HOLLY Willoughby and Phillip Schofield have branded Matt Hancock “smart” for the way he’s handled trials on I’m A Celebrity.
The MP quickly became one of the most voted-for celebs in the show’s history after racking up six consecutive bushtucker trials after the public wanted to see him squirm.
However, his streak broke on Monday evening when it was revealed Boy George, Chris Moyles and Babatúndé Aléshé would be taking on the “Angel of Agony” instead.
While some praised the move, having gotten bored of seeing the former health secretary doing so many trials, others claimed it was a “fix” in a bid to boost Hancock’s popularity with viewers.
Speaking about the latest developments on I’m A Celeb on This Morning, Holly and Phil spoke to Olivia Attwood, who was forced to withdraw from this year’s show after just 24 hours due to medical concerns from a blood test.
During the chat, talk turned to Hancock and his appearance on the show – which came with a £400,000 price tag – causing Olivia to declare it a “PR stunt” when he “should be looking after the NHS”.
When Holly and Phil quizzed her about how he managed to avoid today’s trial, Olivia responded: “I just think viewers are bored – they want someone else to have a go.”
“He’s brilliant at the trials, he’s not squealing. He’s almost in a meditative state where he doesn’t actually say anything,” Holly commented, causing Olivia to agree and add: “I wanted some fear, and there was no screaming. We want the dramatics.”
“It would seem that the voting pattern is all about torture – who is going to react the worst. No one votes anyone in because they’re brilliant at it, which is why you get this vote suddenly changing,” Phil rationalised.
“Matt is taking this really rather seriously and last night, he said he was looking forward to it happening and as soon as he said that, I thought, ‘that’s your last one then’.”
The group were in agreement, with Holly adding: “That’s quite smart actually.”
Holly’s comment falls in line with fan suggestion that he had deliberately lied about how much he enjoyed trials in order to encourage viewers to vote for someone else.
This theory was previously put forward by former contestant Gillian McKeith during a chat with HOAR Online.
“You do get a sense from him that he is lacking self awareness, but when it comes to politicians they are so clever, they are very good at weaving people into their web and making themselves appear extremely amiable and kind and caring,” she told us.
“He is demonstrating all of these qualities on the show so of course he could be manipulating us because aren’t politicians like that?”
Not holding back Gillian added: “It’s totally the Matt Hancock show, 100%.
“I do not agree with sitting MPs leaving their works to go and do another job and abandoning their constituency that they are being paid to do work for. It doesn’t make sense to me at all.
“It’s completely wrong, I don’t understand why he doesn’t see that. You have to be completely tone deaf to not understand that, especially in light of where we have come from.”
I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here airs weeknights at 9pm on ITV.
