Matt Hancock donates £10,000 of his £320,000 I’m A Celeb fee to two charities | Politics News

Matt Hancock gave £10,000 of his £320,000 fee from I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! to two charities, he has revealed.

The former health secretary’s earnings from his 18-day appearance on the ITV show last year were published in the MPs register of interests on Thursday.

On Friday, his spokesman told Sky News he has given £10,000 of his earnings from the show to the Nicholas Hospice in Suffolk and the British Dyslexia Association.

“That’s more than his MP’s salary when he was in the jungle,” the spokesman said.

It is not clear if the £10,000 was evenly split between the two charities.

The amount adds up to 3.13% of the total the West Suffolk MP earned from the programme.

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Mr Hancock, who was kicked out of the Tory party for appearing on the show and is now an independent MP, earned the equivalent of £17,777 a day during his jungle stint.

It is not known if the MP will donate any more money to the two charities but the spokesman added: “He’ll definitely be doing more fundraising this year, like he did last year – raising more than £22,000 for the proposed Cambridge Children’s Hospital”

Ahead of appearing on the show, Mr Hancock said he signed up to raise awareness of dyslexia, which he was diagnosed with while at Oxford University.

While he was in the jungle, viewers said he was shown speaking for the first time about the learning difficulty two weeks in and mentioned it up to four times after that.

When he announced his appearance, he wrote in The Sun: “I want to raise the profile of my dyslexia campaign to help every dyslexic child unleash their potential – even if it means taking an unusual route to get there via the Australian jungle.

“I’m A Celebrity is watched by millions of Brits up and down the country.

“I want to use this incredible platform to raise awareness, so no child leaves primary school not knowing if they have dyslexia.”

Following his stint in the jungle, Mr Hancock spoke in parliament about dyslexia during the second reading of the dyslexia screening and teacher training bill, which he tabled to provide universal screening in primary schools and to improve teacher training on the issue.

However, the bill ran out of time to clear its second reading and it is unlikely to progress in its current form.

In early December, Mr Hancock announced he will not be standing at the next general election, due in 2025.

In his letter announcing his intention to the prime minister, he wrote: “I look forward to championing issues that are dear to my heart, including better support for dyslexic children who get a raw deal from the education system.”