Prospective Conservative leadership candidates might expect to get a hard time from the Today programme or Newsnight, but for Esther McVey, it was Lorraine Kelly who left her squirming. McVey, who is considered a long shot to become the next prime minister, was previously a television presenter who at one point hosted GMTV in the 1990s alongside Kelly, a mid-morning TV stalwart known for her genial demeanour.
During a live link to ITV’s Lorraine from Good Morning Britain, where McVey appeared as a guest yesterday, Susanna Reid said: “Do you remember Esther McVey from her GMTV days?” Kelly glossed over the question, shook her head and said curtly: “Yeah, yes I do. OK, coming up after half past eight … ” 
Piers Morgan then asked Kelly: “So you got on with Esther then, Lorraine?” The presenter replied: “I don’t remember love, I don’t remember at all, it was an awful long time ago.”
This year, Kelly won a landmark tax case after arguing she is a theatrical agent playing a “friendly, chatty and fun personality” called Lorraine Kelly, rather than appearing as herself. However, this upbeat persona appeared to have deserted her when the topic of McVey was mentioned.
Morgan went on to joke that if “looks could kill, she’d be six feet under”, and added that he would “love to hear the backstory”.
The ITV News political correspondent Paul Brand later asked McVey about the exchange. “Esther McVey tells me she and Lorraine Kelly used to share a dressing room and Lorraine used to be on TV with Eamon Holmes … until Esther was promoted,” he said.
McVey, who was forced to apologise for misleading parliament while serving as work and pensions secretary, interviewed the likes of Martine McCutcheon and appeared on children’s television introducing cartoons of the Muppets during her stint on screen.