Carol Vorderman got into a verbal spat with Good Morning Britain host Charlotte Hawkins on Friday's episode, leaving viewers stunned.
The 63-year-old appeared on ITV as part of the show's International Women's Day content, with her interview focused on her political views. The former Countdown star was discussing tactical voting at the next General Election, telling viewers she had trained as a journalist to investigate corruption in the current government.
Charlotte asked Carol: "Are you going to be as equally critical and cast your eye over everything that's going on when Labour is in government? Governments need to have a balancing act, of making everything work, balancing the budgets..."
But Carol hit back, saying: "I think you're being very generous, Charlotte, to this government. That's what they'll tell you." Sticking up for the Conservative government, Charlotte said: "There's always been certain amounts of allegations of corruption..."
But Carol shut down her argument, replying: "No there hasn't though, not in the same way. That's the whole thing." Viewers were left divided on their opinion of Carol, but everyone could agree they were shocked at the fiery exchange between the two TV personalities.
Carol Vorderman takes rarely seen daughter Katie to meet Lewis Capaldi backstageOne Twitter user wrote: "Brilliant from Carol Vorderman. Charlotte seems to be quite uncomfortable with CV’s evidence base and even suggests that surely we should expect corruption from all of our politicians. Race to the bottom. Poor."
Another cheered on Vorderman: "Absolutely spot on Carol. You speak for the majority of concerned people in the UK." "A great respect for Carol Vorderman," another applauded. "She has stood up for the British people in the face of the most corrupt government in living memory. Facing nasty abuse from the far right Tory supporters. Well done Vorders."
Others were less enthusiastic when it came to Carol's views, with one tweeting: "Carol Vorderman? I wanna switch off, but I'm gonna stick it out to see if she can keep her political bias in check." Another ranted: "I bet she doesn't display the same enthusiasm when labour are in power and funnelling money to their donors and favourites."
"Why was Carol Vorderman allowed to rant?" asked a vexed viewer. "This isn't journalism or reporting news, it's a rant. Why haven't Charlotte and Adil stepped in and managed her better? Ben and Kate would have done!"
Elsewhere in the interview, Carol also revealed why she dropped former Tory peer, Michelle Mone, 52, as a friend. The pals used to enjoy luxury nights out together but the friendship hit the rocks.
"I knew her many years ago for about 18 months and dropped her as a friend because I realised just how much she lied," she said to host Adil Ray. "This was way before she went into the political arena and we all know what happened there."