How much was Matt Hancock paid for Celebrity SAS? Disgraced MP made over £500 per hour for Channel 4 series

Matt Hancock, the former Health Secretary who resigned in disgrace during the pandemic, and has now said he will not stand in the next general election, is set to make far more as a TV star than as an MP.

Now appearing on Channel 4 reality series Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins, Hancock’s appearance was actually filmed a year ago before he shockingly joined ITV series I’m A Celebrity, which is aired part live.

The decision to double dip in the reality TV world irked Channel 4,, who initially believed that they had secured Hancock’s first TV appearance in a non-political capacity, only for it to come almost a year after his I’m A Celeb stint aired.

Though Hancock does still make contributions in the Commons, he has begun to reinvent himself as a TV personality ahead of next general election. His latest TV appearance sees Hancock joining the likes of former OnlyFans model Danielle Lloyd, TOWIE star James Argent and singer Gareth Gates, on Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins.

How much was Matt Hancock paid for Celebrity SAS?

The former Health Secretary, who resigned following the revelation that he has been involved in an affair with his aide that broke lockdown rules, has pivoted from politics to reality TV, though he still sits as an MP in the House of Commons.

Hancock made his first major TV appearance in I’m A Celebrity, back in November 2022, though he had already filmed Channel 4’s Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins, which is airing now.

In the MPs Register of Interests, Hancock revealed that on 28 October 2022 he had been paid £45,000 by Minnow Films for his appearance on the show. The series was filmed over 15 days from 24 September to 8 October. Hancock was paid for 80 hours of work which works out at £562.50 per hour.

To put his whopping salary into further context, the latest government data puts the average UK worker’s salary at £32,000, more than a quarter less than Hancock made for two week’s work.

How much money has Matt Hancock earned after resigning?

Despite resigning as Health Secretary in June 2021, and sitting as an independent MP following losing the whip in November last year, Hancock continues to earn £84,144 (over 2.5 times the average UK salary) as an MP.

On top of this, he earned an eye watering £320,000 - around £30,000 more than the average price of a UK home - for his time on I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here! This was included in his Register of Interests as pay for 720 hours work over 30 days - which means that he was paid for the time he spent asleep.

Hancock later announced that he had donated £10,000 (3.1%) of his I'm A Celeb salary to charity. But the MP was paid that same amount - £10,000 - for a two hour interview on Good Morning Britain, during which he denied taking part in I’m A Celeb for the money.

But wait, there’s more - Hancock made £48,000 for an interview and serialisation of his Pandemic Diaries book in the Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday for Associated Newspapers. This is the book about the pandemic during which he resigned for breaking the very rules that the government he was working in created,

Add to this the £25,400 he received for various speaking engagements, TV and radio appearances, and the recording of his aforementioned book, and Hancock has made £423,000 in the last year alone, not including his salary as an MP.