Matt Hancock’s reality TV adventure branded an “insult” to Covid victims

Matt Hancock is going on the reality TV show I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here. Amid a national crisis, when more and more people are struggling to make ends meet and put food on the table, the former Health Secretary has decided that now is the right time to abandon all pretence of working for his constituents and head to the jungle. Just half an hour after the news became public, Hancock lost the Tory whip – meaning that when he finally decides to turn up for his job, he will sit as an independent MP.

Hancock is one of the more recognisable Tories. Why? Because he was seemingly forever on our screens throughout the pandemic. The former Health Secretary is now cashing in on his role in the response to that pandemic – a response that landed the UK with one of the highest death tolls in Europe. Families of Covid victims are understandably outraged by his decision to jet off to the jungle just as the public inquiry into how he and his colleagues bungled the response gets underway. As Labour’s Bell Ribeiro-Addy said: “His gallivanting on reality TV is an insult to those who died due to his mismanagement.”

Back in Westminster, Rishi Sunak faces his second Prime Minister’s Questions against Keir Starmer this afternoon. The new PM is still vulnerable from his row over the reappointment of Suella Braverman and his dithering over whether to attend a global climate summit (he has now finally said he is going), all while preparing the country for austerity 2.0. Labour is not letting up on Braverman; the party last night referred the Home Secretary to the financial service watchdog claiming she may have breached market abuse laws by sharing information about “growth visas” to people outside of government. While we can therefore expect some jungle-related jibes from the Labour leader, there are number of other fronts on which he can attack the already-beleaguered Prime Minister.

On LabourList this morning, Unite Hospitality’s Bryan Simpson has written on fair tips and how members took on ‘Scotland’s poshest hotel’ – and won. We also have a piece from Beth Winter MP, who explains that austerity is not the only game in town: “The time has come for the government to look seriously at introducing taxes on wealth.”