Piers Morgan has revealed he had an encounter with Matt Hancock at Heathrow airport that was the “purest personification of awks”.
The former Good Morning Britain host had been a very vocal critic of the Tory MP’s recent stint on I’m A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here!, and had also called out his handling on the pandemic when Hancock was health secretary.
Hancock had just arrived in the UK from the Australian outback when he and Piers bumped into each other at the airport.
Detailing the moment, Piers tweeted on Wednesday: “Just bumped into Matt Hancock at Heathrow. I told him I’d been giving him a good kicking the entire time he was in the jungle. He said he knew.
“It was the purest personification of #Awks.”
Upon the news that Hancock would be appearing on this year’s I’m A Celebrity earlier this month, Piers called it a “ridiculous vanity exercise” and a “smack in the face” for those who lost loved ones in the pandemic.
Speaking on his TalkTV show Piers Morgan Uncensored, the outspoken presenter said: “The first wave [of the pandemic] was a disaster and the health secretary presiding over this was Matt Hancock.
“For [Hancock] to now – before there has even been a proper inquiry into what happened and what culpability he may actually be proven to have had – for him to now go into a reality show, in a jungle for hundreds of thousands of pounds is an absolute smack in the face for people... who had to go through so much appalling trauma of losing all these people in your homes,” he said, while in conversation with a care home owner.
Later in the segment, Piers went on to say: “The brass neck of it – I think he’s ending his career.”
Despite Piers’ predictions, Hancock managed to get all the way to the final of the ITV reality show, finishing in third place behind Hollyoaks actor Owen Warner and eventual winner Jill Scott.
Hancock – who was stripped of the Tory whip when his decision to go on I’m A Celebrity was announced – has also filmed an appearance on Channel 4′s Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins, for which it has been revealed he was paid £45,000.
The West Suffolk MP has not yet declared how much he received for appearing on I’m A Celebrity, but it has been reported that he was paid £400,000.
A spokesperson for Hancock has said that he “will be making a donation to St Nicholas Hospice in Suffolk and causes supporting dyslexia” from his’ I’m A Celebrity fee.