He is treating his constituents with such contempt, as well as his colleagues in parliament, most of whom keep their heads down, work hard and go to their surgeries.
“Hancock doesn’t want to hold surgeries unless it’s at the Newmarket Races.
"Heaven forbid he turns up in one of the hundreds of villages across his constituency, let alone somewhere he considers awful like Haverhill.”
