MATT HANCOCK has been branded 'a plonker' by a Tory MP. 

This comes as the former health health secretary announced that he was going to take part in ITV show I'm a Celebrity. 

In a letter to constituents, North Wiltshire MP James Gray said: "Matt Hancock plainly thinks he’s a ‘celeb’ and warmly deserved being chucked out by the Conservative Party.

"What a plonker.

"Those who self-importantly lord it over each other are asking to be brought down a peg or two, and there are plenty of sacked ministers around who prove it.

"They should remember that the people you see on the way up are the same ones you will see on the way back down again."

In the letter Mr Gray also said: "However, the cult of the personality –‘celeb politics’ - seems to me to have gone too far.

"It increasingly looks as if we are not so much interested in what the new PM, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Home Secretary are doing from a policy perspective to deal with the very many major problems which confront them.

"Instead we are increasingly concerned about their personality, their background, their perceived failings or foibles.

"It’s a Strictly Come Dancing approach to great national matters of state, with routine instant phone-ins adjudicating on whether or not the Budget has got it right; or what we can do about the migrant crisis.

"We need to get back to the old concept of a five-year Parliament, during which the Party in Government do what they have to do - some of which may well be unpopular with some or all of the electorate.  

"They will then be judged at the following general election as to whether or not overall they have got things right, or at least get them more right than the other lot.

"Let’s get away from Celebrity Big Brother, get you out of the Come Dancing jungle and get back to long, cold, intelligent consideration of policy and politics.

"Ours should be a carefully considered, modest and sober profession.

"Celebrity (and too much celebration) undermines it."