Government minister confronted on air by GMB reporter over cabinet refusing to appear on show

Ministers do not ‘think GMB viewers are important’ says Piers Morgan

A minister avoided an interview with Good Morning Britain (GMB) when he was confronted by one of its correspondents on the 23rd day of a government boycott of the programme.

GMB reporter Jonathan Swain was in Westminster and tried to get Justice Secretary Robert Buckland to speak to hosts Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid following the minister’s interview with another network.

Mr Morgan said the government “doesn’t think GMB viewers are important at this time” and asked his colleague to request an interview with the minister.

“Piers, that request has already been put in when he arrived about 10 minutes ago,” responded Mr Swain. “He’s with one of our competitors at the moment giving chapter and verse about how well the government are doing.”

Shortly afterwards, Mr Buckland appeared to agree to the interview, but said he was not available for it at the time and would return in an hour and forty minutes.

However, he said he “loves the presenters and he loves the show, he would like to come on the show”, said Mr Swain, but “he’s actually walking off as we speak”.

Adamant not to let Mr Buckland off the hook, Mr Morgan tweeted later: “See you tomorrow @RobertBuckland.”

On Tuesday, the presenter said: “The Govt has refused to put any minister up for interview on GMB tomorrow. This will be the 22nd day of its boycott of our show during the worst national crisis since WW2. All because we asked them tough questions. We’ll keep asking them.”

Ministers have been boycotting the programme because of Mr Morgan’s aggressive interviewing technique. he has repeatedly clashed with ministers over the coronavirus pandemic and slammed the government for refusing to put people on his programme.

Last week, Chancellor Rishi Sunak became the latest government minister to join the cabinet boycott of the ITV show.