BBC Breakfast presenter Naga Munchetty interrupted Health Secretary Matt Hancock as he seemingly dodged a question over the northern lockdown on today's show.
The politician faced a grilling over the new coronavirus restrictions that have come into force in the north of England today.
Households in Greater Manchester, East Lancashire and parts of West Yorkshire have been banned from meeting indoors after a rise in cases.
During the interview, Munchetty, 45, struggled to get a clear answer from Hancock and tried to pull him back to her question about the new rules.
Viewers described the politician as "floundering" as he attempted to navigate the interview.
Munchetty said: "This localised lockdown is due to households gathering and not abiding by social distancing rules.
"If today you see parks in these areas where people are not abiding by these rules and that is a possibility, a very real possibility. What is the next step?”
Hancock replied: "Naga, we have shown through this crisis that we are prepared to take rapid action when we need to.
"I don’t want to have to take further steps, I very much hope this step will tackle this problem, but meeting at a social distance in the park is ok."
Munchetty then stopped him, saying: "But, you know that isn’t what I was asking. Sorry.
"Socially distancing, of course that's ok, it’s what we have been told to do.
“It is when people haven’t been doing that, and as I said, you said because people haven’t been abiding by social distancing rules.
“So, if it happens, what is the next step? What are you prepared to do?"
Hancock then said: "The good thing about this terrible epidemic has been that people have on the whole very largely followed social distancing rules.
"And my message is that people need to keep doing that and we need to be doing that right across the country.
"But, people need to follow the social distancing rules.
"We brought in a new advertising campaign yesterday on how important it is to social distance.
"You get a test if you get any symptoms and even simple things like washing your hands.
"As we have said, it is so important that people social distance and that is how we keep this from spreading.
"We have shown we are prepared to take action, having just taken the action last night."
Hancock went on: "am here this morning to talk about what more we can do.
"We have tried to make it as proportional as possible and these judgments are difficult...
"Six months ago this virus didn’t exist and we did what we can to make the right judgments to keep people safe.
"But also to allow people to keep doing the things that are worth living as we can whilst controlling the virus."
BBC viewers applauded Munchetty for trying to get a straight answer out of the politician.
One tweeted: "Great journalism this morning from #nagamunchetty had wet blanket Matt Hancock on the ropes."
Another wrote: " Naga Munchetty like a smiling assassin this morning and Matt Hancock floundering under the seemingly benign questions.
"He can’t answer them because he hasn’t got a clue. There’s nothing behind the eyes. Vacant."
