The Rebuttal: Hancock-up? Or a ‘celebrity’ masterclass?

Issue: Can a disgraced MP rejuvenate their career by ignoring their job and hanging out in a jungle with Z-list ‘celebrities’?

Context

Matt Hancock – a.k.a. the Health Secretary during Covid-19 before resigning in disgrace for breaching social-distancing rules by snogging his tax-payer funded aide (who was notably not his wife) – launched an attempted career comeback this month by appearing on ‘I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here’. Hancock’s decision prompted the removal of the Tory whip, casting further doubts on his already-dim political prospects. Promising to use the attention to raise awareness of dyslexia, Hancock ended up finishing third in the contest, losing out to the eventual winner, footballer Jill Scott. Batting away accusations he was in it just for the PR, Hancock said he was just trying to ‘be himself’ (read: hire me, please, anyone).

Hancock’s ‘line to take’

“I wanted to show what I’m like as a person.”

Line review

In one sense, Hancock’s line does exactly what it says on the tin. Hancock did, indeed, show what he was like as a person: slightly dorky, mostly earnest, and eager to be liked. And you know what? You can’t help but…like him. And likeability is a marketable skill these days, especially in TV-land.

As with any line, the intended audience is the only one who’s opinion truly matters. Hancock’s entire time in the jungle was marked by snide commentary from the Westminster lobby, most of whom ended up watching every second in spite of themselves. But they aren’t (and were never) the intended audience. Hancock was auditioning to be a public personality, not the champion of dyslexia (total jungle mentions: 3), and so his sole audience was the cohort of people who commission television programmes.

Hancock knows his political future is toast – for his past transgressions, if not for Liz Truss’ subsequent cannonball through the floor of Tory electability – and so appearing on a schlocky reality TV series is as good an outlet for an ambitious personality as any. As a former Culture Secretary, Hancock also knows the UK remains a market leader for schlocky television and therefore sees it as a vein to be tapped, something he’s already done to the tune of £400k for his appearance in the jungle.

In summary, laugh all you want, but we reckon you’ll be getting a lot more Hancock in your life over the coming months and years.

Line rating

Blinder ✅

Strong

Does the job

Problematic

Piss poor

Watch out for the renters' backlash

If you were just going off what the media had been reporting, and the questions thrown at Rishi Sunak in PMQs, you’d almost be fooled into thinking everyone in this country was a homeowner. Mortgage rates are the cause of a lot of political heat at the moment, but for the 20% of the UK population that rely on the private rental sector for housing, they are still a distant dream.

There is a common misconception that the rental crisis is a London-specific issue, but it has truly gone UK wide. Average private rents across Britain have sored to record highs, with rental prices up 20% in cities like Manchester and Cardiff, 18% in Edinburgh, and over 16% in London compared to just a year ago. In February of this year, over a third of renters were spending over 50% of their wages on rent – a figure that has likely gone up in the past six months. 

Yet, despite the loud cries from the media about what politicians are going to do to protect homeowners, there is once again a notable silence when it comes to renters. The Tory voting coalition is, after all, built on home ownership, and the rapidly unfolding rental crisis is seen as a young person’s issue, with 46% of under-35s in England renting from private landlords. 

What seems to be missing in the extensive coverage we have seen of rapidly increasing mortgage rates, is how this is going to have a huge and detrimental impact on renters. If rental prices are already up a staggering 20% across the country before the full impacts of mortgage rate rises kick in, you can only dread to think what the next rental increase is going to be. You can bet that landlords will be turning to hard-pressed renters to cover their increasing mortgage and then some, just in case.

With young people in this country feeling that they have, once again, been passed over in favour of pensioners, it is no wonder that the Tories are heading for extinction with voters under the age of 50. They might be missing a trick though; keeping the youth on side has been shown to bring valuable electoral benefits in this week’s US midterm elections. Biden’s student debt forgiveness and other ambitious program aimed at helping young people appear to have paid dividends for the Democrats, with a ‘youthquake’ of under-30 voters delivering key wins for the party.

According to psychologist Abraham Maslow, human beings’ have five physiological levels of needs to be satisfied. Right at the top of the list is shelter. If the Tories are failing to address the rental crisis for 20% of the electorate, it’s unlikely they’ll be voting Conservative any time soon.

Xi tightens his grip on China

With all that is going on in British politics right now you would be forgiven for completely missing the otherwise headline worthy political events occuring in China. Xi Jinping, the nation’s President (read: authoritarian kingpin) has consolidated his place as the most powerful leader since Mao Zedong as he announced his unprecedented third term. This powerplay has been in the works for years as in 2018 he engineered a constitutional reform which eliminated term limits when it came to the presidency. His five year plan has certainly come to fruition. 

The significance of this move should not be underestimated as he charts his path to become an even more emboldened leader – the effects of which will be felt domestically and internationally. For one, the decisions made in Beijing will have ripple effects influencing the global economy, the foreign policy of the West in an attempt to hedge against the superpower, the development of technology, supply chain stability and potentially even the difference between war or peace. 

Just last year, in the Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy, China’s international assertiveness was classified to be “the most significant geopolitical factor of the 2020s” posing an “increasing risk to UK interests”. This should come as no surprise given the concerns over Chinese influence in the UK, from China General Nuclear (CGN) being bought out of its 10% stake in Sizewell C over security concerns, to the government blocking a number of takeovers of British tech and defence companies by Chinese firms. 

Of particular concern to democracies across the world however, is China’s ambitions for Taiwan. It is no secret that China under Xi Jinping has become increasingly bold in its ambitions to elevate the ‘One China Policy’, starting with the take over of Hong Kong. It is now obvious that the focus has moved to Taiwan which is a serious cause for alarm. Not least of all due to the potential for another conflict at a time when Europe is grappling with its own war in Ukraine, but also due to the impact this will have on democracy in the region and supply chain freedoms relating to technology, and in particular chip manufacturers and supply. 

This all plays into Xi Jinping and the CCP’s long game and their so-called ‘strategy of displacement’ aimed at usurping the US as global hegemon and disrupting democracy across the world. We cannot ignore what happens when a despot is hellbent on power grabbing – in fact Ukraine is currently experiencing the consequences of such a trajectory. 

When the war in Ukraine broke out it was the perfect opportunity for Xi Jinping to observe the global response to an attack on democracy and consider his options when it came to Taiwan – what is clear now however, through increased military exercises in the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait, is that an invasion of Taiwan and subsequent military conflict on a global scale is growing more likely by the day. As democracies we need to act proactively, decisively and collectively to counter any such action and safeguard the democratic freedoms which Xi Jinping seeks to destroy.