Former health secretary Matt Hancock has been suspended as an MP after announcing that he will participate in the TV show ‘I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!’
The West Suffolk MP’s choice to compete in a reality TV show while Parliament is in session has faced opposition from Tory party managers.
Tory chief whip Simon Hart suspended the whip as soon as it was revealed that Mr Hancock would be travelling to Australia for the popular ITV show.
It was ‘serious enough’ to warrant suspension, Mr Hart said, according to the BBC.
Mr Hancock will be unable to vote in the House of Commons until 21 December but will still be able to claim his MP salary, the Mirror reported.
Earlier in the week, Mr Hancock withdrew from consideration for the position of treasury select committee chair.
A source close to Mr Hancock was quoted as saying: ’I’m a Celeb is the most watched show on TV. Matt doesn’t expect to serve in Government again, so it’s an incredible opportunity for him to engage with the 12 million Brits who tune in every single night.’
Also this week, Mr Hancock announced he would be releasing a book about the Covid pandemic before Christmas.
Mr Hancock resigned from his post as health secretary a year ago, after being caught kissing a colleague in a lift, against lockdown regulations.
Matt Hancock arrived on the scene as health secretary in July 2018 as a low-profile Government minister, who was perhaps most famous for starting his own self-titled social media app.
Prior to becoming health secretary, Hancock held positions as junior minister for digital services, and secretary of state for digital, culture, media and sport.
Didn’t suspend BoJo for organising his own repeated getaways whilst Parliament was sitting.
Probably not to difficult to guess future voting patterns for bush-tucker trials
another MP milking it !
getting paid for not working – how does that sit with his constituents who are struggling with cost of living issues ?
Should’ve been suspended for back handers and culling the British population. But, no, that’s ok.
Yet another Tory clown feathering his own nest. However, he pales into insignificance in comparison to George Osborne the former chancellor (and previously along with Cameron and Johnston a member of the notoriously pompous Oxford University Bullington club) who vandalised Doctors pensions and in 2017 earned 650k for 48 days work with a financial institution named BlackRock.