Piers Morgan clashed with a Conservative MP on Good Morning Britain after he accused the party of “not having the gumption” of appearing on the show.
The ITV host told MP Tobias Ellwood that he was the only Conservative MP willing to “put your head above the parapet”.
Mr Ellwood challenged Mr Morgan’s claim that his 364 colleagues in the party refused to come on the programme. He said he had offered to appear on Monday, before Mr Morgan tweeted “we can’t get a single Tory MP to come on”.
“I had already agreed to come on your show yesterday but you bumped me,” Mr Ellwood said, adding that it was a "bit disingenuous".
Mr Morgan responded saying they had already booked Welsh Conservative MS Andrew RT Davies and that when he tried to return Mr Ellwood’s calls there was no answer.
“If you want to be on GMB I suggest you leave your phone on and answer it,” Mr Morgan said.
"You got back to me a midnight last night saying 'come on the show', not the night before," Mr Ellwood responded.
After playing semantics, Mr Morgan says "let's move on to more important things".
Later, Mr Ellwood suggested the presenter ask a question at the daily coronavirus briefing in Downing Street.
Mr Morgan replied: "I would absolutely love to, but I'm not allowed to do that because your Government preaches about freedom of speech and then spends all its time suppressing it."
Meanwhile, pressed on his thoughts about the Dominic Cummings row, Mr Ellwood said the saga had been "hugely damaging at such a critical time".
"Whatever you think about Dominic Cummings, he is an impressive political tactician," he said.
"He was the architect of Brexit, the General Election - he is instructed to make sure the manifesto is put into place - and now he's running Covid-19.
"And I think because of that the Prime Minister looked at the evidence and decided to support him."
He added: "But let's put our hands and up and say this has been hugely damaging at such a critical time. We want both the nation and the Government to focus on this dangerous phase that we move into in easing the lockdown."
Mr Ellwood voiced concerns about the Government lacking the structure needed to deal with the "enduring emergency".
"We need a Government structure that has good command and control. We should not have Dominic Cummings or ministers phoning up procurement companies trying to get PPE - that's not their job."
