When Two TV Queens Go To War

The off-screen cliques and feuds were such that the joke was GMTV stood for ‘grumpy, moody, tired and vicious’. There was a famous falling- out (since mended) between Eamonn Holmes and Anthea Turner, during which he supposedly called his highly paid co-host ‘Princess Tippy Toes’ and said he would quit if she wasn’t sacked. Then there were reports of a froideur between Eamonn and Fiona Phillips — she recently observed that he was better paid and also got perks she ‘wasn’t deemed worthy of’. Now, an icy exchange between GMTV veterans Lorraine Kelly and Esther McVey (who is also a Tory leadership hopeful), has revealed yet another behind-the-scenes fault line. First, on Monday, Good Morning Britain host Piers Morgan did a link asking Lorraine if she remembered McVey from the days they both worked at ITV. Lorraine gave a short: ‘Yep. Yes I do’ and made not even a token attempt to appear anything other than hostile. Esther tried to defuse speculation of a feud by saying Lorraine was only peeved — and, by implication, jealous — because she had once leapfrogged her in a promotion. Esther said: ‘She used to be partnered with Eamonn Holmes and then I was promoted to be partnering with Eamonn Holmes.’ Lorraine hit back, saying she didn’t remember any interaction with Esther during the four months they overlapped, and claiming the issue between them is political — she hates Esther’s stance on LGBT rights and is ‘sick to the back teeth’ of the ‘toxic political atmosphere’. Lorraine, 59, and Esther, 51, are both proudly self-made women who have raised themselves up from humble beginnings to become successful women of substance. But, as ALISON BOSHOFF reveals, the animosity runs a little deeper than mere politics... It’s been claimed the bad blood is not, in fact, due to Esther getting a gig with Eamonn that Lorraine would have liked. Sources from the time say that Lorraine was never in the running to stand in next to Eamonn during Fiona Phillips’s maternity leave in 1999. She was already presenting the hugely popular Lorraine Live show at the end of GMTV — which was a solo slot and a bigger role. Instead, it is claimed Lorraine wasn’t wild about Esther because she took a job on the show when the expectation was that it would go to the popular, long-serving news presenter Penny Smith. Penny, who left the programme in 2010, is close pals with Lorraine. And it’s fair to say the intervening years haven’t made Lorraine any warmer towards Esther. Lorraine said yesterday: ‘I’m baffled . . . I’ve had my own show since 1992, and I don’t think she joined until five years later. ‘As far as sharing dressing rooms go . . . it was just a little room everyone shared and we got ready in. It wasn’t a dressing room with couches — it wasn’t palatial at all. ‘I’ll be genuinely honest with you, I don’t remember. It was such a long time ago. My show was totally separate . . . so there was no interaction.’ She added: ‘Yesterday I just got sick to the back teeth of the whole toxic political atmosphere and I thought: “I’ve had enough of this.” ‘I strongly disagree with [Esther] on LGBT rights. And they’ve been going round in circles on Brexit for two years and it’s got to stop.’ Esther voted in Parliament against same-sex marriage. Meanwhile, Lorraine has been hailed as an ‘honorary gay’ by Attitude magazine and was given an award for her support of the LGBT community at their 2015 awards ceremony. Both Lorraine and Esther were the children of impoverished teenage parents. Esther’s mum and dad gave her up to a Barnardo’s home for foster care for nearly five years, while Lorraine’s resisted pressure from family to give her up for adoption. Lorraine was born in 1959. Her mum Anne was 17 and dad John, a TV repairman, 18. The family, including her brother, lived in one room in the Gorbals in Glasgow. Lorraine said: ‘In one corner, you had your sink and cooker and there was a recess where your bed was. ‘There was an absolutely disgusting outside toilet.’ They later moved to East Kilbride, where Lorraine was thrilled there was a bath, a phone and a bedroom for her. She said: ‘People these days would be horrified and think it Dickensian, but I could not have had a better childhood.’ Esther’s parents, Jimmy and Barbara, were unmarried and aged 22 and 18, respectively, when she was born. They put her in a Barnardo’s home in Liverpool because they couldn’t cope. After four-and-a-half years, by which time Jimmy had started a building business and bought a small home, they brought her back to live with them. Esther said: ‘They visited me in the home. They always wanted me back.’ In her later childhood, there was enough money for ballet lessons and for Esther to attend the fee-paying Belvedere School, where she ended up as head girl. But her family kept her feet on the ground: her chores included polishing shoes and peeling potatoes. After school, she studied law at Queen Mary University of London. She then completed an MA in radio journalism at City University London. Both women have drive and ambition — and both made it in the cut-throat world of television. Lorraine turned down a place at university to work for a local newspaper. From there, she landed a job as a BBC Scotland researcher and then as a TV-am reporter in Scotland in 1983. Her broadcasting in the wake of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing led to her being asked to go to London and join the main show. She said: ‘It’s quite difficult to live with the fact that dreadful, horrendous terrorist atrocity resulted in my getting one of the best jobs ever.’ Lorraine was a chief presenter on Good Morning Britain from 1990 and on the team that launched GMTV in 1993. By 2010, she was a standalone item. In 2012, she was awarded an OBE for services to charity and the Armed Forces. Esther’s TV career is rather less impressive. She got her big break after her father filmed her doing a three-minute demo tape about Liverpool and was hired to present a summer slot on Children’s BBC in 1991. She presented reports on GMTV from 1993 and, in 1996, worked on How Do They Do That? From there, she had jobs presenting on The Heaven And Earth Show and Channel 5’s Night Fever, before getting her big break — covering for Fiona Phillips in 1999. In 2000, she made her last mainstream television series, Shopping City. She then went into business, followed by politics. Each of them has overcome bumps in the road. In 2013, Esther, MP for Tatton, was formally reprimanded for using House of Commons stationery and postage while electioneering for the Tories. Five years later, more seriously, the National Audit Office reported that she had misled Parliament over the Universal Credit Scheme, claming the NAO said it ought to be rolled out faster, when actually the report said it should be paused. She apologised to the House and faced calls to resign (which she did four months later, over Brexit). She has been Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Deputy Chief Whip and Minister for Employment. She says: ‘I want to be leader because I believe in the timeless values of Conservatism.’