Lorraine Kelly slams Esther McVey’s ‘appalling’ comments about LGBTQ people
The TV legend isn't finished with the Tory MP just yet.
Words: Alastair James; pictures: ITV
TV legend and icon, Lorraine Kelly, has explained why she snubbed her former colleague Esther McVey, in 2019, saying it was over the Conservative MP and ex-minister’s stance on LGBTQ rights.
The moment became viral hit on social media when Good Morning Britain‘s Susanna Reid asked Kelly if she remembered McVey from her presenting days on GMTV.
Kelly famously snubbed her former colleague, responding with a curt “Yeah, yes I do,” before immediately moving on to preview what was coming up on her talk show that day.
During an interview with Attitude shortly afterward, Lorraine brought up the incident when asked to define the word ‘shade’, before describing McVey as a “ghastly woman”.
Since then, McVey has maintained that the frosty reception she got was because while working as a presenter on GMTV she had been promoted to present alongside another ITV mainstay, Eammon Holmes.
However, in a new interview with The Guardian Kelly reconfirmed that her snub was over McVey’s stance on LGBTQ rights, which included repeatedly voting against equal marriage and siding with parents protesting over LGBTQ-inclusive education in Birmingham.
Lorraine explained: “I thought to myself: she’s come out and said the most appalling things about a section of society that are really hard done by and have enough going on without someone like that having a pop at them.”
“And I didn’t really say anything, did I? But isn’t it amazing what you can say without saying anything?”
Reliving Lorraine Kelly and Esther McVey’s original live TV run-in below:
Kelly also says she let Kathleen Stock, a former professor at the University of Sussex, who quit after a backlash over her views on trans rights, on her show saying, “I thought: let her speak. You’ve got to.”
In the interview, Kelly argued in defence of trans rights and suggested that the publicity afforded to Stock gave her a greater platform to share her views, which Stock said she intends to use.
Asked about the exchange Kelly says “I was able to disagree with her. Because I think trans women are women and trans men are men. That’s my belief. And, at the end, people can make their own mind up. But it was important for me to say that and to show my support.”
She also recalls knowing a “brilliant” trans woman while she was growing up and imagining what abuse they got.
She continues, “I’ve got a lot of pals who happen to be trans or they happen to be whatever … who cares?! They’re all just human and that’s a part of who they are.
“People should just be a bit more tolerant, because trans people are currently going through, I think, what gay people went through. It’s a hard road, it really is.”
Love you, Lorraine! Never change!
The Attitude February issue is out now. Get your copy here.
