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Daily Record
Daily Record
Entertainment
Kirsty McCormack & Siobhan Macdonald

Kate Garraway brands Tory's blackmail accusations 'frightening' and 'grubby'

Kate Garraway has spoken out about reports that Tory MPs have allegedly been blackmailed by government whips as she calls the accusations "frightening".

This comes after a senior Tory accused the Government of "blackmail" of Conservative rebels and said they should report it to the police.

Kate hosted Friday's Good Morning Britain, alongside Ben Shephard, and was keen to discuss the latest government scandal with former Chief Whip Jacqui Smith, as she called the accusations 'grubby'.

The presenting duo invited Iain Dale and former chief whip Jacqui Smith into the ITV studio to talk through the accusations, and they didn't hold back.

"It is astounding and it's been an astounding week," mother-of-two Kate began the segment.

Leading on from their chat about Adele cancelling her Las Vegas residency shows, Kate then made a dig at politicians as she continued: "Performance anxiety is something that a lot of politicians feel don't they?

Kate Garraway brands Tory's blackmail accusations as 'frightening' and 'grubby' (ITV)

"This is actually a frightening thing and we've got a former whip here," she then said as she introduced 59-year-old Jacqui.

"Chief whip!!" Jacqui corrected her as Kate continued: "this accusation that whips have been going round blackmailing MP's into supporting Boris...

"It wouldn't be a shock that a whip went a little bit too far to get the job done, would it Jacqui?" Kate then asked.

Jacqui replied: "Listen, I think of course there is something about being a whip which is about getting the government's business through that means you will use a whole different range of forms of persuasion, put it that way.

"In more recent times, whipping has tended to be much more about persuasion and much less about grabbing people by their delicate parts and thrusting them up against the wall and all of those sorts of allegations.

"Or even about having some sort of black book in which you keep all sorts of secrets about people. What I think this story is more about, it's less about whipping and more about the utter breakdown of trust between different parts of the parliamentary Conservative party," she added.

"Actually it just makes everything look grubby doesn't it?" Kate then commented.

Good Morning Britain airs weekdays at 6am on ITV and ITV Hub.

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