Former South West Hertfordshire MP David Gauke has said he may tune in to Love Island to follow the progress of his former employee Sharon Gaffka.

The civil servant, who is currently starring in the ITV2 reality show set in a Majorcan villa, has previously praised Mr Gauke as the "most fun" minister she has worked for.

The 25-year-old, from Oxford, most recently worked as a contracted operations lead for the Department for Transport before leaving to join Love Island.

She has said she felt as if she had held a "personal relationship" with Mr Gauke, who held a number of positions during Theresa May’s Government.

However, the former Conservative MP, who lost his seat in 2019 to Tory candidate Gagan Mohindra after he ran as an Independent, said he has not been tuning into the dating show.

He told presenter Kay Burley on Sky News from his home in Chorleywood: "I haven’t been watching, my focus has very much been on the football but I wish her well and I hope she does well in Love Island, whatever that might involve."

Asked if he has ever watched the programme, he replied: "I haven’t, no, but maybe I will tune in just to see how she’s getting on at some point."

Sharon is currently coupled up with PE teacher Hugo Hammond but has expressed concerns he may be "too nice" for her.

Sharon has previously said she wanted to "break" the stigma surrounding reality TV contestants being unintelligent.

She said: "I do think there is a stigma and I do think that maybe with previous episodes or series of Love Island that some of the comments about certain contestants were quite unfair.

"But having a different kind of person, or having variety, will probably help with that. So I definitely am hoping to break any kind of stigma about reality TV."

Love Island continues on ITV2 at 9pm.