‘I’ve been a Tory since I was 12 years old’
I’m a Celebrity winner Georgia Toffolo once won for the Tories – in a school election. She talks tactics with Guy Kelly
When she was just a little girl – a 12-year-old, in her first year at secondary school in Devon – Georgia Toffolo asked her mother: what should she be? Should she be Tory, should she be Labour? And here’s what she said to her...
“She said why don’t you go on our computer and do one of those quizzes so you can find out where you are on the spectrum. And I did it and it said, ‘Your political beliefs are Conservative,’” Toffolo says, beaming. “And that was that!”
It really was. Four years later, boarding at Blundell’s in 2010, the young Toffolo (“Toff ” to most) only agreed to stand in a mock general election if she could represent the Tories. She got her way, and wrote to campaign HQ to ask for some leaflets. A huge box of materials promptly arrived and Toffolo and a friend decked the halls with posters, strung up banners in their dormitory windows, wore blue rosettes for a fortnight and made a stump speech in assembly that amounted to little more than “it’s all about Dave”. The Tories won by a landslide, unlike the real thing.
“I’ve just always had this thirst for democracy, and having your say,” she says. “I think it’s really important.”
Nine years on, Toffolo, now 24, is having her say in a lifeless meeting room at her manager’s London offices. We’re ostensibly here to talk about her new role as a “roving reporter” for Great British Racing – the next in a number of presenting jobs since she won I’m a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! in 2017 and left fly-on-the-wall reality series Made in Chelsea last year – yet the usually effervescent Toffolo woke up “slightly sad” this morning. It was the local elections the night before.
“Because of the failings of central
government, the local governments are suffering, but it wasn’t as bad as I anticipated,” she says. “The Lib Dems did well, though, didn’t they? I’d forgotten about them.”
It would be reasonable to say that “Mrs May”, as Toffolo calls her (“Jacob”, “Dave” and “Boris” are first-named), cannot count her as a fan. Though “I was [while] growing up, because she was my grandparents’ MP and I’ve always looked at her as quite a strong woman… but I just don’t know if she should have been chosen to lead a country that voted to leave the EU. It would be interesting to see with hindsight if a big Brexiteer would have got us a better deal and if we’d have left by now. Perhaps.”
Toffolo voted Remain in 2016, since she is “very pro-immigration” and didn’t believe in the rhetoric of the Leave camp, but is a dedicated Brexiteer now.
“We need to leave, deal or no deal,” she says, firmly. “The mood of the country is that we’re bored, we’re angry, we voted to leave. And there are lots of calls for a second referendum, but if that does happen, I would be very, very upset.”
I am curious about who the young woman who once called Jacob Rees-mogg a “sex God” and counts the Johnson family as friends might like to lead us into a non-eu future. She became unexpectedly close to 78-year-old Stanley Johnson in the jungle; one journalist called her “Boris in a bikini”. “I’m a slight betting woman and had money on Jeremy Hunt at the end of last year, because the odds were really good, 18-1 or something. I think it’ll be Hunt and Boris in the end, and as a great friend of Stanley’s I’d have to put my backing behind Boris.” Toffolo loves this, yammering on about politics, and while “it is quite unpopular to be a young person with Conservative views”, she especially adores “dinner parties where I’m sat next to a Leftie” – who she can attempt to convert.
An only child, she began life in Torquay, with parents who work in property (they split when she was a baby), and planned to be a barrister, even starting a law degree at Westminster University, which she hated and quit. Devon was always “too slow” so she moved to London in her gap year – living in Fulham, nannying by day and working on the door at Embargo (“still so classic on a Wednesday”), a notoriously sloaney club on the King’s Road, at night. There, she met some of the original cast of the E4 reality series Made in Chelsea, including Pippa Middleton’s brother-in-law, Spencer Matthews, who were on the hunt for young, blue blood. She signed up immediately. “I was incredibly comfortable in front of a camera, and I don’t know whether it was because I was so boisterous as a 19-year-old, but I love a good old chat, so I was perfect,” she says. “Because we all live in such close proximity to each other, naughty things just happen, and you sign a contract saying you will show your whole life, so you just do. It was a wonderfully fun thing.”
In a sense she got away with it, escaping Made in Chelsea without losing too much dignity. In steep contrast to the contractually bound of SW3, Toffolo’s role was largely to be just posh and fun, which required no acting whatsoever. Around filming she worked as an editorial assistant at The Lady magazine, but wanted to progress in television, so put herself up for I’m a Celebrity in 2017.
“I was lying on my hammock on the first night, so bloody hungry, thinking I can either play a game or I can be authentic and myself. I did the latter, and it was wonderful.”
The public fell for her. She spoke candidly about her struggles with acne, laughed readily at her privilege and became friends with everybody from boxers to MEPS. Since winning, she’s been doing precisely what she wants – which includes behind-thescenes presenting from racecourses.
“I’m such a racing fan, ever since I went to Ladies Day at Newton Abbot with my mum and all of her friends,” she says of the new venture. “I love the fashion, the music, the history of it all. Everybody is near to a racecourse, and you don’t need to wear a big hat or adhere to a strict dress code. It’s so inclusive.”
Toffolo would like to make it clear she’s single, which means the tabloid reports linking her to George Cottrell – a former aide to Nigel Farage who went to prison for money laundering and whose mother dated Prince Charles – must be exaggerated. It sounds as if she’s too busy for blokes like that anyway. So what’s the goal?
“In 20 years I’d like to be a really good presenter, and known for being good at writing,” she says, resolutely. And what about politics? Esther Mcvey started with TV presenting...
We discuss a recent headline that suggested she was a likely candidate for a Conservative safe seat, at which point she grins sheepishly.
“I couldn’t possibly comment!” she laughs. “But no, I shan’t be standing any time soon. Can you imagine? Georgia Toffolo on the ballot paper?”
The thing is, I definitely can.
‘It is unpopular to be a young person with Tory views’