Kate Garraway faces backlash after heated debate with guest live on Good Morning Britain

In a heated exchange, Kate Garraway clashed with Mel Stride on Good Morning Britain as they delved into Rachel Reeves's spring statement delivered on Wednesday (March 26).

The chancellor announced a new wave of government spending cuts without increasing taxes, attributing this to a sharp deceleration in economic growth.

In the Thursday (March 27) show, shadow chancellor Stride criticised Ms Rachel Reeves, suggesting she entered "office without a plan and talked down the economy".

Stride fiercely attacked the Labour politician, saying to hosts Garraway and Richard Madeley: "One thing is that when she came to Parliament yesterday, what she was doing was explaining how she is going to dig herself out of this massive hole of her own creation through taxing businesses, spending like there's no tomorrow, putting up inflation, higher interest rates and all the consequences of that."

He shared his view on what the Labour government ought to have done instead: "What you would have wanted to do was get into office, have some serious principle welfare reform that would have made more savings and been properly thought through with a proper plan."

The Conservative MP further argued: "What you don't want to do is what this government has done, is to tank the economy and in order to try and desperately make the numbers add up, to coddle together the savings that she has, that's not good for the tax payer and it's also not fair for a lot of vulnerable people up and down the country.", reports the Express.

Kate weighed in on the matter, highlighting that Mr Stride's comments were his personal perspective and highlighted how the new Labour administration claims they are attempting to fix the legacy left by their predecessors.

"Well that's your view, minister, as people might say," Kate rebutted. "She would say she's digging herself out of a hole that 14 years of Conservative government have left her in."

The presenter went on to discuss the financial manoeuvres the current government is undertaking: "She's trying to balance the books, she's set her own fiscal rules which she's trying to stick to, to protect various areas, not wanting to increase taxes, all that balancing going on."

Challenging the Conservative viewpoint further, she added: "But the principle that you said, that people are going to suffer, that's something you wanted to do. You wanted to cut twelve billion. You talked a lot about the burgeoning welfare bill and how it needed to be cut and so, what plans would you have done differently then?".

When the Conservative MP began to explain "principle welfare reform", Garraway didn't hesitate to interrupt: "Hang on. You were in power for fourteen years, so what didn't you do that you think in a fifteenth you could have done?".

Stride responded to Kate's persistence with: "We did do a lot, Kate," Yet, this exchange sparked an adverse reaction from viewers of Good Morning Britain who accused Kate of having a "biased" stance during her interview."

"@GMB can Kate Garraway be any more obvious she supports the Labour Party! ," a viewer expressed discontent, while another concurred, mocking her grasp on economics with the comment: "#gmb Kate talking about economics and she thinks 4x4 =12."

A third viewer chimed in with criticism, tweeting: "@GMB Kate would you interview a member of the @UKLabour as hard."

Yet another had a different take, praising the presenter: "@GMB Kate hit the nail on the head." Another frustrated viewer vented their disappointment, questioning: "Why did you not take him to task over his party's disastrous decisions which left our economy in this situation to begin with?".

Good Morning Britain airs weekdays from 6am on ITV and ITVX