I'm A Celebrity's Charlene White confronts Matt Hancock over COVID deaths
I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here!'s campmates have finally got around to confronting Matt Hancock over his pandemic actions - bringing the MP close to tears.
The awkward conversation was finally prompted by Chris Moyles asking former health secretary Hancock whether he got a lockdown fine, but he appeared to be outraged as he said no.
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Hancock, who was forced to resign as health secretary when his affair with aide Gina Coladangelo was exposed, breaking his own social distancing rules, argued that he had broken guidance, not a law.
As Scarlette Douglas asked him why he had broken his own guidance, Hancock replied: “Because it was a mistake, because I fell in love with somebody.”
He insisted that he hadn't apologised just to wriggle off the hook, saying: "It's bigger than that."
Charlene White told him: “It’s massively bigger than that. My aunt died from COVID in the first wave. So, we couldn’t go to the hospital to go and visit her. I had to sit by myself in the church at her funeral. We couldn’t hug each other because we were following guidance.
"And I get that you fell in love, I understand all of those things, but 'sorry' for a lot of families like mine doesn’t really cut it.”
Hancock said: “Yeah. Well, there you go. That’s one of the reasons that I regret it as much as I do.”
White asked: “Do you have regret regarding the way that as health minister you dealt with the pandemic as a whole?”
He replied: “So the pandemic as a whole no, I’m much, much more robust in my defence of it.”
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As White pressed him on PPE and care homes, he added: “So PPE for instance, I know, of course I saw what happened to it, but that’s because we suddenly needed masses more PPE and so did everybody else in the world. And care homes… There were reasons for the decisions that were taken and ultimately those problems were caused by the virus, not the people who were trying to solve the problem.”
He later looked to be holding back tears as he said: "Do you know what it is actually, what I’m really looking for is a bit of forgiveness, that’s what I’m really looking for.”
But one campmate not taken in by Hancock's display of his "human side" was Moyles, who told the Bush Telegraph he didn't think that the MP was telling "the full truth".
He later told Douglas: “It was the last thing he said, ‘I think I’m here for forgiveness’. Then, I wanted to go, ‘Forgiveness for what Matt? What are you sorry for? Are you sorry for being caught? Are you sorry for having an affair? Are you sorry for making bad decisions? Are you sorry for lying? What? What?’
"If you’re going to be real, be real. I’m trying to be as real as I can and when I think he’s not being real it’s bugging me and I don’t know why. We’ve all made mistakes and you put your hands up and you’re honest. If you’re at that point where you genuinely feel that bad, you go, I’m sorry and you take it, I’m sorry.”
I'm A Celebrity continues tomorrow at 9pm on ITV.
Watch: Matt Hancock discusses affair that led to cabinet resignation
