Politician-turned-‘I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here’ contestant Kezia Dugdale put Piers Morgan in a bad mood on Monday (4 December) morning, by refusing to be interviewed by the presenter on ‘Good Morning Britain’.
It’s customary for jungle evictees to speak to Piers and Susanna Reid the morning after being voted off the show but live on air, Piers revealed that Kezia has declined a chat.
After previously stating that the former leader of the Scottish Labour Party would be speaking over the phone, Piers told viewers that Kezia would not be interviewed on the show.
“Enjoy your friendly interviews today,” he joked, as if Kezia would somehow be tuning in anyway. “I’m still here if you want a difficult one.”
“She wasn’t available to us, she didn’t want to be on a programme to talk about it with me,” he explained. “She preferred to have a nice, cosier chat elsewhere, with people that might be nice to her.”
“Kezia, my question would have been, get back to your damn constituency and do your job, right.
“That’s it Kezia, you’re an MP, a member of Parliament, paid for by us, to serve the people, not to galavant around in a jungle trying to eat kangaroo testicles.
“The British public just gave their verdict on you, they don’t like you. They don’t like anything you stood for by going into that jungle. So get back to your job.”
Explaining why Kezia spoke to Lorraine Kelly instead, a spokesperson for the politician told HuffPost UK: “Everyone asked for the first interview and Kez wanted to talk to her fellow Scot Lorraine Kelly.
“Lorraine rightly asked a number of probing questions in a thoroughly professional manner, demonstrating why she is so popular with viewers.”
Kezia’s decision to take time out from her job to appear on the ITV programme was met with criticism from a number of politicians, though the Scottish Labour Party later ruled that she would not be suspended for doing so.
Shortly before entering the jungle, Kezia claimed that her motivation for doing so was to get the public to see politicians as “normal” people, humans with the same phobias and cravings”.
“Beginning to like our politicians again, or at the very least laugh with them, is surely only a force for good in this increasingly difficult and depressing world?” she said.