Tory leadership candidate left squirming after presenter does not say whether they got on

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Prospective Conservative leadership candidates might expect to get a hard time from the Today programme or Newsnight, but for Esther McVey, it was Lorraine Kelly who left her squirming.

McVey, who is considered a long shot to become the next prime minister, was previously a television presenter who at one point hosted GMTV in the 1990s alongside Kelly, a mid-morning TV stalwart known for her genial demeanour.

During a live link to ITV’s Lorraine from Good Morning Britain, where McVey appeared as a guest on Monday, Susanna Reid said: “Do you remember Esther McVey from her GMTV days?”

Kelly glossed over the question, shook her head and said curtly: “Yeah, yes I do. OK, coming up after half past eight … ”

Piers Morgan then asked Kelly: “So you got on with Esther then, Lorraine?” The presenter replied: “I don’t remember love, I don’t remember at all, it was an awful long time ago.”

This year, Kelly won a landmark tax case after arguing she is a theatrical agent playing a “friendly, chatty and fun personality” called Lorraine Kelly, rather than appearing as herself. However, this upbeat persona appeared to have deserted her when the topic of McVey was mentioned.

Morgan went on to joke that if “looks could kill, she’d be six feet under”, and added that he would “love to hear the backstory”.

Asked about the exchange at her press conference later, McVey said: “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.”

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“But she’s great and it was a great show,” she went on. “I can’t believe it. I think it was 20 years ago I did that show, but never mind. It was really good at the time. It was really good fun.”

McVey, who was forced to apologise for misleading parliament while serving as work and pensions secretary, interviewed the likes of Martine McCutcheon and appeared on children’s television introducing cartoons of the Muppets during her stint on screen.

The MP for Tatton is running on a hard Brexit platform, threatening to sack pro-remain MPs from the cabinet in order to make sure the UK leaves the EU in October.

However, it was not the worst broadcast slip-up to affect a Tory candidate on Monday morning, with the BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire following the lead of many prominent journalists in broadcasting a sweary variation on Jeremy Hunt’s surname.