The public should not believe anything Matt Hancock says… ‘he loves the spotlight’, reveals Boy George
BOY George has dismissed Matt Hancock's reasoning for entering the jungle and says the UK public should not believe anything he says.
The former Health Secretary said he wanted to raise awareness of dyslexia through his stint on the ITV reality show I'm a Celebrity.
But he quit as MP for West Suffolk last week to pursue "exciting opportunites".
Pop star Boy George, who spent three weeks living with Matt, wasn't surprised.
“Matt . . . he’s a Libra, and Librans love the spotlight,” he told The Sun.
Smiling, he continued: “They love the good life. They’ll elbow you out of the way for a seat on the jet. They like luxury.
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“So don’t believe anything Matt says about why he did I’m A Celebrity this year.
"He did it because he wants to kick up his heels and have a good time.”
Matt — who has also filmed episodes for Celeb SAS: Who Dares Wins — found himself at the centre of a public storm when he revealed he was to take part in I'm A Celeb.
The MP, who was exposed flouting his own advice when The Sun pictured him embracing mistress Gina Coladangelo during lockdown, later told stunned campmates he wanted to show that “politicians are human”.
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But George believes Matt was more consumed by remaining self-controlled and “keeping his edges soft” for the public than showing his real personality.
Still, he told how the “surprisingly naive” MP suffered repeated sense of humour failures in camp.
And he revealed he has seen a different side to him recently when he stumbled across a video of him apparently pretending to cry during the pandemic.
He said: “In life who do you really see? You see a version people want you to see. And though reality TV is exposing, you don’t get the full weight of a person.
“But, there are a few things I’ve seen since I’ve been out. Like a YouTube video where he pretended to cry, that was . . . it was like ‘wow’. I was like: ‘That is unbelievable.’
"That said, I’ve been in the business for a long time, and I’ve encountered so many different types of people, all with their own way of coping with being in the spotlight.
“And no one on the show was dislikeable, even Matt. He isn’t direct — there were lots of things he avoided — but I wasn’t surprised by that.
“I asked him about nuclear arms, he didn’t want to go there, trans, he didn’t want to go there — though he wasn’t anti-trans which was good.”
He admitted: “I was being provocative. I wanted to see if I could get through to him. I was like: ‘Come on tell me who you are’ and he managed to avoid a lot of those things, which frustrated people. It wasn’t our job to put right what Matt has done.
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"With him, a lot of people were angry and upset, with every reason to be.”
The former Conservative MP finished in third place as footballer Jill Scott became the new Queen of the Jungle.
