Matt is still toxic. The first reaction of the comedian Seann Walsh said it all. He saw Matt Hancock and he burst out laughing. As if he’d just come across the last person he’d want to meet. Others weren’t so kind. The Corrie actor Sue Cleaver reckoned he shouldn’t be skiving off when parliament wasn’t in recess. The singer Boy George said that if his mum had died of Covid he would have walked out of the camp. The former rugby player Mike Tindall observed that Matt just talked “bullshit, bullshit, bullshit”. The radio DJ Chris Moyles looked as if he wanted to throw up. The rest didn’t say much. The least hostile response came from the Hollyoaks actor Owen Warner. But then he didn’t appear to know who Matt was. By day two some of the camp had relaxed a little: as if they had made a decision to try to get along with him in the interests of harmony. But several clearly dislike him intensely. Imagine.
Matt is just trying to be human. At least that’s what he keeps telling us. He wants us to see the real Matt. The Matt behind the politician’s mask. The man behind the podium, as he self-importantly put it. The guy who wanted to understand economics, so he went to work in the Bank of England, before going on to become an adviser to George Osborne. The everyday story of an ordinary bloke who just happened to become a cabinet minister. So what he’s doing on I’m a Celeb – other than trousering £400K: it’s astonishing how no one ever mentions they are in it for the dosh – is something of a mystery. The last place any sane person would expect to be real is on a reality show. But Matt is arrogant and delusional enough to think he can beat the system. Either that or he’s never watched the show. I’m a Celeb is one of the most sadistic shows on TV and the only reason Matt has been brought on is to be the hate figure against whom the country can unite. A thought: why would Matt imagine anyone was that interested in his human side? He’s actually rather dull.
