The estimated earnings from Matt Hancock's participation in I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here are £400,000. based on a recent report.
Later this month, the former health secretary will switch from representing his constituents at Westminster to consuming insects in an Australian jungle.
Many people have criticised his choice, notably activists for families who lost loved ones to the Covid pandemic. He also ordered the rapid removal of the Tory whip.
The Conservative MP is now rumoured to be among the highest-paid competitors in the history of the ITV programme, with Noel Edmunds, Caitlyn Jenner, Harry Redknapp, and Boy George making slightly more at £500K.
"Matt's salary contract with I'm A Celebrity is over £400,000, which is one of the greatest show fees ever paid out," a source told The Sun.
"ITV wanted viewers to believe the agreement was worth about £150,000, but in actuality, it's worth over twice that much.
The money "certainly helped cement the deal" when they requested him to appear on the show three times in a matter of weeks.
Hancock continues to be a member of parliament and will continue to receive his £84,144 salary while he is abroad, despite being suspended from the Conservative party.
The revelation of his salary comes after a petition urging ITV to oust Mr. Hancock from the cast of I'm A Celebrity garnered over 34,000 signatures in less than 48 hours.
Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK, a group pushing for a public investigation into the government's handling of the pandemic, has up a petition calling for his removal after it was revealed on Tuesday that he will be joining the ITV series.
Actresses Kathy Burke, Right Said Fred, and Lorelei King all swiftly backed the petition, which alleges Mr. Hancock's reality TV appearance will bring "genuine hurt and anguish to those of us who lost loved ones to Covid-19."
According to the 6,000 members of the Covid-19 bereavement club, the politician is not famous; rather, "he's the health secretary who supervised the UK having one of the greatest death tolls from Covid-19 while breaking his own lockdown regulations."
The description added, "It says it all about the kind of his person he is that he is trying to cash in on his dreadful legacy, rather than exhibiting some humility or seeking to reflect on the appalling effects of his time in Government.
Turning on the TV to see Matt Hancock being paraded about as a joke is horrible. Families were torn apart by his acts.
He wouldn't be eating bugs on TV if he had any respect for the families who lost loved ones to Covid-19. Instead, he would be sharing his private correspondence with the Covid Inquiry.
The number of signatures reached 33,773 as of the writing of this article and is still growing.
According to rumours, the former health secretary will join 10 other celebrities who have already left for the Australian jungle as one of two latecomers.
In June of last year, the day after video footage of Mr. Hancock kissing an assistant in his ministerial office in violation of coronavirus regulations surfaced, he announced his resignation as health secretary.
In the summer and last week, he supported Mr. Sunak for the leadership but was not re-elected.
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