Despite the bank holiday, Good Morning Britain returned to ITV and it was the turn of Richard Madeley and Charlotte Hawkins to present the show.
Joining them on a live video link was Robert Jenrick MP, the Secretary of State for Housing and Communities who was discussing the latest proposal to regenerate the Great British high street.
But during the conversation, Madeley couldn’t help but bring up the biggest topic in politics and ask the Conservative MP about Brexit.
Determined to set the tone of debate, Madeley was stern in his questioning to ensure Jenrick gave a direct reply.
“The future of town centres is about leisure,” Jenrick told viewers. “It’s about the things you could never do online, it is going to be about having great restaurants, cafes, hairdressers, nail bars, all the things people have to come into town centres to do.
“And it is also going to be about getting more people living and working in town centres, because that creates the footfall, creates the spend which means those smaller independent businesses can actually thrive into the future.”
While speaking to the presenters about the proposal, Madeley could be heard agreeing and attempting to interject several times.
When Jenrick finally finished speaking, Madeley was hot on a reply.
“Now, straight answer please,” Madeley stated. “Six weeks from now will be Brexit. Are you gearing up to fight a campaign in October?”
Taken aback by the change in topic, it took Jenrick hesitated but when he finally did, he said: “I haven’t done that, we’re not planning on a general election, the public don’t want that.
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“We want to get a deal and leave the European Union on the 31 of October and that is what we are planning on doing.
“Communities are well prepared, I have been hugely impressed by the local councils, we will be prepared to leave.”
This weekend, Prime Minister Boris Johnson attended the G7 summit in Biarritz and Jenrick spoke about this.
“He has been working energetically [with] our friends and partners in the European Union,” he told the GMB presenters.
There have been suggestions the government could close Parliament to prevent MPs from doing anything to impede the plan to leave on 31 October.
But MPs reacted by changing a piece of legislation to make sure Parliament was open for at least part of the month.
Nevertheless, Madeley wanted to know Jenrick’s opinion on the possibility of this still happening.
“How would you feel, as an MP, if Parliament was suspended as part of the process to leave the EU?” he quizzed.
“I’ve always said I’m not attracted to this obscure [idea]. We have said very clearly, given Theresa May’s deal was rejected three times, we’re not working on the basis of finding some obscure rule to solve this issue,” he replied.
Good Morning Britain airs weekday mornings at 6am on ITV.
