Susanna Reid contradicts Richard Madeley on GMB over Partygate claim

Susanna Reid and Richard Madeley appeared to clash during their Good Morning Britain interview on Tuesday with Grant Shapps on Partygate, following the new images of Boris Johnson at a Downing Street party.

The pictures show the PM raising a glass during a leaving party. ITV News published the pictures yesterday and claimed they were taken at the leaving drinks for then-director of communications Lee Cain on November 13th 2020.

The pictures were published on Monday night, and social media users were quickly speculating about which Tory MP would be wheeled out onto the morning TV shows to defend the MP.

As it turns out, it was Grant Shapps.

Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter

Madeley went about questioning Shapps and referenced some of the feedback he’d seen from viewers – which didn’t go down too well with co-host Reid.

Watch the video here.

Susanna Reid contradicted Richard Madeley on GMB over Partygate claim GMB

Speaking to Shapps, Madeley said: “Quite a large proportion of our viewers say they don't care [about #PartyGate] anymore. In a sense, the bubble of anger burst a few weeks ago and that reading the room you can actually probably tough this out.”

It led Reid to step in and say: “They're not the messages I'm reading, sorry Richard.”

Replying, Madeley said: “They’re mixed, that’s what I’m saying. But there are a few messages saying they don’t care anymore.”

Shapps, who is the Secretary of State for Transport, also defended Johnson during a separate interview with Sky News on Tuesday, saying: “This is well-covered territory. These are things that we have known about.

“The prime minister has said it shouldn’t have happened and he has apologised and of course the police have spent their time investigating it as well. I don’t think the fact of the pictures, us seeing them for the first time, changes what the police and Sue Gray would have already known.”

Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.