Richard Madeley sparked a furious reaction from viewers as he questioned whether it would be 'practical' for Rishi Sunak to have to wait to be seen by a doctor in A&E.
The presenter fronted Tuesday's edition of Good Morning Britain alongside Susanna Reid, with one of the main topics of conversation being the struggling NHS. The hosts posed the question of whether the Prime Minister should have to use the health service, after Sunak has repeatedly refused to confirm whether he uses private or public healthcare.
Speaking to NHS frontline medic Dr Emeka Okorocha, Richard asked: "Is it practical for a Prime Minister to go in, presumably in a fleet of three or four cars, to the local A&E unit, sit in the corridor like the rest - maybe even sit on the floor - with his security detail for six or seven hours before he finally sees a doctor, when he has actually got a country to run?"
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Dr Okorocha simply responded: "Yes." He went on: "It doesn't matter how much money you have, where you're from, what your social status is. You come to A&E, there's emergency care, and you wait."
The A&E doctor added: "These troubles need to be solved - and if the people at the top have to go through these struggles like the everyday person, maybe there'd be an incentive to actually make some change." And many viewers at home made the same point as they responded to Richard's remarks on social media.
"If Rishi Sunak had no alternative but to use the NHS, it would suddenly get the funding it needs, so he wouldn't be waiting for hours to be seen at an appointment," one person wrote on Twitter.
A second viewer said: "Spectacular missing of the point here. No-one should be there for hours and hours sitting on the floor. That's the issue."
"Is he seriously suggesting that it's ok for Sunak to underfund the NHS to a point where the waiting times are ludicrous, then bypass the queue as he's far too important to have to tolerate the mess he's created?" asked a third.
Many viewers also reacted furiously to the implication that it was "practical" for members of the public to wait for long periods of time in A&E. "It's fine if we waste our time sitting on floors. None of us have jobs to do. None of us have others relying on us," one person wrote in a scathing response to Richard's remarks.
"Don't a lot of people have busy lives?" another viewer pointed out. "What about the poor person holding down two jobs to put food on their table? They can afford to spend a day in A&E a lot less than a billionaire."
"So to sum up, according to Richard Madeley, the level of care you receive should be dependent on the position you hold in life," one viewer accused. "Are some lives worth more than others Richard?"
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