Matt Hancock ‘looking for forgiveness’ after insisting he didn’t ‘break any laws’ over lockdown ‘mistake’-Meghna Amin-Entertainment – Metro

The former health secretary said he was looking for ‘forgiveness’ (Picture: ITV/Shutterstock)

Matt Hancock asked his fellow campmates for ‘forgiveness’ after being grilled over his lockdown ‘mistake’.

The former health secretary joined the likes of Mike Tindall and Charlene White on I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! earlier this week.

So far, we’ve seen Hancock break out into an Ed Sheeran song, squirm under a downpour of slurry, and admit he ‘fell in love’ before resigning as health secretary in a scandal that rocked the nation.

The former health secretary stepped down from his position last year after CCTV footage of him kissing his aide, and ultimately broke social distancing guidelines.

The scandal sent shockwaves through Westminster, which prompted intense backlash and widespread calls for him to go.

He has since faced controversy for joining the reality TV show, and his campmates haven’t been impressed either.

On Friday’s episode, Hancock finally faced a grilling over his actions during lockdown, breaking ‘guidance’ he helped to create.

Chris Moyles began the conversation, asking Hancock: ‘What’s the plan, come out of here, write a book?’

Hancock replied: ‘I’ve just finished a book – Pandemic Diaries. Does what it says on the tin.’

He added: ‘Tells the story straight. Needs telling. Also, there’s going to be an inquiry. That will tell the story straight as well.’

Jill Scott then hilariously chimed in with asking whether these Bushtucker trials were actually practice-runs for the inquiry, sending the camp into laughter.

Hancock was caught kissing his former aide during lockdown social distancing rules (Picture: Rex Features)

Chris then asked Hancock: ‘You got a lockdown fine, didn’t you?’

Hancock replied: ‘No, of course, I didn’t. No I did not. I didn’t break any…’

After Chris interrupted with: ‘You were socialising with someone outside of your household,’ Hancock insisted: ‘I didn’t break any laws. Guidance is different.’

Scarlette Douglas chimed in: ‘So there’s a rule and there’s a law,’ to which Hancock replied: ‘Guidance is guidance. But the problem was it was my guidance.’

Scarlette further pressed: ‘Why did you break your own guidance?’

Chris Moyles was one of the first to grill Hancock (Picture: James Gourley/Shutterstock)

Hancock replied: ‘Because it was a mistake, because I fell in love with somebody.’

In the Bush Telegraph, he added: ‘In a way, lots of the campmates asked questions that the public have got as well, and it’s only respectful to just give completely straight and truthful answers.’

When Scarlette pressed Hancock on his actions, he replied: ‘That’s why I apologised for it.’

Charlene then grilled Hancock with her own personal story, saying ‘sorry doesn’t cut it.’

Charlene shared an emotional story of losing her aunt in the pandemic (Picture: ITV/Shutterstock)

She shared: ‘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.’

Scarlette echoed: ‘It’s not enough.’

Hancock admitted stories like that are why he ‘regrets’ what happened, before Charlene questioned: ‘Do you have regret regarding the way that as Health Minister you dealt with the pandemic as a whole?’

Hancock replied: ‘So the pandemic as a whole no, I’m much, much more robust in my defence of it,’ before defending his actions as health secretary.

He said: ‘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.’

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He later added to Charlene: ‘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.’

When Scarlette added she ‘nearly cried’, Hancock admitted: ‘so did I’.

‘We all make mistakes, I made a pretty big one,’ he added, before saying in the Bush Telegraph: ‘I wasn’t really expecting it, but it did get very emotional.’

I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! continues tomorrow night at 9pm on ITV.

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