Nigel Farage on I’m A Celebrity: every politician who has been on ITV show from Matt Hancock to Nadine Dorries

Nigel Farage appears to be finally fulfilling his promise to leave the UK if Brexit becomes a failure as he is heading to Australia this month. But no, it’s not a one way ticket, the former Conservative, former UKIP, former independent, and now Reform UK politician is about to take part in the latest season of I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here! 

The politician is going through a bit of a reinvention as pundits suggest he may be eyeing a return to the Conservative party. He’s also recently released his own brand of gin, because he’s just such an everyman.

Farage may well be strapped for cash following his infamous ‘de-banking’ by Coutts, but fear not, because it’s been estimated that he may have got as much as a £1 million payday or more for taking part in the show, if the figure is correct then ITV value him as worth two Caitlyn Jenners, or three Matt Hancocks.

Whilst some I’m A Celeb fans may find it hard to watch light entertainment featuring one of the chief architects behind Brexit, it’s far from the first time a controversial public figure has taken part in the show. As the new series launches next week, we look back at every politician who has spent time in the jungle.

Matt Hancock

Perhaps the most damning indictment of modern society is that Hancock, who oversaw the Covid-19 pandemic as health secretary, whilst secretly having a lockdown busting affair with his aide, managed to slither his way to third place before being voted off in last year’s series. Don’t call him ungenerous though, he donated a whopping 3% of the £320,000 fee he was paid for his tacky public rehabilitation to charity. He also made another £45,000 for appearing on Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins, in which he was called a ‘weasel-faced c***‘.

Edwina Currie 

The worst thing to happen to British politics until Suella Braverman came along and grabbed the baton with both hands, former Conservative MP Edwina Currie took part in the series in 2014. She was a late arrival, entering camp on day five, proving the lie of ‘good things come to those who wait’. Currie spent 17 days getting into a row with pretty much every one of her campmates, repeatedly screamed ‘Mel’, and Melanie Sykes and was voted out in fourth place.

Kezia Dugdale 

Leader of the Scottish Labour Party from 2015-2017, Kezia Dugdale entered the jungle just months after leaving frontbench politics. She said that she wanted to prove that not every politician is old, white, male, pale and stale (she was on the same series as Stanley Johnson). She was the second celeb to be kicked out but left us all with the memorable sight of her wading around in a tank of raw meat labelled ‘Sickola Sturgeon’.

Stanley Johnson

Stanley Johnson, former MEP and, for his sins, father to Boris Johnson, appeared on I’m A Celeb in 2017, and struck up a friendship with eventual Queen of the Jungle Georgia Toffolo. The pair remained friends since leaving the jungle, taking part on Celebrity Hunted and Celebrity Antiques Road Trip together. Toff didn’t seem put off from the old guard Tory, even following allegations that he had groped two women without consent and broken his ex-wife’s nose.

Nadine Dorries

Dame - my mistake, plain old Ms Nadine Dorries, the biggest fan of Boris Johnson since Boris Johnson, joined the jungle in 2013. Her stint on the show ended quickly as she was the first to be voted out (hahahahaha). She was then forced to apologise in Parliament for failing to register her £82,000 appearance fee, just months after she had been caught out claiming £3,000 in expenses for travel that was not related to her duties as an MP.

Lembit Öpik

Liberal Democrat MP Lembit Öpik joined I’m A Celeb, probably suspecting he would get more votes in the series than his party would in a general election. Instead, he got himself bitten by a snake during a task in which he had to retrieve a key from the lock containing the reptile. He was also the second celeb to be voted out, whilst Happy Mondays singer Shaun Ryder, who was also bitten by a snake in the same task, went on to become that year’s runner up.  

Robert Kilroy-Silk

Trendsetter and former Labour MP and MEP joined the was the first politician to take part in the show, doing so on series eight in 2008. Which means we have him to thank for Farage’s upcoming appearance. Kilroy-Silk was the first to be voted out and was later criticised for continuing to take his parliamentary wage whilst taking part in the show 10,000 miles away from his constituency. Still his scolding didn’t put off the likes of Dorries and Hancock from following in his footsteps.