It seems that maths isn’t Matt Hancock’s strong suit. Appearing on Good Morning Britain today, the onetime Paymaster General was asked about the £320,000 fee he received for appearing on ITV’s I’m A Celebrity… late last year. Hancock told Susanna Reid and Richard Madeley that he did not appear on the programme ‘primarily’ for the fee and that he donated a ‘decent sum’ from it to charity. That sum, of course, was just £10,000 – meaning that Hancock pocketed the remaining £310,000 or some 96 per cent of the amount he earned from his appearance. Here’s their awkward exchange:
RM: ‘If the money wasn’t important to you then why did you hold on to most of it?’
MH: ‘Well I did absolutely give some of the money to charities and they’re two brilliant charities…’
SR: ‘Three per cent?’
RM: ‘We’re talking about the amount not the charities.
SR: ‘If you didn’t do it for the money, why not give it to the causes that need it?’
MH: ‘I said I didn’t primarily do it for the money but also…
RM: ‘If you have only given £10,000 to charity and you’ve kept £320,000 it would seem to most people who can do basic arithmetic that you did do it for the money and I’m not saying that that’s necessarily wrong I just want a clear and honest answer from you.’
MH: ‘And that’s what I’m giving you. I didn’t primarily do it for the money, I primarily did it to show who I really am.
RM: ‘But you primarily kept the money?’
MH: ‘And I gave a five figure sum to charity…’
RM: ‘£10,000? Out of £330,000?’
MH: ‘Sure.’
Well done to Matt for showing us all who he really is.
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