Phillip Schofield has hit out at a GB News producer for questioning him about the “queuegate” scandal.
The This Morning presenter and his co-host Holly Willoughby found themselves at the centre of heated public discussion in September after they were accused of “jumping the queue” to see Queen Elizabeth II’s coffin lying-in-state following her death.
Willoughby and Schofield denied the accusations, saying that they would “never jump a queue”.
In a clip shown on Dan Wootton’s programme on Tuesday (15 November), Schofield was approached in the street by a GB News producer, who asked him if it was time to apologise for the scandal.
“Have you really got nothing better to do with your time?” Schofield responded to the question.
Asked if he’d felt vindicated by the support from ITV, Schofield said: “I think it was a shame that what happened, happened,” before agreeing with the suggestion that the pair had been “unfairly targeted”.
When the producer said that the pair hadn’t been properly accredited, Schofield replied: “We were”, explaining that their editors’ names had been used because “we didn’t want to give our email addresses away”.
Pushed again if he would be apologising, Schofield replied: “Why would I apologise? You’ve already seen that 700 journalists did exactly the same thing… You’re a bit late on the story, mate.”
Following the scandal, 78,000 people signed a petition calling for ITV to axe Schofield and Willoughby from This Morning.
However, ITV’s chief executive said that the pair had been “misrepresented” during the scandal and that Willoughby and Schofield were at no risk of losing their jobs.
Last month, the presenters were greeted with faint boos as they appeared on stage to take home the award for Best Daytime Show at the National Television Awards.
