Matt Hancock finally put in an appearance on Good Morning Britain on Monday, but viewers were left unimpressed after the Health Secretary dodged many of the questions put to him by hosts Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid.
After a 201-day boycott of the ITV early morning show, the MP was interviewed just days after the departure of Downing Street’s communications boss Lee Cain and Boris Johnson’s chief advisor Dominic Cummings.
However, the politician insisted he came on the programme “as soon as diaries allowed”.
Unsurprisingly, Piers wasn’t buying his excuse and wasted no time in addressing his absence from the show.
“Do you think it’s right and proper that you as Health Secretary and the entire Conservative party and Prime Minister have boycotted a big morning breakfast TV programme for six months? Did you support it or agree with it?” Piers asked.
“I’m here to answer all the questions you have might,” the politician replied.
“I just asked you one!” Piers remarked.
It was a pattern that continued throughout the interview, which didn’t go unnoticed by GMB viewers...
During the 21-minute interview, Piers asked the Health Secretary why he hadn’t resigned.
“I put it to you, given that we now have over 50,000 deaths in this country, which is the worst death toll in the whole of Europe, why are you still Health Secretary and why haven’t you offered your resignation?” Piers asked.
While admitting that there had been “mistakes” in the government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, the MP insisted the government had been “building the response to all of these enormous challenges of this unprecedented pandemic.”
Good Morning Britain airs weekdays on ITV between 6-9am.