I'm A Celebrity experience made Nadine Dorries 'not so self-important'

MP Nadine Dorries became the first person to be evicted from I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here! after 12 days in the jungle.

Dorries, who was suspended from the party for going on the ITV show, was voted out by the public and was hugged by fellow camp members

Learning of her eviction, she told hosts Ant and Dec she had had a "fascinating experience".

Click here or on "View Gallery" for more pictures of Nadine in the jungle

She said: "I actually came here self-important for a few days but I'm not now.

"I needed that missile and I think all MPs need that. I came from a council estate and never thought I was like that but I was. I'm not now."

When asked by presenters Ant and Dec if she felt she had achieved her aim in raising awareness of issues, she said: "I don't know what people have seen but I have had some fascinating conversations in there. It's been a fascinating experience.

"I think it is important that MPs realise that you need to go where the public go. More people vote on X Factor and I'm A Celebrity than they do in the general elections. MPs need to go where people vote."

She predicted David Haye would win with Helen Flanagan and Eric Bristow in the final three, and said she had guessed she would be the first to leave.

She said: "I'm not disappointed at being the first, especially when you're starving. I kind of expected it actually. I don't think the public actually understand how hard and how difficult it is down there.

"The effect it has on your body when you're down there with three teaspoons of rice a day is hard, hard, hard."

She was suspended as a Tory MP after flying to the jungle without getting permission from David Cameron or informing senior party leaders.

She angered colleagues and constituents by appearing on the show, but insisted she would use it as a platform to promote politics and engage the electorate.

Before going on I'm A Celebrity, she said: "It can't be that hard" and then went on to fail three challenges.

Asked if she regretted those words, she replied: "There's like this massive adrenaline rush and your brain's screaming No and you have to overcome it but sometimes I can't."

On eating lamb's testicle and ostrich anus, she said: "I would never have thought I would eat any of those things in a million years."

The politician added she was worried about her campmate Helen Flanagan, who she described as an intelligent woman.

She added: "I was concerned her confidence as a young woman was being being bashed to death. I tried to change her motivation and had a big chat with her."

Earlier on the show, the stars had to share their beds with a bunch of unsavoury creatures for a challenge which guaranteed the winner safety from elimination.

Boxer Haye gave up before cockroaches were even let loose in his bed and Dorries managed only a few minutes with scorpions and beetles.

Former Pussycat Doll Ashley Roberts clocked up 155 minutes in her bed, but was narrowly beaten by campmate Rosemary Shrager who endured one minute more after falling asleep, while soldier crabs roamed her bed. But when the scores were added to previous Bush Buddy challenges, Roberts was declared the winner.

Bristow, Dorries, Colin Baker, Charlie Brooks and Flanagan were left to face the public vote, while the other stars were given immunity.

Tonight viewers saw Hugo Taylor complete his first Bushtucker Trial which saw him face his fear of confined spaces.

The Made In Chelsea star had to collect stars from sewer pipes which were infested with critters and pythons. But Taylor conquered his demons to win nine meals for the camp.

He earlier said of his confinement fear: "I can't even go on the Tube in London, I hate it so much."

Bristow had been in a bad mood, grumbling about Shrager's shouting and upsetting Flanagan with a comment about her complexion.

After she told him she used to drink melted ice lollies, he told the former Coronation Street star: "That's what it's done your skin, all that s*** you're eating."

She later sobbed: "I love everyone in camp but I'm really sensitive about my skin. I know it sounds really stupid, I can't believe I'm crying. It just gets to me because I feel conscious enough because I haven't got any make-up."

Dorries has an office set up in her hotel room in Australia and is already back at work, she said.

She told Daybreak she "worked right up to the moment", she headed down under.

She said: "I've already been back at work actually.

"What is overnight to you, as soon as I got out of the jungle I was straight back to work...some of the flak that has been thrown at me I'm afraid just isn't true.

"My office has been manned, my staff have been working and I am back at work already."

The politician went on the offensive after leaving the jungle.

She said lots of MPs take between four and six weeks off and do not have the whip suspended from them as she had as punishment for heading out during parliamentary time.

She said: "I think that what happened was that the powers that be in my party thought I was going to use my time in the jungle to talk about them and not about the issues that concerned and interested me."

She added she had previously not taken a day off during parliamentary time in seven and a half years at Westminster.

PA