Former health secretary Matt Hancock was left 'yelping' in pain after being stung by a scorpion. The MP for West Suffolk, who had the Tory whip suspended after it was revealed he had reportedly signed up for the popular jungle realiity show set in Australia, was attacked by the creature shortly before breakfast.
A show source told the Mirror : "Matt didn't see the scorpion until it was too late and it bit his finger. He felt a lot of pain and made a yelping noise, but thankfully for him there was no lasting damage.
"Medics checked him over and gave him a clean bill of health but the whole camp is now watching out for them. Matt was saying afterwards it felt twice as painful as a bee sting."
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While Australian scorpions can give a nasty sting, their venom is not deadly. Associate Professor Bryan Fry, from the University of Queensland's School of Biological Sciences, told ABC news: "Typically, the sting is minor localised pain and a tiny bit of swelling - usually quite trivial effects. As far as the pain sensation, the sting would normally be similar to a bee and dramatically less than that of the bullet ants that we have in Australia."
The scorpion was safely removed from camp to avoid further campmates being stung. At the end of Saturday night's episode, Matt's campmate Babatúndé Aléshé make reference to the incident on air.
After hosts Ant and Dec revealed in the live segment that Matt had been voted by the public to do another trial, called House of Horrors, Babatúndé told him: "Do you know what Matt, you are the man." He continued: "You are the man. Four trials and you got stung by a scorpion and you have to go do a trial."
The incident is expected to be shown on the show tonight. Matt will also take part in his fifth trial since he arrived as a latecomer to the jungle in Wednesday's episode.
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