Lorraine Kelly has hit out at the "appalling" arrogance of government MPs who refuse to be held accountable by the public.
The ITV star didn't hold back as she gave her views on the current state of politics, branding an incident which saw Boris Johnson hiding in a fridge to avoid being interviewed by Good Morning Britain host Piers Morgan as a "ridiculous spectacle".
And she blasted a widespread lack of respect for voters across the globe.
The Scots journalist also called former President Donald Trump a “nutter in the White House” who would “squawk fake news” and said that “when they sneeze we catch a cold” in reference to the current erosion in trust of politicians across the UK.
Speaking on new drag podcast The Vanity Project podcast this week, Lorraine said: "You’ve got the ridiculous spectacle of Boris Johnson hiding in a fridge rather than talking to Piers Morgan.
"You know, even today you’ve got a minister who wouldn’t turn up to be on GMB, and you think, hang on a minute - this isn’t about you liking the present or not particularly liking the show.
"Have respect for the people that watch the show - because that’s your voters, and they deserve to have questions answered. It’s that sort of arrogance of not wanting to be held to account, I think is appalling.”
Lorraine's comments come as the long-awaited Sue Gray investigation into Downing Street's multiple breaches of covid regulations during lockdown was finally published yesterday.
Lorraine added: “What I’ve seen over the years is the erosion of trust in government, and it’s not a surprise is it? It really isn’t a surprise is it, and we absolutely do deserve better.
"When I started out, when I was a presenter of TVAM, you would have, say, the Minister for Health and you’d have the Shadow Minister for Health and they would have a healthy debate. You don’t get that now, they don’t come. Whoever’s in power will not do that.”
"You have to earn trust, don’t you? When you see, as we’ve seen in America, we’ve seen demonstrations particularly after the election when Trump pretended that it had been stolen from him - and you saw people’s anger, the storming of the Capitol - I mean people lost their lives, it was horrific. It saddens me alot.”
Glasgow-born Lorraine was the latest guest on the podcast, hosted by Scottish-born Drag Queen Vanity von Glo.
Each week a guest is interviewed on a variety of topics about their life, activism, politics and entertainment.
The show has had guests such as Peter Tatchell, Dawn Butler MP and Queen of the Universe contestant La Voix.
Lorraine also touched on her recent interview with gender-critical feminist Kathleen Stock, who hit headlines recently when she resigned from the University of Sussex over a row about transgender rights.
Lorraine said: "I think it's important to have the debate, I strongly disagree with her. You know, I think that trans women are women and trans men are men. And that's what I think. And then she doesn't.
"And then I thought it was very important to be able to see, look, you're not really cancelled, you're sitting here on live telly, you've been on women's hour, you're writing books, you're doing lectures, you know that there's this misconception that people get cancelled. And that's it. You'll never hear from them again, you actually hear they actually make more noise sometimes.”
Mum-of-one Lorraine also had some top tips for young journalists and budding TV presenters who hope to follow in her successful footsteps.
She added: “You know if it is a politician or someone who does need to be held to account, let them speak. Don't interrupt them every two seconds, let them speak because you know what, give them enough rope and all of that. Give them a chance to talk and then you can go in with the killer question. Don't ever, ever, ever make it about you.”
You can listen to the Vanity Project at www.vanityvonglow.com/podcast.
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