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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Entertainment
Charlotte Tutton

GMB's Adil Ray slams gov minister for 'lacking integrity' in Boris Johnson U-turn

Good Morning Britain got slightly heated on Thursday, as host Adil Ray was quick to challenge guest Nadhim Zahawi over his support for Boris Johnson, and new Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

Adil asked the show guest where his "integrity" was when he backed Johnson in his bid to return as PM, months after calling for him to resign from the government.

Zahawi was one of many members of parliament who called on Johnson to resign as leader of the Tory party in July, following a number of resignations from MPs and ministers who no longer backed him.

Johnson did resign eventually in that same month, and in September he was replaced by Liz Truss - who herself resigned this month after a series of U-turns, and a period of political and economic chaos.

Now, Sunak is the Tory leader and the UK's Prime Minister after replacing Truss - with him said to have the backing of Johnson, and Zahawi.

Good Morning Britain host Adil Ray called out a guest over his changing support for former Prime Minister Boris Johnson (ITV)

But speaking on GMB on Thursday, host Adil challenged the show guest over his changing support of Johnson, who had actually made a bid to replace Truss and to return as PM.

Johnson did withdraw his bid amid reports of him getting 102 backers to return, which Zahawi praised on the show as Johnson "putting the party and country first".

Adil called out his changing support and his praise of Boris, saying: "You talk about when you wrote that letter to Boris Johnson, the public open letter, you talked about how this country deserves a government that is not only stable, but acts with integrity.

"Integrity means morals, and principles and honesty. Within 24 hours you tweeted in the morning saying 'I back Boris', you'd written a column for The Telegraph saying you backed Boris, and then by 9:24 you were backing Rishi. Where is the integrity, morals and principles in any of that?"

Nadhim Zahawi was challenged by host Adil Ray (ITV)

Zahawi didn't really answer the question, and instead brought up the former leader "putting party and country ahead of himself".

The host replied: "That's not strictly true is it because he said he spoke to both Penny Mordaunt and Rishi Sunak, to see if they would unite. In other words, would they stand out as leaders and let him be leader.

"That's not in the national interest. Yet again Boris Johnson was looking after his own self interest."

Zahawi hit back: "Adil step back for a second," and claimed they were trying to come together and find a way to unite the party.

He went on: "The nation is hurting, we've got war in our continent, Putin using energy as a weapon against us, we're seeing that reflected in energy costs, the cost of living, food costs.

Adil asked the show guest where his "integrity" was when he backed Johnson in his bid to return as PM (ITV)

"Boris tried to engage, when he could see the parliamentary party was overwhelmingly in favour of Rishi Sunak, even though he got 102 endorsements, he did the right thing and put the country first."

Adil then quipped back: "What had he done since the day you wrote that letter asking him to resign, what had he done that you said no, he should now come back?"

The minister responded: "Boris 1.0 would have let his name go forward because he's straight through, he got to 102 endorsements. Boris 2.0 actually reflected and put the country first, put the party first and backed Rishi Sunak."

Adil told him: "You backed Boris Johnson before he came out onside of Rishi, you were backing him before that," to which he said: "You are asking me to speak about the change in Boris... I don't feel I did the wrong thing."

Johnson did withdraw his bid amid reports of him getting 102 backers to return (Getty Images)

As Adil also asked about Suella Braverman being reappointed as Home Secretary despite resigning a week earlier over breaches, the minister said she "deserved a second chance".

Adil told him: "In the business world this would never happen, it would lack any credibility and any integrity."

Zahawi said: "I don't agree with you respectfully... she has a big job to do and the Prime Minister was right to give her a second chance."

Adil mocked: "Do you believe in third chances? How many chances do you believe in?" to which he said: "Adil there's no need to be insulting and flippant about this."

Viewers praised Adil for challenging the minister, with one writing on Twitter: "@nadhimzahawi just got eaten alive by @adilray."

Another said: "Not always a fan of Adil Ray but he did well there," as a third tweeted: "Go on Adil."

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

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