Home Secretary Jacqui Smith: Hancock shouldn’t have entered jungle, his political career is now over.

“MATT HANCOCK SHOULDN’T HAVE ENTERED THE JUNGLE”

But Former Home Secretary Jacqui Smith also say show colleague has plenty to answer for

FORMER Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has criticised Matt Hancock for appearing on I’m A Celebrity.
Ms Smith, who starred on Strictly Come Dancing two years ago, told GB News: “Look, when you’ve got a constituency, you’re answerable to then I don’t think as a serving MP, you should take yourself away for the length of time that Matt Hancock has. I think he made a mistake there.”
But the ex-Labour Minister said she felt some of the flak Mr Hancock has received was unfair and suggested the pop-star Boy George in particular had little right to criticise the ex-Health Secretary.
Speaking to Gloria Meets on GB News in an interview to be screened tomorrow (SUN) she said: “I think there are people in that jungle who’ve got more to answer for, Boy George for one, than probably Matt Hancock has about gone into it. I mean, Matt will have a COVID inquiry at some point or another that he’ll need to face up to.
“But no, I don’t think he should have done it. I think his constituents will have something to say about it. And I suspect it means he thinks he’s at the end of his political career as well.”
Ms Smith, 60, also spoke about the breakdown of her 33-year marriage to ex-husband Richard Timney, with whom she has two sons, and said she used dating apps to help her move on.
“I grieved for my marriage,” Ms Smith said. “It was a very happy marriage of 33 years. And in some ways, I will never get over that. But I have got a new life. I’ve got a very lovely new partner. I’ve realised that it’s possible to come through those times. There are dating apps, I have used them, but I actually met my partner at yoga.”
Reflecting on the end of her career in politics, which came after an infamous expenses scandal involving her ex-husband, she said: “I’d gone through a lot of difficulties in terms of the expenses scandal which had impacted on my family. I was only able to do the job because my then husband actually helped to care for our children and helped to work with me in the constituency. I just couldn’t carry on doing it in those circumstances. And then of course, to add to the agony, a year later I lost my parliamentary seat as well, which in some ways was expected but nevertheless was very difficult. It’s been your life and then all of a sudden that’s taken away from you. It’s a period of grieving. It’s a complete transition of your life. In some ways it’s a liberation, of course, and I’m very lucky 12 years on now from that happening.”
Offering advice to how Liz Truss might handle her life outside of politics she said: “I feel personally sympathetic to her. I think you need to take a bit of time. You need to get your head together; you need to decide what it is you can do. Sometimes people think that because you’ve been an MP or a minister, you can just step into other roles. It’s quite difficult to find that life after frontline politics, but it’s not impossible.
“In my case, despite not succeeding to be the best dancer ever to do Strictly, I absolutely loved it. It was a massive adventure. Having the make-up, having the sparkles and doing something completely different was as far as I was concerned a sort of fantastic rebooting of my life in so very many ways.”