Labour MP mocks Matt Hancock upon his return to parliament

Matt Hancock is back in the House of Commons, and the jokes about his time on I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! - on which he came third - are coming in quick and fast.

Speaking in the chamber as an independent MP, after his decision to jet off to Australia saw him have the Conservative Party whip removed, Mr Hancock kickstarted the second reading of his Dyslexia Screening and Teacher Training Bill.

You know, the condition he went on I'm A Celeb for in the first place, but was only seen mentioning it three times out of 21 episodes?

Unlike government legislation, backbench MPs can be picked in a lottery of sorts to introduce their own proposed laws through a private members' bill - to be debated upon in a limited number of Fridays across the parliamentary calendar.

While the bill was unsucessful in progressing further - the debate ran out of time and has to continue in March - it didn't stop those called to speak from making digs at Mr Hancock.

Speaking for the opposition, the shadow higher education minister Matt Western said: "Can I start by saying how good it is to see the Right Honourable member here in the flesh? He may have felt at home the last few weeks amongst late career pop stars and soap legends, but I'm sure what he is hoping to do here is far more important than the last few weeks.

Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter

"I thought he was very cool in channelling his 'inner Arnie', although I'm not so sure he'll be back.

"Maybe that's one for the government, Mr Deputy Speaker."

He isn't the only one to poke fun at Mr Hancock during the debate, as Mr Evans called upon Mr Hancock by noting it was the third private members' bill of the day and he appears to be "making a habit of coming third these days".

Mr Hancock would go on to introduce his bill by saying it is a pleasure to be "clean and well fed".

It is a simple and fundamental principle that the government derives its democratic legitimacy from the people. The future of the country must not be decided by plotting and U-turns at Westminster; it must be decided by the people in a general election. And for this reason The Independent is calling for an election to be held. Have your say and sign our election petition by clicking here.

Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.