With children up and down the country heading back to the classroom next month, Gavin Williamson joined Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid on Good Morning Britain to answer their questions about the move. However, after facing one or two questions about vaccine uptake among teachers, Piers’s attention soon turned to Health Secretary Matt Hancock and the court ruling which judged him to have acted “unlawfully” in the publication of PPE contracts.
For the majority of the interview, Piers insisted Mr Williamson should apologise on Mr Hancock and the Government’s behalf following the ruling.
Despite Mr Williamson reiterating the Government never “intends” to act unlawfully and that there would be “regret”, Piers wasn’t satisfied.
Continually talking over the MP, Piers demanded Mr Williamson say sorry for the ruling.
And while some viewers were pleased to see Piers hold Mr Hancock to account on Tuesday’s episode of GMB, it’s fair to say they weren’t impressed to see a similar line of questioning fired Mr Williamson’s way.
READ MORE: Edwina Currie slaps down Piers in fierce defence of Matt Hancock
Many took to Twitter to blast Piers for “wasting” the opportunity to ask questions about pupils’ return to schools in March.
“@gmb @piersmorgan what a waste of an interview. You have the education secretary on,” one fan fumed on Twitter.
“He’s answering questions that matter to those that are going back into the schools. Then you stop talking about that and waste the rest of the time talking about what was/wasn’t said yesterday.”
A second was in complete agreement: “@GMB @piersmorgan What was the point of having Williamson on and not discussing what is going to be happening re education and merely ranting about the unlawful health judgment?
“We are waiting to hear about exams etc but you chose to go off on a complete tangent.”
A third echoed: “@GMB can your so-called interviewers to ask relevant questions to said guests?
“Like how the kids will be tested in schools who is going to do it what if a kid gets a positive test who gets sent home etc etc …rather than spend the entire time boring us.”
And a fourth added to the debate: “@GMB what happened to actually asking Gavin Williamson about schools & universities? Not continually asking for an apology for PPE contracts! And please tell me what has that actually gained?”
The complaints come after one particularly tense back and forth between Piers and Mr Williamson, in which the GMB host said: “You were found guilty of unlawful conduct.
“I am really struggling as to why none of you are prepared to say sorry,” he added, prompting Mr Williamson to reply: “Well, what the Government will do is take action in order to address the court judgement -“
However, he was abruptly cut off by Piers who insisted once again: “Are you sorry you acted unlawfully? Yes or no?”
“Well, the Government would never aim to act unlawfully and obviously -” Mr Williamson said as he cut short once more.
“You did,” Piers interjected. “You acted unlawfully and were found guilty for it, so are you sorry?”
As Mr WIlliamson headed on a similar answer to his previous once, Piers eventually barked: “Why do guys find it so hard?! Just say we’re very sorry.”
Mr Williamson defended himself, however, expressing his desire to talk about schools and saying: “You had Matt [Hancock] all day yesterday, Piers!”
Good Morning Britain continues weekdays at 6am on ITV.