Babatunde Aleshe, a comedian, has stated that Matt Hancock is no longer a contestant on I’m A Celebrity… I Need to Get Out of Here! Group on Whatsapp.
The former health minister competed on the popular reality series alongside Lioness Jill Scott, Boy George, and the show’s first royal Mike Tindall, finishing in third place.
But, since leaving the jungle, there has been considerable speculation over whether he has maintained contact with his co-stars.
Scarlette Douglas, the host of A Place In The Sun, initially addressed the group in December, stating Hancock wasn’t in it but she wanted to remain in touch with her castmates.
‘I’m not the admin of that WhatsApp group so if Mike wants to invite him he absolutely can, but it’s not me to put the invitation out so we’ll see what happens,’ she had said.
Not long later, Tindall clarified: ‘I think there’s been a miscommunication with that, no one has left the WhatsApp group.’
But, Aleshe has now verified that Hancock, 44, is not a member of the organisation.
‘I checked today and he’s not in the group anymore,’ he stated on The Jonathan Ross Show.
‘I don’t know if he’s been kicked out or if he left of his own accord.’
Aleshe also discussed his time in camp with Hancock, whose attendance on the show provoked outrage and drew in grillings from the likes of Loose Women’s Charlene White: ‘I won’t lie, it was tough but I tried to make good out of a bad situation.
‘You’re in here, I’ve got to be your teammate and he came in flying, winning trials.
‘But at the end of the day, I do believe in second chances and I was just like let me at least try to be the nice person.’
Following his 18-day stay on the programme, for which he reportedly earned £320,000, Hancock announced that he will not run in the next general election.
Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly, the program’s hosts, then justified bringing Hancock on the show, claiming it was’very tough’ to set personal views aside and maintain objectivity.
‘We were all affected by decisions that he made and situations he created, so it was very, very difficult.
‘But we tried incredibly hard to be impartial and to put that to one side. And I hope we did it.
Dec responded to criticism about ITV scheduling Hancock, saying, ‘That is a really interesting point of view. And, of course, [it] has some validity.
‘I think it was interesting to allow him his say and to hear things from his point of view. Like I say, it was a situation that we all lived through, and he was at the centre of it.
‘I kind of wanted to hear – now that he’s no longer a politician, and wasn’t doing his pivots in interviews – his side of the story, and his point of view.
‘I personally thought it was a really really interesting booking. And I was interested in hearing what he was like, and what things were like from his point of view.’
Hancock’s reality TV career is far from ended, as he is slated to feature on SAS: Who Dares Wins later this year, for which he is said to have received £45,000.
I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! Is available to stream on ITVX.