Kate Garraway blinks back tears as she confronts Matt Hancock over Derek’s health battle

Kate Garraway grilled MP Matt Hancock on entering the I’m A Celebrity jungle as she lifted the lid on the reaction from those whose families had been impacted by the coronavirus.

The MP appeared in the ITV studio alongside Kate as well as hosts Susanna Reid and Richard Madeley on Tuesday morning.

The interview came just days after Hancock’s eye-watering I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here! fee was finally revealed.

The MP appeared on screen for 720 hours (30 days) alongside the likes of Mike Tindall, Owen Warner and Queen of the Jungle, Jill Scott and earned £320,000.

Documents published by the Houses of Commons state that Hancock received an eye-watering amount from Lifted Entertainment, ITV, with the fee being registered on January 11, 2023.

Later in the interview, Kate was invited onto the panel to give her perspective on Hancock’s explanation for his wrongdoing, as she cares for husband Derek Draper, one of Brits worse affected by coronavirus.

Derek has been severely unwell since contracting Covid-19 in March 2020, which the GMB presenter has documented in two award-winning ITV documentaries.

She noted that when it was announced he would be flying to Australia to enter the 2023 jungle as the ITV2 reality show returned Down Under, people ‘immediately’ contacted her.

She continued: “When you talk about the moment you fell in love and you were caught falling in love and whether it was guidelines or legal.

“The problem is that because you were Health Secretary and because at that time I couldn’t visit Derek in hospital, he couldn’t see his kids, thousands of others couldn’t go and see the people they love because they were following the guidelines.

“It was all very muddled for us out here in the world.”

Derek’s most recent health scare saw him returned to hospital in October, after he contracted sepsis.

As Hancock sat across the panel nodding, Kate told the MP that he gives the impression he doesn’t understand why there is such fury directed at him.

“She said: “You still don’t get why people are upset. That amount of money is vast to everybody.

“I’m sure there are many others that went into the jungle when you did and maybe got more or maybe got less.

“But they’re holding you to more account because you’re probably only there because you were Health Secretary, making those decisions.

“You made the decision to go in before you’d answered to an inquiry, at a time when people still feel very raw. I’m not sure people feel comfortable about why you did it.”

Hancock replied: “The reason it’s important that I wrote the book in particular is I have to be completely open about what I did, why I took the decisions I did, so we can learn as much as possible. I feel really strongly about that.”