Good Morning Britain star Richard Madeley had to abruptly end an interview with chancellor Rachel Reeves on Monday’s episode.
During the latest instalment, Madeley, 68, and co-host Susanna Reid spoke to the chancellor, 45, about the public outrage over the Labour party donations row, labelling it the ‘freebies row’ on the show.
However, Madeley was forced to cut off Reeves as the interview ran over time and GMB had to head over to the Lorraine studio, which airs from 9am.
Towards the end of the interview, Reid, 53, quizzed: “Finally, you’ve said that you no longer now that you’re in government, you’ll no longer accept freebies. So was the Prime Minister wrong then to accept the donation from the Premier League of tickets worth £4,000 for the Taylor Swift concert?”
Reeves responded: “I said I would no longer take donations for clothes. I don’t begrudge the Ministers or Shadow Ministers for going to football matches or pop concerts Keir [Starmer] is a massive Arsenal supporter,” which led Reid to clarify: “I asked about a Taylor Swift concert”, to which Madeley chimed in: “It was a Taylor Swift concert!”, reports the Mirror.
Counteracting, Reeves retorted: “You asked about football as well” leading Reid to assert: “No, the gift was from the Premier League for the Taylor Swift concert!” In reply, Reeves said: “Okay, I don’t begrudge Ministers or Shadow Ministers from going to pop concerts and taking hospitality gifts as long as it’s properly declared. I don’t have a problem with that!”
This prompted Madeley to cut Reeves off as he said: “Well, you may not begrudge it but I can tell you, the voters do. You don’t seem to be in step with public opinion on this at all. But thank you very much for joining us!” Reeves then interrupted with “I understand” but Madeley swiftly cut the interview off, saying: “I’m so sorry, we’re out of time but thank you for being with us this morning” as GMB went over to Lorraine.
Viewers were quick to share their thoughts over the interview on Twitter, now X, as some fans fumed ‘what was the point’ as the entire chat centred around the public outrage over the Labour party donations row. Meanwhile, others branded it one of the ‘worst’ television interviews they had seen.
One person said: “That was possibly the biggest car crash of an interview I’ve ever seen from #RachelReeves on #GMB”, a different account put: “What was the point of that interview. Wasted time on one line of questioning absolutely pointless #GMB” while another said: “Well I’m no defender of the Rachel Reeves but she really didn’t need to appear on your show this morning. Richard Madley and Susanah Reid just ranted at her instead of letting her speak #gmb.”
Elsewhere, a different viewer put: “Susanna and Richard spent over 5 minutes asking questions in 10 minute interview. Imagine what we could have learned from the chancellor if the questions had been more concise #gmb” while another added: “They just shut Rachel off for Lorraine #GMB.”
Good Morning Britain continues on weekdays at 6am on both ITV and ITV X.