A BBC Question Time audience member has unloaded on the Conservative Party following Matt Hancock’s decision to join I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here.
The former health secretary has faced flak even from within his own party for deciding to enter the jungle while still a sitting MP and while parliament is sitting.
Hancock has said he is taking part in the ITV show to “go to where the people are – not to sit in ivory towers in Westminster”.
He insisted “I haven’t lost my marbles” by deciding to join the ratings hit after being suspended from the parliamentary Conservative Party.
The West Suffolk MP claimed his “first priority” is to his constituents as he flew more than 10,000 miles to join the ITV show, which starts on Sunday.
But the public don’t appear to see it that way – at least based on the response from the audience of the BBC’s flagship politics show.
One woman said: “I think he should be in parliament. He has been elected by his constituents. He should be working for them.
“Going on a show in the jungle, he should be doing it in his own time after he has finished his work as an MP. But he has promised that time to his constituents and it should be for them.”
She then added: “There is no talent in this government at all.”
Presenter Fiona Bruce interrupted her flow by asking whether she included panellist Chris Philp, the policing minister, in her critique.
“Yeah, I’m talking to Chris as well,” she replied as Philp muttered “ouch”.
The audience member went on: “I think there is no talent whatsoever in this Conservative government. One after another, it’s been an absolute shambles.”
Few others in the audience or on the panel had any sympathy for Hancock’s argument.
The spoken word performer George the Poet, appearing on the show, even said: “I really don’t want to dwell on this one for too long. I don’t think it’s even newsworthy. I think it’s an embarrassment.”