MATT Hancock has made his first appearance in Parliament since bunking off work for a month to take part in ITV reality show, ‘I’m a Celebrity...’
The MP - who now sits as an independent after having the Tory whip removed - told the Commons “it is a pleasure to be here, and to be clean and well-fed”.
He is also reportedly £400,000 richer than he was after receiving a bumper payout for appearing on the primetime jungle-based programme.
His willingness to eat camel penis and sheep vagina as Ant and Dec watched on proved something of a hit with viewers who voted him into third place.
However, it is less certain if he will face voters in his West Suffolk constituency again.
Earlier this week the Spectator suggested he was considering a run at being the Tory candidate for Mayor of London.
His team has insisted he has “no intention of standing down or stepping away from politics."
In the run to appearing on 'I'm a Celebrity' Mr Hancock claimed he wanted to use the platform, in part, to raise the profile of his dyslexia campaign.
In the end, there were just two mentions in the show's three-week run
On Friday, the former health secretary was in the chamber in a bid to drum up support for the second reading of his private members’ bill on Dyslexia Screening and Teacher Training.
Nigel Evans, Deputy Speaker, introduced Mr Hancock’s contribution by saying it was the third bill of the day. He said the MP was “making a habit of coming third."
“I’m not quite sure what to make of that, but I’m honoured to be third.. today," Mr Hancock replied. "Let’s see how that goes"
The Bill - which would apply only in England - calls for the screening of all children for dyslexia before the end of their first year of school.
It also calls for teacher training providers to do more to increase "the understanding of trainee teachers in relation to dyslexia and other neurodivergent conditions."
Mr Hancock told MPs: “There is a gaping hole in the Government’s literary drive, because shockingly one in five dyslexic children get identified in school. Just one in five. These are the department’s own figures.
“And in fact when I found these figures from the Rose report over 10 years ago, I then asked the department… what the updated figure was, because I thought one in five was such a shockingly low figure, and I found that it hasn’t changed over the last decade.”
He added: “Without early identification we will never reach full literacy. Because the success in driving up literacy requires us to next support those who have the most difficulty in increasing their literacy.
“So the next stage of the education revolution under this administration must be to improve opportunities that dyslexic children and children with other neurodivergent conditions have.”
Mr Hancock said it is estimated around 10% of people in the UK are dyslexic, adding: “But if we don’t know who is dyslexic when they are at school, how can we possibly help them and equip them to deal with the challenges that life throws at us?”
The Bill will come back before the Commons again at a later date.
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