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Good luck with that, mate: Matt Hancock was left to fight back tears during Friday’s episode of I’m A Celebrity, after he asked his fellow contestants for ‘forgiveness’ in regards to his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Whereas sympathy may be in short supply back home, other celebrities were largely supportive of the former Health Secretary. Journalist and broadcaster Charlene White, who had previously grilled Matt Hancock over his conduct in office, even gave him a hug afterwards.
The ‘elephant in the room’, as it were, was brought up after Mr. Hancock completed a stomach-churning Bushtucker Trial. He was forced to eat animal genitalia and insects as part of his challenge – but he managed to fully accomplish the task.
However, the senior Tory was also questioned about his affair with Gina Coladangelo. His extra-maritals are ultimately his business… but Matt Hancock pursued the affair in a manner which went against COVID-19 and lockdown laws at the time.
Stage 2 restrictions were still in place when the pair were caught canoodling. Social distancing was being enforced across the country in May 2021, but Matt Hancock ended up breaking the very rules he laid down for the rest of us.
Therein lies the problem. In a discussion involving several camp-mates, Hancock denied breaking the law – but accepted it was wrong to ignore his own guidance. He said he had ‘no regrets’ for how he dealt with COVID-19, only to brazenly ask for ‘forgiveness’ moments later.
“No, I didn’t break any lockdown laws. Guidance, however, is different. But I don’t want to go into that. The problem was that it MY guidance. I made a mistake. I fell in love with someone, and I apologised for doing things wrong.”
“I have no regrets with how I dealt with the pandemic as a whole. I’m robust in my defence of that. The PPE scandal, for instance, happened because we massively needed more amounts of it. There were reasons for our decisions. The problems were caused by the virus.”
“Do you know what it is, actually? I’m looking for a bit of forgiveness. We all make mistakes, and I made a pretty big one. I feel its only the respectful thing to do, to give truthful and honest answers on these matters.” | Matt Hancock
