GMB’s Susanna Reid shouts over Kemi Badenoch in blistering on-air row

Good Morning Britain’s first episode of the year was a heated one, with Susanna Reid shouting over Tory leader Kemi Badenoch as they discussed the party’s stances on various topics

Good Morning Britain’s Susanna Reid found herself shouting over Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch during today’s show after asking the politician for the Tory stance on employers’ national insurance payments. The Conservative leader stopped by Good Morning Britain today, where she was grilled over whether the party would ‘make a deal’ with Reform as well as how it would change Labour’s recent policies.

After asking Ms. Badenoch whether she would bring back the two-child benefit cap, Susanna then asked: “Would you keep the increase in employers’ national insurance or would you cut that?” Ms Badenoch replied with the vague comment: “So you’re asking lots of questions…”

An outraged Susanna quickly interrupted her, shouting: “Yes because the prime minister says we need to know what you would you do as an alternative!” The politician responded: “We wouldn’t have done this in the first place. What we’re asking now is how much of Labour’s mess are we going to have to clean up?”

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Kemi Badenoch was grilled by Susanna Reid on GMB

When Susanna asked whether she would “clean up that bit of their mess”, Ms Badenoch said: “We’ve said for instance, a lot of the stuff they’ve done – family business taxes, family farm taxes – we’d scrap and get rid of that. VAT on private schools, we said we’d get rid of that.

“The nonsense they’re doing with veterans, this law they’re bringing in chasing down our soldiers, we would be stopping that. There is a lot that we would do to clean up the mess that Labour has left.”

Earlier in the interview, Susanna picked up on Ms. Badenoch’s “slip of the tongue” when addressing whether the Conservatives would team up with Reform in the future. “Reform doesn’t have any plans, they’re just saying whatever to whoever. We are not going to do deals on that basis,” she said.

Correcting herself, she continued: “Sorry, we’re not doing deals. We are talking about what we need to do to get our country working again.” Susanna replied: “I noticed that there was a slip of the tongue there about doing deals.”

When Ms. Badenoch confirmed that they were “not doing deals”, Susanna asked: “So it’s not in the back of your mind which is why it accidentally came out?” Ms. Badenoch said: “No, it’s because you asked me the question.” She went on to rule out a deal with Reform at any point up to and including the general election.

Last week, the Tories were branded “pathetic” by justice minister Jake Richards, who said that Ms Badenoch gave a “desperate defence” of shadow attorney general David Wolfson’s role in Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich’s legal battle.

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The Tory leader also made a “slip of the tongue” about making a deal with Reform

“There’s a Shadow Cabinet meeting, Kemi Badenoch asks for views about what the Conservative Party policy should be on the Russia-Ukraine conflict, on sanctioned individuals and about reclaiming some of these assets,” Mr Richards told Times Radio.

“She goes around the room, and at the same time, Lord Wolfson is getting paid by Roman Abramovich to represent his interest in litigation on this very subject. There could not be a clearer conflict of interest.

“The fact that they are trying to desperately defend this position very late at night, yesterday evening, sending me a response to my letter, which didn’t answer any of the questions, by the way, shows just how pathetic their position is on this. And actually it shows Kemi Badenoch’s opinion and leadership is really weak.”