has been forced to stress that she doesn’t support the privatisation of the NHS after her remarks were misinterpreted on Good Morning Britain.
The presenter has been flooded with tweets from confused viewers after one person claimed she and co-host Richard Madeley had been ‘advocating’ for the health service to become private.
On Wednesday’s programme, Kate discussed the national insurance rise which will help the NHS recover from the pandemic and help to fund social care in England.
During the discussion, Andrew Pierce claimed he read a story that some NHS diversity managers were going to be paid a salary of £95,000, to which Kevin McGuire alleged this was to compete with the private sector.
‘That £95,000 should be spent on nurses and doctors,’ Andrew said.
Reacting to the comment, Kate said: ‘But that’s a terrible message, Kevin. You’re competing with a private sector, someone who could earn money in the private sector of £90,000. So, you’re valuing their skills but you’re not valuing the skills of the nurse.’
‘If you want to get the best people to run it and you want it to be as efficient as it can, I’m afraid you have to compete with the private sector,’ Kevin explained.
‘But you don’t just want the best people to run it, you want the best people to nurse and doctor in it and keep them there,’ Kate replied.
Following the discussion, one viewer sparked major reaction after tweeting: ‘Both Kate Garraway & Richard Madeley on @GMB advocating privatisation of the #NHS!!!’
The post gained a lot of traction, with Kate herself eventually having to set the record straight.
‘Did you really just support privatisation of the NHS?’ another asked. ‘If you did I hope you paid for your husband’s covid treatment yourselves.’
‘Nope I didn’t xxx,’ Kate simply replied.
In another tweet, she wrote: ‘Ok – before this gets a life of its own from whoever originally misheard.. I didn’t , at any point say the nhs should be privatised or anything even like it ?!! Ever.’ (sic)
Kate’s clarification comes after her husband Derek Draper spent over one year in hospital after being diagnosed with Covid.
Derek, a former political adviser, first became seriously ill after contracting the virus in March 2020.
The 54-year-old is now free of the virus but has suffered long-lasting damage to his organs and requires care at home.
Good Morning Britain airs weekdays at 6am on ITV.
