Matt Hancock in new row over ‘I’m a Celebrity’ cash
Matt Hancock: is the former Health Secretary really so thick that he doesn’t understand the difference between gross and net earnings?
Former Tory Health Secretary Matt Hancock has got himself into yet another fix over money.
It’s only a little more than two weeks since we learned that he gave only a little more than three per cent of his I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here fee to dyslexia campaigns – the reason he said he was doing the show.
Now we find it wasn’t even that much, because his fee wasn’t £320,000 – as he claimed – but £400,000.
So – only 2.5 per cent went to dyslexia. What a deceiving skinflint.
Hancock’s problem now is that he lied in Parliament’s Register of Members’ Interests.
He was duty-bound to enter all of his earnings on Celebrity – the gross amount – but didn’t.
Here’s Robert Peston to explain what we know:
Matt Hancock was paid £400,000 before tax by ITV for his appearance on “I’m a Celebrity”, although his entry in the register of MPs’ interests say he was paid £320,000. 🧵1/4
— Robert Peston (@Peston) February 14, 2023
Even if the £80,000 did go to an agent, the rules of the Register of MPs interests says “earnings should be given gross, ie before tax or other deductions”. Hancock gave £10,000 of the fee to charity. 4/4
— Robert Peston (@Peston) February 14, 2023
Hancock did respond to Peston’s inquiries later. Here’s his update:
I’ve now got this from Hancock: “£320k was my earnings. I did not make any deductions and did not receive £400k. The rest went to the agent who made the intro. Obviously I checked all this before making the declaration. I need to declare what I received, gross. That’s what I did”
— Robert Peston (@Peston) February 14, 2023
fee? Much depends on the meaning in MPs’ disclosure rules of the word “earnings”. Does it mean the fee, which was £400,000, or what Hancock says he actually pocketed? He says he checked and did the right thing. There is no reason to doubt him but the rules are unclear.
— Robert Peston (@Peston) February 14, 2023
Peston is being too charitable in his last two tweets. Gross is gross – the whole of the amount a person is paid. ITV paid Hancock £400,000. That is his gross earning from that engagement. What he did with it afterwards – handing £80,000 to an agent, handing £10,000 to dyslexia organisations – was his decision over his money.
Those are the rules for the rest of us. If they aren’t the rules in Parliament, then we should be told when they will be changed – and we should demand that they be changed retrospectively.
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He is a tory…so nothing much will happen….No conviction, no jail time…
“Gross is gross”
I know it’s not within the context you put it, Mike…
…But if EVER there was an understatement… 😒