Loose Women had to cut a segment from Wednesday's show after tempers flared between Janet Street Porter and Gloria Hunniford in a row over claims made against the Government by Dominic Cummings.
The ITV lunchtime talk show came to airs as Boris Johnson' s former aide gave evidence to the Commons Health and Social Care and Science and Technology Committees in a hearing about the Government's handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
His claims, which included an allegation that Johnson referred to Covid-19 the new swine flu" and just "a scare story," were the first topic of conversation on Loose Women and immediately sparked a heated debate as Gloria said she thought it was "negative" to be going back over old ground.
As Janet tried to interrupt, Gloria kept going, adding: "the world was in chaos; everybody was in chaos.
"Nobody had had a virus like this and I could nit pick Boris if I wanted to in terms of the border control and not enough people at passport control, not closing down on people coming in from India.
"I could nit pick but overall, considering the world was in chaos and we had the most marvellous scientists coming up with vaccines before anybody else - my grandsons in their 20s will now be going in to get their vaccines.
"He's done a lot right and I just think it's a negative time...I wouldn't watch to watch that at Westminister...," before Janet jumped to challenge: "of course we have to have this Gloria because we have one of the worst death rates in the world."
Gloria interrupted: "we're not the worst, America's the worst. Don't say it's the worst when it's not," but, not backing down, Janet fired back: "I said one of the worst death rates in the world.
"We're in the top three and if we had locked down earlier and done things differently a lot of people today might not be mourning their family and friends who died unnecessarily and that's why we have to have this.
Gloria replied that she felt that people wanted to get back to work and "get on with their lives," not listen to claims about how things have been handled, but Janet retorted: "they don't have to listen," as fellow panellist Coleen cut in in an attempt to calm things down.
After host Ruth Langsford pointed out that Cummings' claims could have been "sour grapes", Gloria added: "as Prime Minster it's very hard to represent everybody who's been moaning and moaning and moaning.
"Even to this day people want to get back to work, so if you went into another lockdown because of the Indian virus there'd be another uproar.
"I think Boris, give or take...and I know he's made mistakes, I think he's done a pretty good job."
The lengthy row over Boris Johnson led to Ruth Langsford revealing to Gloria Hunniford that producers had cut a conversation about her "brush with the law," saying they'd need to go back to it next week.
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