Susanna Reid blasted Prime Minister Boris Johnson for his absence on the show, following damning claims from his former aide Dominic Cummings.
Mr Cummings made a number of explosive claims about the government's handling of the pandemic in seven hours of questioning yesterday.
And as Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick appeared on the show Susanna was quick to question why the Prime Minister wasn't there instead.
Susanna said: "We have not interviewed the Prime Minister for a ridiculous amount of time, 1450 days I believe.
"After seven hours of criticism of the catastrophic handling of the pandemic, the delays going into lockdown, the mess over testing, lies told by the Health Secretary, why is the Prime Minister not in the seat that you're in saying what you got right and explaining why he believes Dominic Cummings is wrong. "
Mr Jenrick said that Mr Johnson had spoken at Prime Minister's questions yesterday, but Susanna pointed out that he hadn't listened to Mr Cummings evidence by that point.
Mr Jenrick said: "I'm sure he didn't have time to listen to evidence, but he did say he feels desperately sorry for those people who have lost loved ones and I believe at every turn he did what he thought was best in best interest of country."
Susanna said: "Why didn't we go into the first lockdown earlier if he did everything right?"
Mr Jenrick said that the Prime Minister had acted in the best interest of the country and that going into lockdown wasn't an "easy decision" as it affects public services and livelihoods.
Susanna hit back and said: "Are you saying he was right not to go into that lockdown"
Mr Jenrick said: "That's hard to judge, it will be part of public inquiry next year, I understand there will be questions from the public that they want us to provide greater explanation on."
Mr Jenrick continued to defend the Prime Minister and said that everyone in government was acting in the public's best interests, with the best intentions.
* Did Dominic Cummings confirm your view of how the Government has handed the pandemic, or do you disagree with him? Have your say and see what other people think in the comments
But he admitted that there were things the government could have done better such as the rules around funerals and the failure to test people going back into care homes.
Mr Jenrick said: "I don't think we got it absolutely right with respect to care homes, we didn't know how transmissible it was when people were asymptomatic.
"The issue there in the early stages didn't know how transmissible virus was among asymptomatic, as soon as that became known they were tested."
Kate Garraway then spoke directly to Mr Jenrick and said she believed that Boris Johnson and government did care, but that they had a trust problem and that the public inquiry should be brought forward.
Mr Jenrick argued that the Prime Minister has tried to be as open as possible during the pandemic and had done daily press conferences.
But Kate said in light of the claims made yesterday the conferences were now meaningless and argued that the Prime Minister should come out and clarify the situation.
Mr Jenrick said: "I don't think it's time for the public inquiry, we need to continue to respond to the pandemic, this is far from over and when it is we need to restore our public services and the public inquiry starts next year."
*GMB continues at 6am on ITV tomorrow
