Five times Susanna Reid held politicians to account as GMB presenter celebrates 20 years in breakfast TV

For two decades, people have been switching their tellies on in the morning while getting ready for the day with a cup of coffee in hand and are met by Susanna Reid.

The Good Morning Britain presenter is celebrating her 20th anniversary in morning television today after making her name on BBC Breakfast alongside the late Bill Turnbull several years ago.

In honour of her 20 years in TV, Susanna thanked Bill among her other co-presenters such as Ben Shepard, Charlotte Fletcher and Sean Fletcher on this morning’s programme,

Susanna said: “I have to thank Bill Turnbull, back where it all started on BBC Breakfast. I would have loved to have sent him a message this morning. He would have loved to celebrate this with me,” before acknowledging her GMB co-host of five years Piers Morgan, who infamously walked off set in March 2021.

She continued: “And just a huge thanks to Piers Morgan of this parish…He made me bolder, more argumentative, more difficult I think, more probing, asking tricky questions.”

As well as getting up at 3.45am everyday to provide the top headlines, Susanna Reid has become synonymous with holding people accountable, mostly politicians or supposedly authoritative figures.

Most recently, the 52-year-old grilled the MET Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley following the damning 363-page Casey report that called the Met Police a ‘broken and rotten’ institution that failed women and children.

Susanna questioned Sir Mark Rowley about how he is going to not only deal with the lack of trust in the police force but also how he was going to reassure women in London like women’s safety campaigner Mina Smallman, who is one of the MET’s biggest critics.

In honour of Susanna asking the ‘tricky questions’, PeopleWorld takes a look at five other times the GMB presenter has held politicians to account:

Matt Hancock

Former health secretary Matt Hancock has appeared on several of Good Morning Britain’s programmes, often met with a grilling from Susanna Reid and her colleagues.

One particular instance that fans praised Susanna for was an ‘excruciating’ interview with Mr Hancock in the wake of his I’m A Celebrity appearance when the former queried his motivation.

Susanna asked: “Money must have been your primary motivation otherwise you wouldn't have gotten that much money. Are you telling the truth?” before questioning whether he negotiated his price with ITV.

As a result, GMB viewers took to Twitter to praise Susanna stating: “Well done both of you, especially you Susanna, finally someone asking the questions we want answers to."

Boris Johnson

Many people will remember Susanna Reid taking part in a sit-down interview with Boris Johnson in May last year as the former Prime Minister ended the programme asking ‘Who is Lorraine [Kelly]?’ 

However, before Boris Johnson’s blunder, Susanna was able to hold him to account on multiple factors from Partygate (which has raised its head again as MPs share evidence against Boris this morning) to the cost of living crisis. 

The breakfast TV veteran slammed Boris Johnson for the possibility of a windfall tax on energy companies’ profits last year, getting Mr Johnson to acknowledge that the government was not doing everything they could to help people’s finances.

Before Mr Johnson asked who Lorraine Kelly is, Susanna ended the interview with a statement: “When you say you're doing everything we can, you're not being honest are you, because you've just said there's more you can do.”

Priti Patel

Susanna Reid has clashed horns with former Home Secretary Priti Patel on several occasions over the years, whether it be on Twitter or on Good Morning Britain.

The pair butted heads often during the peak of Covid-19 when the UK failed to impose tighter border controls and allowed households to mix at Christmas, but more recently focused on immigration.

Susanna re-tweeted LBC’s Ben Kentish in 2022 reading: “Priti Patel insists there are UK immigration officials in Calais and that it’s “absolutely wrong” to suggest otherwise - 4 hours after Downing Street said there weren’t,” before putting her own spin on holding Ms Patel to account: “Could Priti Patel send the location of the immigration officials to our reporter in Calais so he can direct the desperate refugees there?”

Edward Argar

Although Susanna may be celebrating 20 years on breakfast television, she did not hold back when holding MPs to account in terms of the Partygate scandal.

The day after Susanna spoke to Boris Johnson in January 2022, the GMB presenter continued to try to find the truth by putting MP Edward Argar on the spot.

Susanna opened the conversation asking why Boris Johnson could not say whether he was at the infamous Number 10 Downing Street party during lockdown and had to have Sue Gray investigate, to which Mr Argar replied ‘I think the prime minister is taking this incredibly seriously.’

As Susanna spoke to the former PM just 24 hours prior, she highlighted that Boris Johnson had not taken the matter seriously the day before as he ‘laughed’ at the question. 

Rishi Sunak

As mentioned, Susanna asks politicians the ‘tricky questions’ that the UK would love the answers to, and this was no different when Susanna challenged Rishi Sunak when he was the acting Chancellor.

Using a selection of messages that people had sent in, Susanna questioned the cuts made to the Universal Credit Uplift insisting that the public will struggle more than benefit from the move.

Susanna asked Rishi Sunak: “How can you stomach taking away more than £1000 a year from these people?”