Lorraine Kelly ‘strongly disagrees’ with Esther McVey on LGBT rights
Esther McVey and Lorraine Kelly on Good Morning Britain. (ITV)
Lorraine Kelly has explained why she appeared to snub former colleague Esther McVey live on Good Morning Britain.
Kelly said that she was “baffled” by suggestions that there was a rift between her and the Conservative party leadership candidate, despite having disregarded her live on air.
Explaining the situation to Good Morning Britain on Tuesday (June 11), Kelly said: “I got sick to the back teeth of the whole toxic, political atmosphere.
“I strongly disagree with [McVey] on LGBT rights, and I just felt like I’ve had enough of this, we’ve had two-and-a-half years of going round in circles over Brexit and now we’ve got people at each other’s throats and its got to stop.”
Lorraine Kelly snubs Esther McVey
McVey was speaking to Good Morning Britain hosts Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid on Monday (June 11) when they cut across to Kelly.
Morgan asked Kelly: “Do you remember Esther McVey from your GMTV days?” to which she replied: “Yep, yes I do,” before moving swiftly on to a series of links.
In a rare but real moment of anger, Lorraine reveals she is ‘sick to the back teeth of the whole toxic political atmosphere’ and ‘strongly disagrees’ with McVey’s stance on LGBT rights pic.twitter.com/YoHHeDYofz
— Lauren Franklin (@Franklinsays) June 11, 2019
Morgan refused to relent, asking Kelly whether she “got on with Esther,” who she appeared with on ITV’s daytime line-up in the 1990s.
“I don’t remember love, I don’t remember at all,” she replied
.A few hours later, McVey was asked what had caused the apparent rift during a press conference.
She told reporters: “Well we used to share a dressing room and she used to do the programme afterwards and obviously she used to be partnered with Eamonn Holmes and then I was promoted to be partnered with Eamonn Holmes.”
Lorraine Kelly baffled by Esther McVey’s explanation
Speaking on Tuesday, Kelly said: “I’m baffled by that though because I had my own show from 1992 and I don’t actually think she joined until five years later.
“As far as sharing dressing rooms go, it wasn’t really like that. It was just a little room that everybody shared, that we went in and we got ready in.”
McVey is one of 10 Conservative MPs vying to become party leader and consequently Prime Minster.
Esther McVey arrives at 10 Downing Street. (Leon Neal/Getty)
The former work and pensions secretary’s campaign got off to a troubled start on May 30, when she said that parents should be able to remove their children from LGBT-inclusive relationship lessons.
“I believe parents know best for their children,” she told Sky News.
“While they’re still children—and we’re talking primary school [age]—then parents need to have the final say.”
McVey was strongly criticised by Tory and Labour MPs, but she doubled down on her words a week later in an LBC interview.
