It is a dark day for comedy indeed. After a dozen years of trying (and failing) to become PM, Matt Hancock has today announced he is quitting parliament and will stand down at the next election, just 24 hours after launching his ‘pandemic diaries’. Only nine days ago, his spokesman was furiously insisting to reporters that Hancock had ‘no intention of standing down or stepping away from politics.’
But now the lothario legislator suggests that his recent experiences on I’m a Celebrity have changed his views on politics, musing in his farewell letter to Rishi Sunak that ‘there was a time when I thought the only way to influence the public debate was in parliament’ but that now ‘I’ve realised there’s far more it than that.’ As a minor media celebrity perhaps? He wrote in a lengthy statement:
I have increasingly come to believe that for a healthy democracy we must find new ways to reach people – especially those who are disengaged with politics. The revival of modern conservatism over the next decade will I suspect take place as much outside parliament as in it. For my part I want to do things differently. I have discovered a whole new world of possibilities which I am excited to explore – new ways for me to communicate with people of all ages and all backgrounds. I look forward to championing the issues that are dear to my heart, including better support for dyslexic children who get a raw deal from the education system.
Let’s hope he continues to champion them more than he did in that jungle, eh? Mr S looks forward to seeing just how Hancock intends to revive modern conservatism – presumably it’s rather more complicated than simply plugging the crypto industry. Still, at least now the Casanova of the Commons will have more time to focus on the upcoming Covid inquiry.
What better way to ‘communicate with people of all ages’ than via sworn testimony to a judge?
Comments