Lembit Opik has defended Matt Hancock's decision to appear on 'I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here!'.
Lembit Opik defends Matt Hancock's I'm A Celebrity decision
The 57-year-old former politician - who took part in the ITV show in 2010 - says the former Health Secretary's stint in the jungle may not even be "comparable to having a full-length holiday for anybody else" because "most MPs" work seven days a week.
When it was suggested West Suffolk MP Matt will be the other side of the world when he has constituents who need their MP "on their doorstep", Lembit said: "We can always make these arguments. Boris Johnson was in Barbados recently. We can argue that if someone had an urgent problem in his constituency then he couldn't have got back very fast.
"104 days a year are weekends. Most MPs work seven days a week. So if he bunches them all up into let's say 16 days, if he makes it to the beginning of the knockout part of the programme, that's not even comparable to having a full-length holiday for anybody else.
"I think we've got into righteous indignation here. If this wasn't on TV, we wouldn't be talking about it. If he'd gone on a quiet fishing holiday to Scotland people might even say, 'This is a good staycation.'
"I think he's being pariah-ed because we can. That's of course why ITV want him there, he's just absolutely flooding the ratings."
Lembit lost his seat in parliament at the 2010 general election, seven months before he headed Down Under, but the former member of the Liberal Democrats admits he would've gone into the jungle regardless.
When asked if he would've taken part in the show if he was a serving MP, he said on 'Good Morning Britain': "Yeah, I'm not going to hide behind that. I would've gone into that jungle in December 2010 if I hadn't lost my seat in May.
"And I wouldn't have had any qualms about it at all. I'm in the Nadine Dorries, and Matt Hancock camp there."
Matt - who was suspended from the Conservative Party on Tuesday (01.11.22) after it was revealed he was taking part in the show - is due to enter the jungle as a latecomer alongside comedian Seann Walsh.
The show returns on Sunday (06.11.22), when pop icon Boy George, 'Coronation Street' star Sue Cleaver, 'Hollyoaks' actor Owen Warner, former England rugby player Mike Tindall, radio presenter Chris Moyles, England Lioness Jill Scott, comedian Babatunde Aleshe, former 'Love Island' star Olivia Attwood, and TV presenters Charlene White and Scarlette Douglas will enter the camp.
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