Good Morning Britain host Kate Garraway held MP Greg Hands’ feet to the fire alongside Adil Ray during an interview on the ITV programme on Monday morning.
The Minister for Business and Energy appeared on the morning ITV programme remotely from Westminster and Kate, 54, jumped straight to the point of the ongoing Partygate scandal.
This comes after reports over the weekend that Boris Johnson allegedly poured the drinks to toast his aide Lee Cain, and had often urged staff to “let off steam” at Downing Street drinks bashes during lockdown.
Kate asked the MP: “Whatever else MPs want to talk about tomorrow when he appears in the Commons, they’re going to want answers on this aren't they?”
The Minister noted that the Prime Minister has apologised and paid the Partygate fine the police handed him last week, saying: “He’s taking entirely the right course of action here.”
Kate replied noting that the public were unaware of the additional allegations when the Pm and Rishi Sunak received their fines.
She said: “We didn’t know about these new allegations. So, unfortunately, there’s going to have to be more answers and more things said. It’s not going away.”
The MP replied: “You said they’re allegations. They are. He’s appearing later to provide those answers, so he’s doing everything you’ve asked him to do.”
Kate replied: “Will you be looking at him thinking how can you explain this? Are you concerned about the basic damage to trust?”
Greg Hands responded saying: “There’s an ongoing police investigation. It would be wrong for me to pre-judge that. I know what I see the government doing is getting on with the job and making the right decisions.”
Kate then noted that the MP’s response was a return to the “can’t pre-empty the investigation line”.
She continued: “One of the things he’s ploughed on with doing is this idea to solve in part immigration and handling of refugees by having them processed here and also processed in Rwanda. What’s your view?”
The MP said that “tough action is needed” and praised the government for offering a “new solution”, adding: “Critics ought to show us what they think their alternative is.”
But Kate’s co-host Adil picked up on the Rwanda asylum plan line of questioning to note that many are thinking of “the life and times of Jesus Christ” over the Easter weekend, adding: “Under this scheme, if he arrived in the UK today, Jesus would be sent to Rwanda. Is that right? Would you send Jesus to Rwanda?”
The MP seemed slightly thrown by the curveball question and laughed as he said: “I think It’s a ludicrous question. We’re 2,000 years later.”
As the ITV interviewers and MP Greg Hands raised their voices and talked over one another during the interview, many viewers took to Twitter to label the segment a “car crash interview”.
One wrote: “Enjoying watching Greg Hands being skewered on GMB. Not sure he has any answers, poor chap.”
Another posted: “This programme is absolute chaos with the constant shouting over everyone.”
Another posted: “What an absolute disaster of an interview, with Greg Hands,” adding: “Ministers don’t answer questions!”
