Matt Hancock’s attempts to rehabilitate his image are going as well as expected

A new memoir and some television airtime have put the former health secretary back in the spotlight, writes Sean O'Grady, for better or worse

Project Hancock presses on to Celebrity SAS... who dares wins (PA)

How is “Project Hancock” coming along? The short answer must be “as well as can be expected”. Matt Hancock managed to survive his time in the jungle and succeeded in at least opening a public debate into whether he should be forgiven or at least understood. Last week he had his long-anticipated parliamentary debate on dyslexia, unusually well-attended for private members’ business on a Friday.

It’s fair to say he didn’t use his time on I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here to push the issues around dyslexia overmuch, and seemed more intent on refashioning his image. The ex-junglemates have apparently omitted him from their WhatsApp group, so he maybe didn’t persuade them that he’s not what he seems. On balance, he emerged a fair bit richer and with his reputation still hanging in the balance, along with this political career. One poll suggested 81 per cent of people said it has not improved his reputation, with 11 per cent of people saying it had done so, which is progress, of sorts. That said, the families of the Covid-19 bereaved have been understandably appalled by Hancock making money from his failures.

The next stage in his attempted rehabilitation is a volume of “pandemic diaries”, which appear not to have been complied contemporaneously, as is normal with diaries. The pre-publication extracts have veered between ick and crude self-vindication in a fairly unattractive way, even for a politician towards the nadir of their career. The most cringey passage concerns Hancock describing the conversation with wife Martha about his affair as “the most difficult of my life”. Did anyone think it was going to be a treat for all concerned?