Matt Hancock has spoken about his frustration at the idea of people considering him untrustworthy.
The disgraced politician is taking part in the current season of Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins.
Alongside fellow famous figures, including singer Gareth Gates, former Towie star James “Arg” Argent and ex-Love Island contestants Montana Brown and Teddy Soares, Hancock undergoes SAS (Special Air Service) training under the guidance of retired special forces operators.
In Sunday’s edition (15 October) of the Channel 4 programme, the contestants have their trustworthiness tested when they are told to complete a series of tasks away from the special agents’ supervision.
However, the operators watch the contestants on secret cameras, checking whether they successfully carry out the number of exercises they were told to do, away from the watchful eye of the guards.
Ahead of the task, Hancock shares some insight into his feelings about people questioning his integrity.
“The thing about politics is that you are criticised in public a lot,” he says to the camera.
“I’ve had my integrity attacked on grounds that are totally unreasonable, probably more than is fair… So if I’m not trusted, I find that frustrating, because I always try to do my best.”
Matt Hancock— (Getty Images)
In 2021, Hancock received widespread criticism when he was pictured kissing his aide, Gina Coladangelo, while they were both married.
At the time of the incident, the country was under strict social distancing guidelines to stop the spread of Covid-19. With Hancock’s actions breaching the guidelines, many expressed their upset at the then-health secretary not abiding by the same rules he’d helped to implement.
On the first episode of the reality action series, Hancock was grilled by ex-SAS agents Jason Fox and Chris Oliver over his handling of the pandemic and his affair with Coladangelo.
“I was managing a very difficult situation, in a professional sense,” he said. “Thought I’d done a pretty good job.”
Fox, meanwhile, referred to Hancock as “Hancock with a silent ‘Han’”, and later told him to “shut the f*** up”.
Elsewhere, the independent MP has spoken about assisting fellow contestant, The Wanted singer Siva Kaneswaran, when he appeared to be drowning in mud during a “murder ball” challenge.
“There was one moment when I pulled Siva’s head out of the mud by his hair, because we were in a massive pile,” Hancock told The Sun in an interview.
“I was second to bottom effectively, across him. I could see that his face was underwater and he couldn’t get his head up because there were people everywhere. So I grabbed the back of his hair and yanked him up so he could breathe.”
