Matt Hancock latest news: I’m A Celebrity deal ‘cashes in on Covid misery’, say bereaved

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said he will meet Chancellor Jeremy Hunt this week to discuss what the autumn budget will mean for his department, as a promised rise in defence spending hangs in the balance.

Appearing before Lords International Relations and Defence Committee, Mr Wallace said: “Obviously we are in the middle of an IR refresh that John Bew… is going to produce, and obviously contributions from my department and others will be made towards it, hopefully publishing sometime toward the end of this year.

“But obviously, we’re having to take … account of the economic challenges at the moment, and we’ll wait to see what the chancellor’s budget produces. I myself will have a meeting with the chancellor this week around what that means for my department.”

While in office, ex-PM Liz Truss commissioned an update to the Integrated Review (IR) of defence and security, which was published in March 2021.

Unveiled by her predecessor Boris Johnson, it had seen the size of the Army reduced by 9,500 and one-third of its ranks scrapped. The update was expected to be published by the end of 2022.

Ms Truss had promised to raise defence spending to 3 per cent of GDP by 2030 – a measure Mr Sunak has refused to commit to.

The government will establish a taskforce to defend Britain’s democratic institutions, security minister Tom Tugendhat said.

Mr Tugendhat said Rishi Sunak asked him to lead an initiative to “drive forward work to defend the democratic integrity of our country” with a review of threats facing public and private security.

A range of actors are “trying to weaken us, to challenge us and to exploit us”, he told MPs in the Commons.

“The evidence of this is clear and sadly indisputable: dictatorships are trying to write the new rules for a new world.”

He added: “The advanced technologies our rivals have spent time and money developing have levelled the field and made us more vulnerable.

“Britain has been on the front line of the defence of liberty for generations; our agencies, and businesses have faced the reality of this danger for decades.”

Senior Labour MP Chris Bryant has said he stands by his claim that he saw Tory MPs being bullied into voting for the government in a controversial Commons vote on fracking.

The Speaker said today an investigation by senior parliamentary officials has found no evidence of bullying.

However, Mr Bryant, who chairs the Commons Standards Committee and who was among the MPs to make the original allegations, told BBC Radio 4’s The World at One: “I am not challenging the ruling of the Speaker but I know what I saw and I am not withdrawing a single word.

“It may be that some people feel that they weren’t bullied but I saw intimidatory behaviour.

“If you have 15 or 12 MPs standing round one MP effectively, to my mind, kettling them, that is intimidatory behaviour and it will be seen as bullying in any other line of work.”

Mr Bryant defended his decision to post photographs of what took place on social media in breach of Commons rules.

“I knew that I was breaking the rules. I have apologised to the House for breaking the rules. I thought sometimes you have to break a rule if you see a greater injustice being done. We are trying to change the culture in Parliament,” he said.

In other news, a global fund for AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria victims has been plunged into disarray after the Foreign Office broke a promise to make a crucial donation.

Rob Merrick, our deputy political editor, reports:

Matt Hancock is but the latest politician to bet their fading star on the jungle.

He follows fellow Tories Nadine Dorries (2012 series), Edwina Currie (2011), Stanley Johnson (2017), former Lib Dem MP Lembit Opik (2010), former Labour MP Robert Kilroy-Silk (2008) and former Scottish Labour Leader Kezia Dugdale (2017).

Connie Evans goes through their trials and tribulations at the hands of ITV directors:

Boris Johnson has taken a public speaking gig at a digital technology conference.

The International Symposium on Blockchain Advancements (2 December in Singapore) lists the former prime minister as a keynote speaker alongside former US vice president Dick Cheney.

Mr Johnson had been expected to follow other ex-world leaders onto the lucrative public speaking circuit, where big political names can expect to earn hundreds of thousands of pounds for a single talk.

Campaign groups say there is now an “overwhelming case” for the government to expand windfall taxes on fossil fuel companies after Shell and BP saw their profits double as oil and gas prices continue to soar (Harry Cockburn writes).

Over the last quarter, Shell made £8bn in profits in the past three months, while BP revealed on Tuesday it had made £7.1bn over the same period – up from £2.9bn for the same period last year.

A 25 per cent windfall tax was introduced by Rishi Sunak when he was still chancellor in May. Known as the “energy profits levy”, it applies only to profits made from extracting UK oil and gas. However, it also incentivises further investment in the extraction of fossil fuels, by allowing firms to apply for tax savings worth 91p of every £1 invested in new drilling efforts.

But Shell has said it does not expect to pay any extra tax as a result as its investments in UK drilling mean it hasn’t made a net profit. BP has said it expects to pay just £800m.

The Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice campaign accused Mr Hancock of “trying to cash in on his terrible legacy” by appearing on I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!

“Matt Hancock isn’t a ‘celebrity’, he’s the former health secretary who oversaw the UK having one of the highest death tolls in the world from Covid-19 whilst breaking his own lockdown rules,” said spokesperson Lobby Akinnola.

Mr Hancock was health secretary for the first year of the coronavirus pandemic during which time the government was criticised for being too slow to enforce restrictions, lifting them too early and confusing communications over rules.

Ian Houlder, a Conservative councillor on West Suffolk Council, said Mr Hancock, his local MP, had “no shame”.

He said of Mr Hancock, who has been stripped of the Tory whip for the reality TV deal: “It wouldn’t surprise me at all if he goes back on bended knee to whoever’s in charge of the Conservative Party after his book comes out or whatever in the winter … because he’s thick-skinned, he’s got no shame at all.”

He went on: “Everybody knows what he did during the Covid pandemic and he seems to want to rehabilitate himself all the time in the public eye.”

Mr Hancock has yet to declare how much he will make from his time in the jungle. Nadine Dorries, who herself lost the Tory whip when she appeared on the ITV programme in 2012, made £83,000.

A parliamentary investigation has found “no evidence” that MPs were bullied during last month’s chaotic Commons vote on fracking, the Speaker has said (Jon Stone writes).

Government whips and other ministers were at the time accused of “manhandling” other MPs to force them to vote with the government – contributing to the sense of chaos that saw Liz Truss resign as prime minister the next day.

But in a statement to the Commons on Tuesday 1 November Speaker Lindsay Hoyle said an official investigation had found that despite a “tense” atmosphere, there was “no evidence any bullying or undue influence placed on other members”.

Responding to Matt Hancock’s deal to join I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here, Dave Penman, general secretary of the FDA union, said: “Oh to have a job where you can decide for yourself you’re taking a month off, abandon your work and responsibilities, get paid shedloads and face little consequence.”

“I’m sure he’ll be an inspiration to other public servants,” Mr Penman, who leads the union representing civil servants, added.

Mr Hancock has been suspended from the parliamentary Conservative party for agreeing to enter the Australian jungle on the hit reality show.

The response to the announcement of the former health secretary’s decision has been split between anger and teasing.

Andy Drummond, deputy political chair of Mr Hancock’s local Conservative Association in West Suffolk, told PA: “I’m looking forward to him eating a kangaroo’s penis.

“Quote me. You can quote me that.”