A Renfrewshire politician says the situation at Westminster inside the Conservative party at the moment is so bad that Tories are choosing to “eat an ostrich anus” rather than help their constituents with the cost-of-living crisis.
Paisley and Renfrewshire South MP Mhairi Black was referring to the move by Matt Hancock to abandon his constituency in order to compete in the reality TV show, I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here.
The brazen West Suffolk MP was announced as the latest addition on the popular show and has since come under fire for his decision – including being jettisoned from his own party over it.
The former health secretary will miss weeks of business at parliament, leaving his constituents with no representative during that time. The show begins on Sunday, November 6.
Black believes Hancock should have resigned as a politician a long time ago – and says his decision to head to the jungle in Australia was a symptom of the malaise currently affecting the Tory party.
She said: “Matt Hancock should have resigned long ago for his deplorable actions while he was health minister, breaking lockdown rules that we all lived by during the pandemic.
“You know it’s really bad, though, when you would rather head off to the jungle to eat an ostrich anus than be associated with Rishi Sunak and the Tories in Westminster.”
Another Westminster politician from Renfrewshire, Black’s SNP colleague Gavin Newlands, who represents Paisley and Renfrewshire North, said it wasn’t so much Hancock’s decision to appear on a reality TV show that was wrong, but that the timing of it is awful.
He said: “MPs have plenty of time during recess for holidays and extra-curricular activity as well as constituency work, and if Mr Hancock wanted to spend some of that time off eating various animal body parts on national television, who are we to stand in the way of his dream?
“But the fact is his trip to Australia means he will be AWOL from parliament for a number of weeks, leaving his constituents without representation for no good reason.
“He is also likely to miss the budget statement towards the end of the month, a statement that is one of the most important in years given the economic crisis he and his colleagues have created in their time in office.
“Over 10 per cent of children in Matt Hancock’s constituency live in poverty, while over 12,000 households there face a cut in their benefits under his party’s rule.
“Maybe his time would be better spent fighting for their interests rather than moving into showbiz.”
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