Hancock: It’s a pleasure to be back

Matt Hancock has returned to his day job as an MP after three weeks in the TV jungle as a contestant on ITV’s I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!

Mr Hancock was teased about his stint on the reality TV show as he made a speech in a near-empty House of Commons chamber.

He told MPs he was pleased to be back “clean and well-fed”.

The MP is trying to pass a law that would result in every child being screened for dyslexia in schools.

The former health secretary was suspended from the parliamentary Conservative Party after joining the ITV show, and now sits as an independent MP.

Some Conservative MPs poured scorn on Mr Hancock’s jungle jaunt, among them Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who said he was “very disappointed” in the MP for West Suffolk.

Mr Hancock defended his absence from Parliament, insisting he wanted to “show what I am like as a person” and draw attention to issues such as dyslexia.

The MP, who was diagnosed with dyslexia at university, said he would use the platform of I’m a Celebrity to raise awareness of the learning difficulty.

He was shown on camera doing so only a handful of times, including in his exit interview after he came third in the public vote on the show, which was filmed in Australia.

Two days after arriving back in the UK, Mr Hancock put the show’s stomach-churning Bushtucker Trials behind him for a challenge of a political kind in Parliament.

Starting the debate on Mr Hancock’s draft law – known as a bill – Commons Deputy Speaker Nigel Evans joked: “This is the third bill of the day and I know Mr Hancock you appear to be making a habit of coming third these days.”

In reply, Mr Hancock said: “I am not quite sure what to make of that. But I am honoured to be third today and let’s see how that goes.

“But it’s also a pleasure to be here and to be clean and well-fed.”

He said only one in five children are identified as dyslexic in schools, branding those figures a “gaping hole” in the government’s drive to improve literacy standards.

He told MPs that early identification of dyslexia was essential to reach full literacy in the UK.

“The next stage of the education revolution under this administration must be to improve opportunities that dyslexic children and children with other neurodivergent conditions have,” he said.

After wrapping up, Mr Hancock was followed by Labour’s shadow education minister, Matt Western, who said he was happy to see the former cabinet minister “here in the flesh”.

“He may have felt at home in the last week few weeks among late-career popstars and soap legends,” Mr Western said.

“But I’m sure what he’s hoping to do here is far more important than the past few weeks.”

The debate on Mr Hancock’s Dyslexia Screening and Teacher Training Bill ran out of time in Friday’s sitting of the House of Commons.

The bill he put forward is known as a private member’s bill and is only given limited time to be debated and voted on by MPs. The bill will next be considered the Commons in March next year, but is unlikely to progress any further given the time constraints on MPs when debating such matters.

Mr Hancock’s reappearance comes as speculation mounts over whether he will be reinstated as a Tory MP and seek to stand again at the next election.

Conservative vice-chair Nickie Aiken told the BBC she thought Mr Hancock should not be let back into the Conservative Party.

Allies of Mr Hancock say he intends to stay in politics.

Meanwhile, a serialisation of Mr Hancock’s new book, Pandemic Diaries, is to be published by the Daily Mail on Friday.

The former cabinet minister has also given an interview to the newspaper, telling them, among other things, about how he fell in love with his former aide, Gina Coladangelo.

Reports /TrainViral/