Former Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner nearly abandoned Westminster for the Australian jungle as a contestant on I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! The top Labour politician was “in talks” to join the show, it has emerged. But she pulled out after friends warned joining Ant and Dec on TV favourite would destroy her political career.
Ms Rayner’s outback near-miss was revealed by Richard Osman and Marina Hyde on their The Rest Is Entertainment Podcast. Mr Osman said: “There was another name that came along that I think ITV thought would be impossible to say no to.”
And Ms Hyde said: “It would have been impossible to say no to Angela Rayner going on it. Now, she got really quite far and her people in talks to do this. And what a moment for her.”
Ms Hyde added: “If you thought last week was chaotic for Labour, try and imagine this week if Angela Rayner was now basically running a proxy leadership campaign by the meme of eating kangaroo testacles on ITV prime time.”
She added: “Obviously she wants to return to frontline politics and that’s very clear… Were she to do this, you are leaving during parliamentary time. It would be fun seeing the fallout of the Budget next week while she’s eating emu anus.”
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage appeared on I’m a Celeb in 2023, coming third, and his political career has gone from strength to strength. However, unlike Ms Rayney, he was not a sitting MP at the time.
By contrast, former health secretary Matt Hancock and former Tory MP Nadine Dorries both faced heavy criticism when they appeared on the show despite being sitting MPs, although Ms Dorries made a comeback years later when she became Culture Secretary.
Ms Rayner was forced to resign from the Cabinet in September after it emerged that she failed to pay £40,000 of stamp duty owed on the purchase of a flat in Hove, East Sussex. However she is regarded as a potential successor to Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, if Sir Keir is forced to quit.
