Matt Hancock set to take home £400,000 for I’m A Celebrity despite backlash-Cydney Yeates-Entertainment – Metro

Matt Hancock will be walking out of the jungle with a stacked wallet (Picture: ITV/Rex)

Unsurprisingly, Matt Hancock is getting paid a huge sum for signing up for I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! 2022.

According to insiders, the former Health Secretary will be getting a cheque of around £400,000 for his appearance on the series, which is returning to Australia for the first time in two years.

For comparison, Noel Edmonds is thought to be the highest-paid I’m A Celebrity contestant of all time, reportedly bagging £600,000 in 2018.

Caitlyn Jenner, who appeared on the show in 2019, and Harry Redknapp, in 2018, are both said to have walked away from the jungle with a huge fee of £500,000… so Mr Hancock is not far behind.

‘Matt’s pay deal with I’m A Celebrity is around £400,000 which is one of the largest ever show fees to have been paid out,’ an insider said.

Mr Hancock has sparked nationwide backlash after signing up for the series (Picture: REX / Getty / metro.co.uk)

‘ITV was keen for viewers to think the deal was worth around £150,000 but in reality it’s over double that.’

The source added to The Sun: ‘They asked him to be on the show three times in a matter of weeks and the money definitely helped seal the deal.’

It was previously reported that Mr Hancock will be donating a chunk of this earnings to St Nicholas Hospice Care, a charity he raised almost £8,000 for at last year’s London Marathon.

Noel Edmonds is believed to be the highest-paid I’m A Celebrity star in the show’s history (Picture: ITV)

‘Matt will be making a donation to St Nicholas Hospice in Suffolk, and he will, of course, declare the amount he receives from the show to Parliament to ensure complete transparency, as normal,’ a source told us.

Mr Hancock was pictured arriving at Brisbane Airport earlier this week, grinning for cameras as he walked through arrivals.

He defended his decision for signing up for the series following a wave of backlash from the public and fellow politicians, saying reality TV is an honest and unfiltered way to communicate with voters.

‘It’s our job as politicians to go to where the people are – not to sit in ivory towers in Westminster,’ Mr Hancock said.

‘There are many ways to do the job of being an MP. Whether I’m in camp for one day or three weeks, there are very few places people will be able to see a politician as they really are.’

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His casting ignited uproar on social media, as people called out the politician for ‘abandoning his constituents in a cost of living crisis.’

A Tory in Mr Hancock’s West Suffolk constituency said he is looking forward to seeing the former health secretary ‘eating a kangaroo’s penis’ while a West Suffolk Conservative councillor, said he has ‘no shame’.

And, if that wasn’t enough, thousands of critics have launched a petition calling for him to be banned from the ITV programme.

I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! launches on Sunday at 9pm on ITV.

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