He may be on the other side of the world from Westminster but politics are clearly never far from Matt Hancock's thoughts if Tuesday's episode of of I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! is anything to go by. Because, despite having swapped the corridors of power for the Aussie jungle, the Tory MP was still quick to tell his campmates that former PM Liz Truss ' political career is now "over".
And the subject of Ms Truss – who was only in office a mere 44 days before resigning her crisis-hit premiership – came up after talk around the camp fire turned to what might be happening back home in the UK. "I wonder if Rishi [Sunak] is still in power?" asked presenter Scarlette Douglas.
"Yeah, he will be," responded Hancock, before being asked what he thought went wrong with Ms Truss' time in Downing Street. "In a way they were unlucky," he added, blaming a rise in global interest rates coinciding with "a financial statement that said,: 'We're going to do all these expensive things and we’re not going to say how we’re going to pay for them'."
Asked what now remained for Ms Truss he replied: "Her political career is over. No ambiguity at all." Hancock also explained the Tories' decision to appoint the less experienced Ms Truss to Number 10 over Mr Sunak was due to the fact that some saw him as having "wielded the knife against Boris", adding: "They definitely put the disloyalty to Boris as a negative."
He then called Mr Johnson "wonderful" and admitted being "very supportive of him". "But when it's time to go it's time to go," he added.
Upon Mr Johnson's recent return from holiday in the Caribbean to possibly put himself forward for the party leadership once again Mr Hancock also revealed he'd texted him. "I said: ‘You know I think you're wonderful but it's not your time," he said.
"The best thing for the country is that you should back Rishi. We should get him in post as soon as possible."
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